‘A bit nuts’: Families vie for $3.3m Balmain home, defying weak market

A local family paid $3,312,000 for a Balmain home at an auction that was brought forward from a five-week campaign to 16 days due to unexpected interest.

The modern, freestanding residence on a corner block at 10 Terry Street had retained elements of character charm and was initially guided at $2.8 million until a $3 million offer prompted a lift in the guide to that level.

The property was one of 1272 scheduled auctions in Sydney last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 51 per cent from 693 reported results, while 249 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.

Six local families, all seeking to move in, registered and four battled it out for the three-bedroom, two-storey Balmain home.

Bidding opened at $2.8 million with mostly $50,000 increments all the way to $3.2 million.

Bids then slowed to $10,000 increments until $3.3 million, when a $5000 bid was followed by a series of $1000 bids, until a final $1000 bid secured the keys for a local family.

It sold for $212,000 above its $3.1 million reserve for $3,312,000. There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.

Selling agent Jack Parry from BresicWhitney Balmain said at the first weekend there were 63 groups who viewed the property, “which in this market is a bit nuts. I was already on high alert to raise the guide just simply on that basis,” he said.

Parry said, “It feels as though [the market]’s got two speeds, and it’s a little unpredictable around which speed each house will experience when going on the market.”

He added that the clearance rate of around 50 per cent makes sense if half are performing while the other half are pulling back.

The vendor will be upsizing locally. The house last traded for $1.95 million in 2015, records show.

In Queens Park, an original cottage at 17 Isabella Street will be knocked down, the address selling for land value for $2.3 million.

The home was guided at $2 million. Four parties registered and four actively competed for the blank canvas. All were owner-occupiers from in and around the area; one was a builder looking to build for himself.

Bidding opened on a vendor bid of $1.8 million, then $50,000 increments went to $2.1 million. The auction went for half an hour with small bids of $500 and $1000 between two of the buyers until it sold under the hammer for $2.3 million, $200,000 above its $2.1 million reserve.

Selling agent Angus Gorrie from Ray White Eastern Beaches said: “I