Jessica Brown
Updated 15 Dec 2025, 5:35pm
First published 15 Dec 2025, 3:30pm
A crumbling Kilkenny character home has been snapped up for a surprising price at its highly-anticipated auction, which attracted more than 40 prospective buyers.
The rundown three-bedroom house on a 232sqm corner block at 1 Wilpena Tce sold for $691,000 under the hammer at the weekend.
Selling agent Jessica Earle, of Ray White St Peters, said the surprise sale price was well above its $550,000 reserve as well as a $420,000 offer made prior to auction.
As several people had indicated it would likely sell in the low to mid-$400,000 range, Ms Earle said she had even discussed the possibility of having to lower the reserve price with the vendor.
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1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny.
1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny.
1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny
But it was a plan that wasn’t needed, with fierce competition from dozens of househunters keen to restore the home to its former glory pushing its price well above expectation.
“We would have had 110 people in attendance and then 41 registered bidders, so it was a really large portion of locals who came to stickybeak,” said Ms Earle, who sold the property with Liam McDevitt.
“I think it was just the style of home that attracted people, there’s not really many homes that are similar to this … that are complete blank canvases.”
Ms Earle said it had heritage restrictions so it couldn’t be bulldozed to make way for a more modern home.
“A lot of people were very excited about the possibilities of what they could create in that space but they wanted to kind of keep it in it’s original glory too,” she said.
Ms Earle said the buyers, who were attracted to the area because they had family living nearby, planned to move into the home following a renovation.
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1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny
1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny.
1 Wilpena Tce, Kilkenny.
“I believe it’s a young family moving in,” she said.
The property, which was built in the 1800s, had been owned by the same family for generations.
Ms Earle said the most recent vendor had owned it since 2009 and unfortunately wasn’t in a position to renovate and maintain it.
“It’s been in her family for three generations, she was very hesitant to let it go,” she said.
“The sale did have a lot of mixed emotions for her.”
While the price was considered high for the home, it is still well below Kilkenny’s median house price, which latest PropTrack data shows is $900,000.
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