Nine bidders joined in the auction for 1/8 Barton St, Reservoir, on the weekend.
Nine bidders competed for the keys to a Reservoir townhouse where the lack of a body corporate helped the home soar $54,000 above reserve on Saturday.
Ray White Preston director Ian Dempsey said the three-bedroom home pad sold for $831,000 after going under the hammer with a $777,000 reserve.
While most of the underbidders were first-home buyers, the successful purchaser, a woman, was not, Mr Dempsey added.
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While the 1/8 Barton St address close to Reservoir train station and Edwardes Lake Park appealed, Mr Dempsey said the fact there was no body corporate was a major attraction too.
The townhouse features a courtyard and main bedroom with an ensuite and built-in wardrobe.
Mr Dempsey said Reservoir and surrounds were in demand after four of his listings sold in quick succession at back-to-back auctions on Saturday.
One of the residences, a five-bedroom house at 7 Excelsior St, was purchased by a couple who weren’t initially planning on moving to the suburb but were won over by the period home’s facade.
The Reservoir townhouse features an open-plan living and dining area.
From the kitchen, sliding doors open to an outdoor courtyard.
Inside, the abode showcases high ceilings, decorative cornices, picture rails and original stained glass windows.
The family selling the home had renovated across two decades and are now moving to Phillip Island for a sea-change, Mr Dempsey said.
Four bidders pushed the price to $1.555m after the residence was advertised with a $1.3m-$1.4m range.
The facade of 7 Excelsior St, Reservoir, won over the buyers who were initially looking to purchase in other nearby suburbs.
The kitchen is fitted with a 900mm Smeg oven and wraparound benches and glass doors open to a deck with blinds, from the adjacent living area.
A “rapid-fire” auction saw a young couple secure the home within about 10 minutes.
“They were looking in that radius of Pascoe Vale South to Preston but the facade of the house dragged them up to Reservoir,” Mr Dempsey said.
“That pocket of Reservoir is very nice, and it’s on the border of Preston, so it was a little bit out of their search criteria – however we introduced them to the house and they loved the very nice facade with an arch, the home was very well-presented.”
3 Bolton St, Spotswood, is close to Donald McLean Reserve, Hudsons Rd’s shops and cafes, Spotswood Primary School and Spotswood train station.
In Melbourne’s inner western suburbs, a freestanding Victorian-era house at 3 Bolton St, Spotswood, changed hands for $840,000.
The Agency’s Mark de Brabander said that out of four interested bidders, two put their hands up with a young buyer from the Bacchus Marsh area claiming the keys.
On a quirky note, a cat whom he described as a neighbourhood feline was among the crowd who turned up to watch the auction.
Mr de Brabander said the federal government’s 5 per cent deposit scheme for first-home buyers had boosted buyer numbers in recent weeks.
Original timber floor feature inside the Spotswood home.
“We have found a lot more that first-time buyers have come out and started engaging on property, which is great to see,” he noted.
But he said the current market could be hard to gauge, with some homes selling well and others “just falling to the wayside”.
One of the house’s owners said they had purchased it as an investor property about 16 years ago.
“It was a very, very easy house to rent out because of the location and size,” she said.
She said that the time was right to sell the house, and that she and her partner were planning to put some of the sale’s proceeds into their superannuation.
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