A family looking to downsize were “blown away” after their house sold under the hammer for $500,000 over their reserve price, as clearance rates rebounded around the country last week.
The four-bedroom house at 11 Hotchin Street in Dalkeith - six kilometres southwest of the Perth CBD - sold at auction for $4.601 million to a couple relocating back to Australia from the US.
The auction stands out as Perth typically has far fewer auctions than the auction capitals of Melbourne and Sydney, and even fewer during the winter months.
The hotly contested auction comes as the national auction clearance rate rebounded slightly to 46.6% last week, up from 43.9% the week prior, according to preliminary PropTrack data.
The nail-biting auction attracted three active bidders who battled it out over 63 bids, lasting about 40 minutes from start to finish.
The four-bedroom house at 11 Hotchin Street, Dalkeith sold under the hammer for $4.601 million. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Ray White Dalkeith Claremont real estate agent and principal Vivien Yap said it was a really exciting auction, and hadn’t expected the home to sell for that much.
“The sellers had lived there a while and had done a beautiful renovation,” she said.
The sellers had renovated the four-bedroom house to make the most of the big open-plan living design, while maintaining some of the original character elements like the Jarrah flooring and cornices.
“They really put their heart and soul into it and clearly the buyers could see that,” Ms Yap said.
The nail-biting auction attracted three active bidders, who pushed the final sale price to $500,000 above the reserve price. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
“The sellers were blown away. They didn't know if the auction was for them initially, but they are over the moon with the result.”
The auction campaign attracted plenty of interest from buyers, so much so that Ms Yap and the sellers decided to bring the auction day forward.
“The auction was destined for the 25th of July, but we brought it forward because we could feel the buyers were ready,” she said.
The home received 63 bids during the 40-minute auction. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
“At the end we had bids of $1000, it could have been anyone’s for just an extra $1000 bid.”
One of Perth's most affluent suburbs, Dalkeith’s median house price has soared 21.1% to $4,237,500 during the year to June, according to PropTrack, riding the home price boom seen across the wider Perth housing market.
Perth’s median home price has jumped 17.1% to $1.01 million over the past year, and about 96% over the past five years.
Perth’s median home price has jumped 17.1% to $1.01 million over the past year. Picture: Getty
But home price growth has started to slow down in Perth and across the rest of the country, as higher interest rates continue to bite into borrowing power and market confidence.
In addition to home prices, other indicators such as clearance rates have been softening across Australia this year as well.
Clearance rates have been trending lower since February when the Reserve Bank increased the cash rate, followed by two further rate hikes in March and May.
The Perth auction was one of 563 auctions held by Ray White across Australia last week, with the group achieving a 46.4% clearance rate, up 2.1 percentage points on the previous week.
The real estate group has seen Australian auction campaigns improving week-on-week for the past three weeks, with activity now returning to levels last seen at the end of May, according to Ray White Group performance and value chief executive Thomas McGlynn.
"Our clearance hit a seven-week high as bidder activity stabilised and week one open home attendance was also stronger last week," Mr McGlynn said.
"We expect our clearance to ease by around two per cent once all our final results land, but the underlying trend last week is a genuine bounce back.”
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