An unstable 134-year-old cottage in Woollahra requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in works to fix the damaged roof, floors and various other issues has sold at auction for $3 million.
Sixteen bidders vied for the home, which included a doorway propped up with a steel rod to prevent it from collapsing.
Warped and uneven floors were covered over with sheets of wood, while a dining room at the back no longer had a ceiling.
It’s understood the three-bedroom house on Edward St had been sitting empty for two decades after being tenanted in the 1990s. The sellers had held the property since 1975.
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The facade of the Edward St home was reported to fall under the Conservation Act.
The back of the property.
The 174 sqm corner site did not offer parking and there were some heritage restrictions. The site had once had DA approval for a two-storey residence with three bedrooms and a study, but it expired. The $3m price paid under the hammer was $450,000 over reserve.
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Selling agent Nick Gill of BresicWhitney said the home needed $300,000-$500,000 in repairs just to restore the original layout of the home and fix some of the damage.
“Adding another level would probably be about $1m,” he said.
“The house needs a new kitchen and bathroom, the roof is no longer waterproof and there’s ceiling damage. The floors are deteriorating in some areas.
“You’d have freedom to do what you wanted inside the home but the facade would be under the conversation act.”
The required repairs were estimated to cost at least $300,000.
One of the doorways is unstable.
The auction was one of nearly 800 scheduled across Sydney this weekend – a similar volume to last week when about 65 per cent of the scheduled auctions produced a sale.
It’s worth noting that approximately half those properties sold pre-auction and earlier indications suggested a similar trend with sales this week.
Auctioneer Clarence White, the director of auction house Menck White, said buyers were becoming increasingly cautious and the auction market was losing energy within inner ring suburbs.
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“About 80 per cent of the vendors we’ve encountered are ahead of the market on price. Some have very unrealistic reserves and they believe it’s a stronger market than it actually is,” Mr White said.
He added that some buyers may be hedging their bets until there is clearer messaging from the Reserve Bank about when rates may drop.
There is ceiling and floor damage in many of the rooms.
The Woollahra home was sought after because of the scope for improvement.
“It’s a sticky and tricky market,” he said. “Buyers are very price cautious and they often have very low commitment levels at auction. Many have an eye on interest rate movements.
“This has been happening for months but what’s changed in the last week is that there has been a big acceleration in bookings for auctions. A lot of stock is coming on in mid to late September.
“(Increased listings) could go one of a few ways but it’s likely that extra stock could thin the competition between buyers even more.”
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