The home sold for $1.55 million to Chu Xue, a nurse from Eastwood, who bought it as another investment property.
“I really liked the first one too, but the price was out of my budget,” Chu said.
The winning bidder, Chu Xue, walked away with the keys to 70 Mount Pleasant Avenue for $1.55 million.Credit:james brickwood
She said she bought the property for a “good price” and intends to rent it out.
next home 66 Mount Pleasant Drive Although above the reserve price of $1.4 million, it sold for $1,515,000 to existing tenants Jay Williams, an excavation worker, and his partner Alison Mercer, a physical education teacher, who were delighted Glad to be staying in my own home.
“We’ve actually been living there for the last three and a half years, which is why we’ve worked so hard on it,” Williams said, adding that they’ve been saving for a long time.
“We know we’ll end up paying a premium, especially in this area.”
The block auction of nine properties lasted nearly two hours. Credit:james brickwood
“It’s nice. We know where we’re going, and we can keep the daycare. We’re a little bit emotional,” Mercer said.
Not all buyers are so lucky. One family bid on nearly all of the property, but was unsuccessful.
The cheapest sales are in the Bush neighborhood 77 Mount Pleasant Drive, It has a reserve of $1 and is worth $275,000.
It sold for $360,000 to a builder who saw it for the first time on Thursday afternoon.
Every property sold at or above the reserve price. Wahroonga’s median house price rose 12.9 per cent to $2,565,000 in the year to September, according to Domain data.
Proceeds from the sale will fund affordable accommodation for the church’s nurses and students at their private hospital, The San in Wahroonga.Credit:james brickwood
Ray White Upper North Shore selling agent Thomas Merriman, who worked with Josh Saliba of Saliba Estate Agents, said it was a good result in a tough market with fewer than half the properties in any given condition Unable to sell auction day.
“When Sydney’s clearance rate is 60 per cent, nine properties come to auction – we’re faced with the possibility that they don’t sell,” Merriman said.
The idea of selling them in a block-style auction is to spark interest and competition, he said.
“In the end the buyers of these properties ended up almost putting more pressure on them,” he said, adding they were lucky the builder showed up at the last minute.
“The only approaching comparable [for the bush block] Closer to $1 million with no trees on it. The neighborhood has 28 significant trees, four of which could not be removed. We ultimately deemed the block undevelopable.
“Because of what the church has done for the nurses at San Hospital, we are motivated to do well.”
Lorin Bradford, the church’s property trust manager, said he was pleased with the outcome, which will help fund their affordable housing development.
“It’s really about raising money, crunching the numbers, trying to make the finances work. With prices going up, we have to do things to make enough money so we can charge students what they can pay,” Bradford said.
“We do have a lot more homes that need to go to auction at some point, but we’ll probably borrow a lot of money and when the market picks up, we’ll do another round of auctions.”
