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12 Wallace Avenue, Murrumbeena, sold more than $500,000 above its reserve.
Murrumbeena sellers are on “cloud nine” after their home sold $510,000 above reserve amid speculation it will be zoned for an in-demand new school.
The owners of 12 Wallace Avenue, Murrumbeena, set their February 6 auction reserve at $1.87m.
But a $1.7m opening bid made before the auctioneer had finished their spiel quickly escalated to a $2.38m top offer.
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Ray White director Josh Hommelhoff said six bidders, including two who missed out on a nearby home the weekend before, had driven the “unexpected result”.
“The vendors, as you might expect, are on cloud nine,” Mr Hommelhoff said.
The buyers are hoping the home will fall into the as-yet-unconfirmed school zone for McKinnon Secondary College’s second campus.
The buyers, a family of five from Camberwell, are hoping to enrol their kids at McKinnon Secondary College’s East Village campus, set to open in 2022.
A catchment area for the new school will be released in the first half of this year, and Mr Hommelhoff said homes on this side of Wallace Street were expected to be in the zone.
The updated home’s impressive interior spaces also appealed.
The underbidder, another family, missed out on 23 Wahroongaa Road, Murrumbeena, which sold for $2.31m a week prior. At least one other family who missed out on that home also kept bidding past the $2m mark at Wallace Avenue last weekend.
“I think the whole market has moved,” Mr Hommelhoff said. “Buyers are having to make adjustments on locations. When we had the boom in 2017, as a buyer you had the luxury of two weeks to reconsider. Whereas now there’s not a lot coming up.”
23 Wahroongaa Road, Murrumbeena, also sold above expectations a week earlier.
Industry Insider buyer’s advocate Andrew Date attended the auction and said it proved the level of competition buyers faced for family homes at the moment.
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“And I think that will continue to run well up until at least Easter,” Mr Date said.
An 84 per cent preliminary clearance rate was recorded by realestate.com.au across 405 results for the week ending February 7.
But an increase in auctions to more than 800 ahead of Valentine’s Day this Sunday, and more than 1000 the following week, isn’t expected to slow sales.
“At 84 per cent, you aren’t going to see much better than that,” said Wakelin Property Advisory’s Jarrod McCabe. “It is well and truly a seller’s market.”
75 Collier Crescent, Brunswick West, was another auction success story on February 6.
As further examples of the market’s strength, he pointed to 75 Collier Street, Brunswick West, which sold under the hammer for $1.36m, and a post-auction negotiation that added $50,000 to get 58 Moore Street, South Yarra, sold for $1.47m.
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