We speak to the team behind the most intriguing recent property sale.
The property: A five-bedroom house on 938 square metres at 85 Westminster Road, Gladesville, NSW. Sold by private treaty for $3.25 million.
Who was the agent/agency? Michael Gallina, Belle Property Hunters Hill.
How long was this on the market? [Gallina] It was on the market for 21 days.
Why did this one sell? The privacy, the very rare bush outlook and the potential.
Was it overpriced? Not in this market. We knew it was going to be popular.
What did you think it would go for? I thought we would definitely get something around $3-$3.1 million.
What was surprising about it? Because of the strong market conditions and lowest stock Gladesville’s seen in history, more difficult property that would be more challenged in a normal market is getting exceptional results.
We thought it was going to be a challenge to find the right buyer, but we had 37 private inspections in 2½ weeks and eight re-inspections.
Given the market has increased significantly in the past six weeks, a lot of owners are taking advantage of the market and selling, knowing that – in our view – towards the end of the year, once lockdown has eased, there’s going to be a flood of stock coming on the market.
It really is a secluded property. It did have difficult access and a sloping block. Westminster Road ends five houses down, then the house is on the edge of the Field of Mars Reserve. It does have rear lane access.
Buyers are changing their ideas in terms of the type of property they would love to buy. The property did have challenges but the position and location and peacefulness of it outweighed that.
People could just imagine themselves living in the property. What people appreciated about this property was the fact that they felt they were well away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney.
With COVID-19, because a lot of people are more stuck at home now – and they might be outgrowing their home and so forth – they don’t have the opportunity to go away, don’t have the opportunity to go on holidays. Properties that make them feel they’re away from Sydney are becoming extremely popular.
Every time the buyers came back for a second inspection, a third inspection, they fell more and more in love with it.
By the time we got halfway through the campaign, we already had five extremely serious buyers who wanted to purchase it.
Our price guide was $2.7 million. We got an offer on the Friday the week before the auction of $2.8 million. We changed the guide to $2.8 million. The owners were motivated to sell at $3 million.
On the Monday, we advised the vendors and we agreed we’d sell before auction. We didn’t want to rush the process. Over 48 hours, we negotiated with the interested parties. From a first offer of $2.8 million we got up to $3.25 million.
The eventual buyer was from Balmain. They’re a family who will live in the house short term, but plan to knock it down and rebuild their dream home.
Do you reckon we’ll see another result like this: a) next week b) next year c) next cycle d) never?
a) Next week. The market continues to increase in value at the moment. The lack of stock is causing it. The Sydney market has risen 2.9 per cent and Gladesville has increased 3.5 per cent just in the past six weeks.
The buyer demand will drop and stock levels will rise. Property will still sell, but we won’t see the significant increases we’ve seen in the past six weeks.
Once more stock is available … that’s when buyers will come off the market – we’re going to see more of a normal market.
When the market starts to stabilise, people will focus more on the challenges than the lifestyle and position, whereas right now given there’s nothing to buy and people are just wanting to get into the market, the potential and the location will outweigh the potential issues with the property.
This article is from Australian Financial Review, please click the following link for the original article: https://www.afr.com/property/residential/even-homes-with-issues-fly-in-a-lockdown-market-with-little-stock-20210815-p58izc
