A young couple has paid $4.25 million for a distinctive mid-century modern house in Clontarf after a competitive auction that offered a rare bright spot in Sydney’s subdued property market.
The five-bedroom home in Cutler Road attracted eight registered parties, with bidding opening at $3.55 million — below its $3.9 million guide — before accelerating through a series of increasingly higher offers.
Four parties took part in the bidding, initially raising the price by between $25,000 and $50,000. The increments later narrowed to between $5,000 and $10,000 as two buyers from outside the area battled for the property.
The home passed its $3.925 million reserve, but selling agent Michael Clarke, of Clarke & Humel Property, was not able to declare it on the market until the bidding reached $4 million. The winning couple, who are from Sydney’s lower north shore, eventually secured it under the hammer.
Set above Middle Harbour, the property features timber beams, exposed brick interiors, a fireplace, a cantilevered concrete slab and a level garden. Clarke said it needed some work, but the buyers were attracted by the existing architecture and the views.
“They loved the fact that it was beautifully mid-century modern and they could work with the existing architecture to create something that was really quite magnificent,” he said.
Clarke said the buyers intended to develop the house into “a more modern mid-century masterpiece”. The vendors, two sisters who were selling their family home, had taken a realistic view of market conditions, he said.
“I was incredibly nervous seeing what was happening with the market and we ended up achieving what we were hoping for,” Clarke said.
The result came as Sydney recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 49 per cent, based on 571 reported results during the week. Of the 964 properties scheduled for auction, 222 were withdrawn and counted as unsold in the calculation.
The figures represented the first early test of buyer sentiment after the Reserve Bank’s fifth cash rate increase of the year, which lifted the rate to 4.85 per cent. The preliminary result was close to the previous week’s 48 per cent, suggesting some buyers may already have accounted for higher borrowing costs.
In Burraneer, a woman moving to the Sutherland Shire to be closer to family paid $4.5 million for a renovated 1920s house in Rutherford Avenue. The five-bedroom property retained its sandstone walls and cedar joinery, while its kitchen had been updated.
There was only one registered bidder. After an opening offer of $4.4 million, negotiations continued between the buyer and the agents before she raised her bid to $4.5 million, matching both the guide and reserve.
In Drummoyne, a new four-bedroom duplex with a marble kitchen, butler’s pantry and swimming pool passed in at $5.45 million. Three of the four registered bidders were active, but the property did not meet its $5.8 million reserve.
