Brunswick home sells for $1,585,000 in hotly contested auction

It was a good sale given the property market had been patchy lately, as interest rate rises dampened the pre-Christmas property buying spirit, Enes said.

On the other side of the city, in Frankston, a Kew couple wanting a holiday home outbid six other buyers, mostly upgrading families, for the keys to a five-bedroom house.

Bidding on the four-level property with views of Frankston beach, started at $900,000, and the house at 8 Kooluna Court was called on the market at $1.1 million. It went on to sell for $1.27 million.

Ray White Frankston’s Ashley Weston said the house was in a popular estate, where nearby homes had recently been selling for more than $1 million. However, he noted the market had been very patchy.

“We’re finding anything sub-$1 million is still very hot at the moment. Anything from $1 million to $1.5 million the buyer numbers are declining, and anything above that is harder to sell.”

Weston attributed this to the decline in buyer borrowing power as interest rates climbed.

In Northcote, a three-bedroom house, owned by the same family for about 40 years, sold for $1,206,000, just above the $1.1 million to $1.2 million guide.

The property at 22 Woolhouse Street sold to a lone buyer, wanting to upgrade in the local area.

The buyer was one of two bidders on the house, Nelson Alexander Northcote’s Tom Alexiadis said, and they plan to fix up the home.

While some agents believed the market was patchy, Alexiadis was seeing strong demand for the limited number of homes for sale.

“Everything is selling at the moment,” Alexiadis said. “Where buyers are normally waiting for the run of stock, they are now buying — it’s a real change of attitude.”

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