Inner city car parking convenience costs record $264,000 at The Chimes, Potts Point
Strike the bells! An undercover Potts Point car space fetched $264,000 at competitive auction tonight.
Set in somewhat dated 1960s block, The Chimes, the Macleay Street price easily exceeded all prior price estimates given the egos involved. It is understood to have sold to an entrepreneurial Sydney CBD medico with an active interest in Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay property.
It was a Sydney record. There are studios for sale from $335,000 in nearby Kings Cross. There is strata commercial studio space around nearby Kings Cross for sale at less.
Residential studios could be expected to fetch $305 plus a week in rent, while an open air, narrow, poled car space might be likely to fetch $70 a week.
There were about 10 keen local buyer participants after bidding opened at $120,000 for the auction rarity sandwiched between the harbour and the central business district.
There were still five in the contest as it approached $200,000. After buyers' agent Janne Sutcliffe dropped out as bidding headed towards $210,000, there were two locals remaining.
"Quarter of a million," was another milestone bid of the eventual buyer, with the room collectively gasping, many clutching their cocktail hour pearls.
Spilling out onto the plane tree-lined Parisian end of the strip, one high-rise apartment owner attendee brought his real estate loving schnauzer.
The sale through Richardson & Wrench agents Greg McKinley and Luke McDonnell reflected around $10,000 a square metre for the longer then normal 26 square metre space, but single car space.
There is a right of way across the title, which is about 10 metres long by about 2.4 metres wide at 45 Macleay Street on the McDonald Street corner.
"It was certainly not the norm," selling agent Greg McKinley told Property Observer in an after auction attempt to quell bragging among the boastful car parking cognoscenti tomorrow morning at local coffee shops. And possibly wider commentary from mainstream media who could be relied to misconstrue.
"It was something of a one off…. I was not expecting to see a 2 in front of the price," he said.
Auctioneer Peter Baldwin said such was the interest there had been been bets on the price from locals in the 'hood.
The 10-storey, 80 unit Chimes strata block was registered in 1964 when the standard EJ Holden cost the equivalent of $2102.
The car space previously traded with a studio apartment, but prior to that sale sold at $60,000 in 2011 on its own and $31,000 in 1997.
The last sale in the secure complex with two storey parking was adjacent at $90,000 in an off market deal last year.
Last October another residential inner city car space fetched a then record $210,000 at auction.
The $210,000 Elizabeth Bay car space was sold at Laing Real Estate auction, reflecting 13% annual price growth over the past 37 years.
The inner city precinct has been described as the toughest in Australia to find a car space with almost 25,000 residents living in a 1.89 square kilometre footprint which is a restaurant mecca.
The residents own close to 6000 vehicles but with there are just 4300 on-street car spaces available, Sydney Council data shows. Many of the older buildings have limited, onsite, lease only car parking and council restrictions in more modern buildings often ensure the car spaces can not be transferred to outsiders.
Until tonight the Sydney record, as Property Observer concludes, was a 16 square metre single car parking space at North Bondi sold for $240,000 in 2010.