Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020
Two neglected terraces houses in adjoining inner city suburbs went to auction last night, each having their own terribly sad tale.
Both seemed set to be pretty much a battle of builders to secure the home improvements project in Paddington and Surry Hills.
The run down
Paddington terrace on 50 sqm in Sydney's prestigious inner east suburb secured $1 million at auction through Di Jones selling agent Adam McKay.
The
Paddington property originally had an auction guide of $750,000 but the auction guide was cautiously updated to $800,000.
The tradie's got beat as sold for $1 million to a professional home decorator who beat off very strong tradie buyer interest.
"I like to do up old homes," the (unnamed)
Rozelle buyer said.
"I've already called my builder. He will do a good job, and I will enjoy living there," she said after the auction win.
Yellow work vests and steel capped work boots galore at the auction in the upmarket auction room.
The tradie underbidder was at $975,000.
The opening $400,000 offer was refused, so bidding instead got under way at $675,000 on the Iris Street offering.
McKay noted the prospective budget for even the most essential renovation kept most young families from participating in the auction, despite the price being well below the norm.
Paddo's median house price sits around the $1.7 million mark, according to CoreLogic RP Data. It is $1.4 million in Surry Hills.
Renovation costs are currently soaring in Sydney, up eight percent year on year, compared to a national increase of only 1.5 percent, according to a recent report by services marketplace Serviceseeking.com.au.
Carpentry and building saw the largest price increases, up 26 percent and 18 percent due to the labour shortages in the state.
There are two bedrooms, one bathroom and no toilet as such in the home previously owned by late artist Christina Coombes.
The property was involved in a bizarre court case where an Iraqi refugee tried to claim the dank hovel by suggesting he was Christina's lover, cat minder and dancing partner for 17 years.
Christina's neighbours intervened and said that he was nothing more than a fruit and junk salesman who occasionally sold items to her.
Christina bought the property with her late butcher husband Kenneth Coombes in 1965 for £3,200.
Fewer and fewer property in such disrepair - often with the old time dunny in the back yard - now come on to the market given the decades of million dollar makeovers that owners have undertaken in what is perhaps Sydney's most primped and primed suburb.
Nothing these days under $1 million.
The Surry Hills offering came with its own tale with the woman Sydney forgot to be honoured by the man who bought her terrace house for $1,105,000. Natalie Jean Wood’s skeletal remains were found in 2011 in her dilapidated Surry Hills home, where they had lain undiscovered for almost eight years. She was 86 years old.
Her terrace house at 139 Kippax St, described by real estate agents at PRDnationwide Perez Real Estate as completely uninhabitable, sold at auction.
“I felt very sad by the story and I’m going to find her grave and leave flowers on it,” the buyer told The Daily Telegraph.
“It just goes to show how sad it is that people aren’t close to their neighbours any more. I won’t forget her.”
Before the auction, agent Corrinne Olsen said she expected the deceased estate to go for about $600,000 to $700,000 based on early interest.
“I thought at most it would go for $850,000,” she said.
There were 28 registered buyers.
