AFL stars line up as spectators at Albert Park auction

The glamour Geelong AFL couple, Jimmy Bartel and his wife Nadia and son Aston, the new Essendon captain Dyson Heppell, St Kilda star Leigh Montagna and the Western Bulldogs midfielder Mitch Wallis were all sideline spectators in the weekend Albert Park auction crowd.

They, along with 300 others on Park Street (above), saw three bidders compete for the big-ticket four-bedroom Victorian home.

Marshall White agent Oliver Bruce asked for an opening bid of $3.5 million but was immediately met with a $4 million offer from the eventual buyer. 

It soared about $700,000 over reserve selling at $4.735 million. Bruce told the Herald Sun that the house was “the most inspected property” he’d ever marketed.

It traded in 2013 at $2.31 million, before its rear extension and renovation.

Melbourne had the cheapest and dearest reported weekend auction sales.

A four bedroom, three level Malvern home (below) sold for $5,075,000. The opening bid was $100,000 over the $4.3 million reserve.

The Spring Road property, with views to the Dandenong ranges, comes with a home theatre, wine cellar, and lift access to the six car garage.

The property was marketed through RT Edgar as the latest offering from home builders R & K Developers.

A two bedroom apartment at Mernda, which has been a $310 a week rental in the City of Whittlesea suburb, fetched $245,000.

Offered through Ray White, the Rowell Drive unit fetched less than its $295,000 off the plan price.

The auction price guidance had been $240,000 to $260,000 for the 70 sqm ground floor apartment that was completed in 2012.  

Sydney had the highest bid property, but the combined Paddington terraces  (below) did not sell, passed in at $8.1 million.

Set on 394 sq m on Paddington Street, there are 520 sqms of interior living space.

At Longueville, there was a $5,050,000 sale of the 1898 Federation four-bedroom home, Nirvana, (below) owned by the late obstetrician and gynaecologist Rod Macdonald and his widow Robin.

The home sat on almost 1600 sq m on Mary Street. 

Back in Melbourne, the Toorak home of late socialite Lady Susan Renouf (below) sold in a post-auction negotiations for around its quoted price of $5 million.

Across the capital cities, the number of properties taken to auction increased dramatically, with 3,232 auctions held, according to CoreLogic’s latest report.

It was significantly higher than over the same weekend in previous years, with auction volumes generally reaching their seasonal peaks around March.

"The record highs for the number of auctions were confined to the Sydney and Melbourne markets, where auction numbers were the highest on record for the month of February," Kevin Brogan at CoreLogic noted.

Despite the high auction numbers for February, the combined capital city clearance rate also reached a new record high over the year to date.

Some 78 per cent of auctions recorded a positive result, which is higher than the 71 per cent last year, across its lower volume of 2,700 auctions.

"Overall activity has increased week-on- week, with volumes increasing across all the capital cities, with clearance rates also rising in most capital cities with the exception of Canberra and Perth, where clearance rates fell over the week," Kevin Brogan said.

Melbourne's clearance rate rose to 80.1 per cent, up from 75.7 per cent last weekend and remaining above the clearance rate for the city one year ago of 74.8 per cent.

Melbourne saw a substantial increase in volumes, with 1,613 auctions held, higher than the 1,091 held last week and also higher than a year ago when there were 1,347 Melbourne auctions.

Of the 9 individual Melbourne sub-regions, the strongest performer, in terms of clearance rate was the Outer East region where 87 per cent of  auctions were successful.

Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate increased to 81.5 per cent.

Last week, Sydney’s clearance rate was 80.6 per cent, while one year ago results sat at 72.1 per cent.

This week volumes were higher, up to 1,169 from 856 last week and also higher than what was seen over the same week last year with 919 Sydney homes.

The Inner West sub-region of Sydney has shown the strongest performance with 90.2 per cent of the 61 reported results selling.

There were 174 Brisbane homes taken to auction, with 99 results reported so far showing a preliminary clearance rate at 63.3 per cent, up from 47.1 per cent last week and higher than one year ago, when 57.4 per cent of the 179 properties taken to auction were successful.

Brisbane's priciest was when the restored home, Arden at Ascot (below) sold for $3.55 million through Ray White. The unrenovated 1913 home cost $2.25 million in 2006, then it was expanded to its 1460 sqm offering with an $800,000 purchase of a neighbouring 400 sqm block in 2013.

Adelaide saw a preliminary clearance rate of 76.3 percent, with 80 reported results across a total of 121 scheduled auctions.

In comparison, over the previous week Adelaide’s clearance rate was 65.8 percent and 64 percent one year ago.

There were 46 Perth auctions this week, with a preliminary clearance rate of 21.4 percent. Last week, 31.0 percent of the 42 auctions held were successful.

Across Canberra a total of 100 auctions were held this week, compared to 92 last week and 75 at the same time last year.

Canberra’s preliminary clearance rate of 77.3 percent is lower than the prior 80.2 percent result.