Price undisclosed but Gillon McLachlan secures weekend top sale as South Melbourne beats Albert Park
The 1860s South Melbourne terrace of the AFL's No.2 man, Gillon McLachlan and his wife Laura was passed in on a $4.4 million vendor bid at auction today. But its sold sticker was posted early afternoon before the bounce of the ball at the MCG.
The sale price was undisclosed but about $4.525 million was the whispered price gleaned by Property Observer.
There had been an opening and only bid of $4.3 million from one of the few interested parties prepared to show their hand at the onsite parkside auction.
It had been listed by Rob Vickers-Willis and Jock Langley of Abercromby's Real Estate Armadale initially by private treaty in February without success.
The envisaged revised auction marketing price range was between $4 million and $4.5 million on the Property Tycoon tipping website.
The weekend's highest disclosed weekend sale was nearby at St Vincent Place, Albert Park where $3.97 million was recorded at a mortgagee auction through Cayzer agents Michael Szulc and Geoff Cayzer.
It was the second of three adjoining unrenovated terraces offered for public auction over three consectutive weekends.
There were whispers the $3.97 million buyer - one of the five bidders - may have been associated with the mortgagor.
The REIV reported a 67% weekend auction success rate on initial results. Its been 69% in the year to date.
The three bedroom, two bathroom house sold by the McLachlan's (pictured above) cost $3.6 million in 2007. Set on a 460-square-metre block, it was formerly owned and restored by broadcaster Peter Couchman, who then bought next door.
When Couchman bought it in the 1970s, it was divided into flats, but underneath plaster boards and layers of paint were fine period features.
The terrace, one of a pair built for a locksmith overlooking a little park, had previously traded at $1,925,000 in 2004, then $785,000 in 1996 and $625,000 in 1992.
It was mid-last year that McLachlan, the AFL deputy chief executive, knocked back the job as chief executive of the ARL Commission in Sydney.
He married, Laura, the daughter of Spotless chief Brian Blythe in 2003.
Property Observer will provide an update on Monday on all the weekend auction results.
