‘Never seen conditions like this’: dated house sells for $600,000 over reserve in frantic auction

An Ashfield family got a surprise windfall for their home of 54 years when it sold under the hammer for $600,000 above their expectations.

The Kitanov family purchased the five-bedroom house on Service Ave in 1967 and got $2.5 million at auction on Saturday.

Victoria Kitanov, who grew up in the house, said the family would have been elated to sell for their $1.9 million reserve price and felt “emotional” after getting such a high price.

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“I had heard it was an explosive but uncertain market,” she said. “We were obviously hoping it would go over $1.9 million but never thought it would be by that much.”

Title deeds showed Ms Kitanov’s parents owed about $14,000 on the property at one time but it was not clear how much they paid for the property when they bought it.

Eleven parties registered to bid for the dated house and auctioneer Damien Cooley received an opening bid of $1.7 million.

It took just five bids for the price to meet the reserve and another six to get passed $2.2 million. All up, there were 36 bids and the auction lasted just eight minutes.

Selling agent Peter Gordon of Cobden and Hayson said the result showed it was almost impossible to price properties in the current market.

“We’ve never seen conditions like this,” Mr Gordon said. “There just isn’t enough stock coming onto the market to get up to date comparable sales.”

Mr Gordon added it would probably cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to modernise the Service Ave home but families appeared to be willing to spend the money. “Families in the area tend to stay here for the long-term,” he said.

Mr Cooley said he was surprised by the price but not by the level of competition from buyers.

“The house had everything buyers like at the moment. It had character charm, wide hallways and there was opportunity to add value. If modernised it would probably be worth over $3 million,” he said.

Vendors were getting such high prices at the moment because buyers were coming to auctions prepared to “buy at any cost”, Mr Cooley said.

“We’re telling people to come to auctions with an open mind. You may have to spend more than they you think but what’s expensive today will seem cheap in the future.”

The Ashfield house was one of 634 auctions scheduled for the week, a rise from the volume of sales last week. It comes as clearance rates remain at new highs, particularly in the inner west. CoreLogic reported more than 90 per cent of auctions in the region produced a sale over the past two weeks.

Other auctions included a house on Burton St in Glebe. The two-bedroom home listed with Ray White-Surry Hills agent Matthew Carvahlo sold for $1.735 million, $185,000 over reserve. The property had last sold for $1 million in 2014 and was later renovated.

Further south, in Kingsgrove, a four-bedroom house listed as a potential duplex site sold under the hammer for $1.805 million after attracting 20 registered bidders.

The price for the Arinya St home was $385,000 over the reserve.

“The market is looking very good at the moment,” said selling agent Sue Jin of Ray White-Norwest. “Our sellers are extremely happy.”

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