Record $32m bid as Queensland property boom ramps up
A record bid for QLD of $32m was made for a waterfront mansion yesterday but the owner says he’ll hold out for more as the state undergoes a major property boom.
The first weekend of auctions after official lifting of Brisbane restrictions saw a surge in confidence across all price levels, from the record bid made for t
he Gold Coast mega-mansionto a house in Brisbane’s south seeing a frenzy of 74 bids under the hammer.
MORE: What’s on offer at the country’s biggest auction event
The stable that’s better than many homes
The Gold Coast’s seven ‘rising markets’ revealed
Inside Queensland’s housing boom
Mega-mansion owner Riccardo Rizzi, who rejected the $32m bid offered at auction yesterday, was confident he would achieve the price he wants in the current market.
“The Queensland market’s hot, it’s booming,” he told The Courier-Mail. “The house reached $32m, it didn’t sell. It’s now on the open market at $36m and there’s a couple of people interested.”
“I do realise that 32m is an enormous amount of money but that’s only from a Queensland perspective. A chap in Belgravia in London would sell his small terrace for 20m pounds, what does the money buy you in a good area of London? It buys you nothing. A good house in Belgravia costs you 150m pounds.”
Queensland was “the state to watch” this weekend, according to Dan White, managing director of one of Australia’s biggest real estate agencies, Ray White.
“The January auction market is off to an early start compared to prior years with many in the network citing huge buyer activity as the reason for the early kick off.”
Around 130 properties are set to go under the hammer at the RACV Royal Pines Resort today (Sunday) at the annual super auction The Event hosted by Ray White Surfers Paradise Group.
The boom in confidence off the lowest interest rates in history saw unprecedented levels of interest from buyers with agents run off their feet, including a frenzy of 74 bids on a single home yesterday.
Agent Peter Florentzos of LJ Hooker Sunnybank Hills in Brisbane’s south had five bidders register to fight it out to an $890,000 sale price for a three-bedroom house just 100m from the suburb’s popular Market Square “foodie paradise”.
Bidding started at $580,000 with four of the five registered parties active during the bidding frenzy, with it eventually going to a man who lived down the street for $890,000.
More from news
“There were 74 bids cast, it was crazy, bang, bang, bang, down to thousands and up again,” he said. “There is confidence in the market at the moment. There’s no better time to be buying real estate, interest rates at an all-time record low, people are cashed up, overall there’s very strong confidence. It’s a good time to buy and a good time to sell. With undersupply and competition, the price only goes one way.”
Place Woolloongabba agent Darren Cosgrove saw a 1936-era cottage sell for $945,000 on Saturday morning said activity was strong all through the holiday period.
“I didn’t have time off for Christmas and New Year, my phone, email just never stopped continually pinging at me. The market is still strong and for the foreseeable future I don’t actually see that changing.”
“There is an enormous shortage of properties, I’ll be back hunting on Monday for more people that want to get their property on the market who are in that right time of their life and want to move on.”