Buyer walks around the corner, spends $1.18 million at Wantirna auction
A HOMEBUYER walked around the corner from his current address and splashed $1.18 million at a recent auction in Knox.
The home at 81 Amersham Drive, Wantirna, set a new benchmark for a single-storey home in the suburb when it fetched the seven-figured price, Harcourts Wantirna’s Emilie Jordanou said.
Seven bidders turned up for the auction of the four-bedroom house on 742sq m on Sunday, September 11.
It smashed the reserve by more than $200,000, with the price rising $500,000 or 73 per cent since it last sold in February 2013 for $680,000 according to CoreLogic figures.
A nearby house also sold strongly the same day — and to a buyer who lived in the same street.
No. 55 Dunbarton Drive fetched $705,000 under the hammer, well above its reserve set in the low-$600,000s and it drew six bidders.
“Similar concrete homes with flat roofs have sold for $600,000 plus and all the buyers that day were investors looking to subdivide the 725 sq m block,” Ms Jordanou said.
Meanwhile, five bidders seeking a home near a nearby private school in Wantirna South pushed the price of 17 Alana Court to $1.14 million at auction on September 10.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house was on a 722sq m block, Barry Plant Wantirna’s Brett Smith said.
In May, a similar four-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 7 Alana Court sold for $980,000.
Mr Smith said a string of strong results in Knox was due mainly to demand from buyers and a shortage of listings.
“We had a slower season coming into spring due to the election and winter slowdown and will wait to see if spring listings come back as strongly as they did last year,” he said.
He noted listings were beginning to rise and the agency was holding three auctions on the Grand Final holiday on September 30.
“This will be a first for us and we expect buyers to attend the three auctions due to the shortage of properties,” Mr Smith added.
Meanwhile, properties in the popular Templeton Primary School zone in Wantirna continue to attract plenty of interest and strong prices.
A four-bedroom, single-storey home on 807sq m at 3 Salisbury Court sold on September 3 for just under $1 million.
The auction drew seven bidders with an opening bid of $800,000 ending at $975,000 or $30,000 above reserve, Biggin & Scott Knox’s Geraint Gardner said. An investor from South Melbourne won the keys.
And a father-and-son team came together to buy 8 Barrington Court in the same suburb for $750,000 in a private sale.
“The father was helping his son buy his first home and they came from Glen Waverley,” Mr Gardner said. The sellers received four other offers for the original three-bedroom house.
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