The Australian Financial Review has spoken to the team behind last week's most intriguing property sale for our column, How it Sold.
The property: A two-bedroom apartment at 113/4 Yarra Bing Crescent, Burwood, Victoria. Sold by private treaty, $520,000.
Who was the agent/agency? Patrick Mane, George Liavas, Raine & Horne Blackburn.
How long was this on the market? [George] Since May 5.
Why did this one sell? It was bought by an investor.
Was it overpriced? I wouldn't say so. It was bought by the buyer for $525,000 [in 2010]. When they buy something brand new, they're paying for the profit of the developer. People don't realise that. The secondhand market is where a lot of investors are smart enough to buy – they buy at fair value. The vendor lived in it with his family for six years and he made good use of it. He got his money back.
What did you think it would go for? I thought $500,000 was fair value.
What was surprising about it? There is trouble in the market. Apartments are getting a bit of a hammering. This apartment had been on the market for a while. One day a few weeks ago, we had an offer from a buyer in Sydney. That was on the same day that the bank auctioned [another apartment in the same complex] and got an offer for $440,000. That apartment was not identical [to ours] but had an extra garage. Ours was only a single garage. It's a development of four buildings with 24 apartments each.
My vendor did not, however, accept the offer. I was a bit concerned when he did not accept $485,000 and more concerned when he did not accept [the same buyer's higher offer of] $499,000. I thought it's a better offer than what the [former owner of the apartment that sold] got. He lost his apartment – and all the bank got was [an offer for] $440,000. [Records show that apartment at 12/6 Yarra Bing Crescent sold for $485,000 in 2012. It remains unsold.] But we couldn't convince [my client]. We presented an offer of basically $500,000 to the owner and he rejected it. He was stubborn with his price.
[Patrick] Only two two-bedroom apartments were sold in the entire last year. 4/2 Yarra Bing Crescent sold in August for $338,000. [Records show it sold in May 2010 for $390,000.] 1/6 Yarra Bing Crescent sold in November last year for $450,000. [Records show it sold in March 2012 for $560,000.]
[George] The vendor was losing money. He bought it for $525,000. He wanted to get out of there. But he wasn't going to give it away.
But the vendor was right. Patrick signed another buyer. We got another $21,000 from another buyer two to three weeks later. We sold it for $520,000. It happened on Tuesday night.
She's from down the road. She works on Burwood Highway and lives in Wantirna South. Maybe she's familiar with the area and was willing and happy to pay a bit extra. She saw the signboard at night.
Do you reckon we'll see another result like this: a) next week b) next year c) next cycle d) never?
a) Hopefully we'll have another one next week. I'm an optimist. I'm a real estate agent.
