The Quakers Hill home makes $70,000 in one year at auction

Ahead of Tuesday’s Reserve Bank decision on interest rates, Alex Patarro, Tesolin’s colleague Ray White, NSW’s chief auctioneer, said sellers should have full confidence that buyer activity is strong.

“Today’s ones [Saturday] the highest number of registered bidders and active bidders seen by Ray White in over 12 months. Bidding activity in all of our auctions is gaining momentum. And we’re seeing better prices now than we’ve seen in the last three months.”

In Newtown, a double fronted, weatherboard cottage in need of renovation sold for $155,000 above its $1.6 million reserve.

The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home at 210 Church Street attracted 60 people.

Six registered to bid and four actively bid at the frenetic auction before the hammer fell and it was sold to a young Waterloo couple for $1,755,000.

Raine & Horne Newtown sales agent Michael Harris said interest was coming from young families and property developers hoping to remodel it.

“It stands on a 240 square meter lot. People hope because it has a big front that they can put two there. The Council has been quite difficult in answering questions in relation to what they will or will not allow,” he said.

“It’s a waterfall when it rains. Every piece of weatherboard has rotted. It’s really only worth the land value.”

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The couple’s father is a builder and will be helping them convert the cottage into a family residence which they will live in once it is built.

AMP Capital’s Chief Economist, Dr. Shane Oliver said Saturday’s release rate of 69.6 percent was down further from last week ahead of a likely official cash rate hike by the Reserve Bank on Tuesday.

“The most likely scenario is that they will hike rates by another 0.25 [of a percentage point]. If you had a $600,000 mortgage, your interest payments would have increased by about $12,000. That doesn’t allow for Tuesday’s potential hike,” he said.

“With signs of a slowdown in the economy evident in last week’s GDP numbers, jobs numbers, retail sales etc, there’s a strong case for keeping interest rates on hold. But I suspect they’ll probably think that the recent slowdown that we’re seeing might be too early to read too much into.”

Oliver said the cliff in fixed rate mortgages could potentially boost supply over the next six months as people move down from low fixed rates of 2 percent to around 5.5 percent.

In Birrong, south-west Sydney, a spacious family home has sold for $990,000.

The three bedroom, one bathroom house at 108 Auburn Road is 200 meters from the train station and local school.

Three people are bidding out of the four who signed up. The opening bid was $800,000. Bidding started in increments of $20,000 and then slowed to $10,000 and $5,000. When the offer reached $980,000, further negotiations brought it to $990,000. The seller has not submitted an offer.

Ray White Punchbowl sales agent John Yatman said negotiations would continue after the auction.

“The potential buyer increases in size from one unit. The seller at least wants to get what they paid for.”

The home last traded in September 2022 for $1,012,000.

Yatman said he hopes to bridge the gap between what the buyer is offering and what the seller is willing to accept this week.