South Melbourne ugly ducking sold
The television tradie James Bawden and his wife, interior designer Kimberley-Jade sold their single-fronted 1890s St Kilda East cottage ahead of its weekend auction.
No price reveal but Sotheby’s agent Sarah Case was seeking around $1.45 million (below).
Bawden, who started his television career with Channel Nine’s Domestic Bliss then onto Network Ten’s The Home Team DIY show, bought it with Kimberley-Jade, who runs runs the Kim INC design studio, for $610,000 in 2014 which was followed by their renovation and extension.
It was one of the 166 Melbourne auction offerings snapped up ahead of schedule, according to the REIV.
Melbourne's 81 percent success rate just sits behind Sydney's 81.5 percent with neither city unduly concerned by rising regulatory concerns about a housing bubble.
In Melbourne's outer west, Ardeer, it was a Sydney investor who snapped up a $731,000 three-bedroom brick veneer house (below).
In South Yarra an expat living in Dubai spent $1,214,000 on a Moore Street single-fronted two bedroom cottage semi (below), The Herald Sun reported.
In South Melbourne, a charming ugly duckling left vacant for 40 years, sold through Greg Hocking Holdsworth to a couple for $2,635,000 who will be convert the former corner milk bar and adjoining classic terrace into one family home (lead image).
The effervescent national clearance rate tally came after the busiest week for auctions so far this year, as vendors sought to get in before the Easter break.
Auctions returned a 77.6 percent national tally, according to CoreLogic’s latest report with 3,424 homes put to auction.
In Melbourne, the number of homes taken to auction rose to 1,458, up from last week’s 1,143, with the clearance rate hitting 81 per cent, up from 79.6 per cent over the previous weekend.
Across Sydney the preliminary clearance rate was up at 81.5 per cent after Sydney's biggest ever auction day saw 1140 homes go under the hammer.
CoreLogic’s auction analyst Kevin Brogan said described it as "a robust performance."
Canberra’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 69.8 percent was higher than last week when the final auction clearance rate was 60.8 percent and higher than the 52 percent recorded last year.
A suburb record was secured in Florey where 3 Edman Close (below) sold under the hammer for $960,000 through Peter Blackshaw Gungahlin, topping the previous $840,000 record set in February.
It had five bedrooms, study and theatre room amid its 220 sqm internal living space.
CoreLogic advised there were 182 Brisbane properties taken to auction with a clearance rate of 54.6 percent.
Adelaide saw a preliminary clearance rate of 67.4 percent across a total of 170 scheduled auctions.
Perth’s clearance rate of 22.7 percent across 53 auctions was down from the previous week.
