218 Oberon St Coogee
Why half the registered bidders walked out mid auction
The property
218 Oberon Street Coogee is a large 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom family home, with a separate self contained 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. The block of land is 598 sqm although slopes down a hill at the back. The frontage is 12sqm.
The property has no car parking on title although at the time of sale there was a lapsed DA to build a garage at the front of the property.
The property was last sold in 1976 for $60,000.
The location is superb. A 10min walk up hill from Coogee beach.
Coogee as a suburb only has 47 houses with 6 or more bedrooms, and in the last 12 months only 3 of these were sold.
184-186 Brook Street Coogee NSW 2034 in May 2023 for $4,315,000 (6 bed, 2 bath, 2 car, 462 sqm)
2 Hamilton Street Coogee NSW 2034 in November 2022 for $5,425,000 (6 bed, 3 bath, 1 car, 531 sqm)
245 Carrington Road Coogee NSW 2034 in August 2022 for $4,400,000 (6 bed, 3 bath, 3 car, 382sqm)
The sales campaign
The property came to market mid 2023, a time were the market did not have much momentum. Little stock, winter, school holidays and buyers unsure when the Reserve Bank might stop moving interest rates.
The property was marketed by local real estate agent, Home Estate Agents.
The campaign included four weeks on market and the property was guiding / had feedback around the $4,500,000 mark.
The Auction | 4 registered bidders | 3 active bidders
A solid turnout
There was absolutely a decent crowd at the auction, although it was a warm sunny winter’s day and neighbours are keen to see how markets are performing.
The auctioneer called for an opening bid around the mid $4 million mark. The usual silence followed.
Eventually bidder 1 opened with a $4,500,000 bid. After quite some time, there was an attempted bid of $10,000 but the auctioneer knocked it back. He asked for a $50,000 increase, and eventually almost begged them for a $25,000 increase. No cigar.
After nearly four minutes came a second bidder entering at $4,525,000.
Does slow and steady win the race?
Bidder 1 demonstrates that he has no intention of making a second bid. He was a one bid shot and prepared to walk away. The couple who earlier tried to bid a $10,000 then formally enter with a bid of $4,530,000. A $5,000 bid is accepted at the 5 minute mark purely to get some momentum going.
The vendors are on the auction floor and clearly not overly excited by the pace of the auction - it has taken eight minutes to get three bids!
Bidder two comes back with a $4,540,000 and we hit another stall period.
There is a bidder yet to make a bid who is apparently not happy with the pre agreed terms before the auction and has re-signalled her intention to bid with the agent if the settlement date can be adjusted.
The agent walk around…
Meanwhile the lead sales agent, John Castrisos, is busy walking around between the registered parties and the vendors trying to muster up as much competition as possible.
At this time, bidder 1, and the registered bidder who is yet to bid and not happy with the settlement terms, hand in their bidder cards and physically walk out of the auction. In fairness, for the pace of the auction, they probably did have other places to be.
After ten minutes, the auction is still at $4,540,000. It is clear at this price point it will only be passed in and is definitely not on the market.
Finally….
Bidder two and three then take a couple of last shots and bidder two holds it at $4,570,000. The agent has got the vendors to agree at this point to announce the property as on the market. Likely used as a strategy to try and entice bidder three to actually make another bid.
After fourteen pain staking minutes, the hammer finally folds for bidder two at $4,570,000. SOLD!
What does this result say about the current market?
While stock is low and opportunities such as 218 Oberon St Coogee do not come up often, the buyer behaviour of slow and reserved bidding was representative of current consumer confidence. The eventual sale price was consistent with the other comparable sales in the area over the last twelve months.