8 Harriet Street Marrickville Auction
This auction proves the market is currently sitting right where it was in March 2021... which puts buyers in a very dangerous predicament
The property
8 Harriet Street Marrickville is a free standing, 4 bedroom home on a relatively large block of 372sqm. The location for Marrickville is excellent.
The property was presented in an original but completely liveable condition. It came with potential to either modernise the home, or for a developer to consider turning the site into a duplex.
The current owner had purchased it 10 years ago for $1,065,000 and it looks like it was only ever an investment property for them.
Price Guide
The price guide was in the high $1's, reflective of similar properties that had sold at the end of 2022.
The property was available off market from December 2022, and officially came on market in February 2023. Standard campaign and auction took place 15th March 2023.
The Auction | Active bidders
Four active bidders at the auction
Person 1 who opened the bidding at $1.8m, and drops out just over $2,200,000.
Person 2 joined the race and increased bids in $50k and $25k increments, dropping out somewhere just over $2m.
Person 3 joins in at around the $2m mark and looks to almost have it at $2,235,000.
Person 4 joins the bidding at $2,236,000 with a $1,000 bid. It seemed there whole strategy was to only ever bid in $1,000 increments. Not a great strategy and ultimately did not pay off for them.
The result
After person 4 decided they didn’t have another $1,000 to take it over $2.3m, it sold to person 3 for $2,300,000.
Is deja vu in the air?
In March 2021, Marrickville had 4 properties sell that were all comparable to 8 Harriet St. All four bedroom, similar size land, potentially even a slightly better quality.
2 Bayley St Marrickville sold for $2,210,000
6 East St Marrickville sold for $2,280,000
349 Enmore Road Marrickville sold for $2,300,000
27A Henson Street Marrickville sold for $2,304,000
The point being, the purchase of 8 Harriet St Marrickville in March 2023, has put the buyer in the same position as if they had bought in March 2021 (except their loan is starting on an interest rate that is 6% and not 2%!)
The current median house price in Marrickville is $1.64m. This is eerily exactly where the market was 2 years ago. It peaked at $2m in Nov 2021.
The other key metric is % of stock on market. March 2021 this was 3.22%, peaking at 4.05% in August 2022, and is now back down to 3.51%.
I do not have a crystal ball!
It does not feel like 2023 is going to boom at the same rate as 2021 simply due to the tighter credit environment we are in, however, it does feel like the market has passed the bottom. At least when it comes to houses, well located 7km from the CBD and suitable to a family home.
I doubt we will see another 4 bedroom freestanding Marrickville family home on 372 sqm or more, sell this year for under $2,300,000.
The data lags the market on the ground, and the media lags the data. If you wanted to time the bottom of the market, you might just find you’ve missed it.
Source: Core Logic
