93 Blue Gum Road, Jesmond
An auction at Jesmond attracted spirited bidding on Saturday with a total of 91 bids recorded before the property sold under the hammer for $790,500.
We spoke with listing agent John Kerr from Dalton Partners about the result.
The property: A three-bedroom, one-bathroom weatherboard house on 800 square metres with a 20 metre frontage. The house was guided with $600,000.
The agent: John Kerr from Dalton Partners.
The result: The property sold under the hammer for $790,500.
What was the reserve price? The reserve was $650,000.
How many registered bidders were at the auction? There were six people that registered to buy it. Two were from Sydney and the other four were local buyers.
What made this property special? The size of the block was encouraging developers for university accommodation and that sort of thing. Some of the bidders were planning to buy it and land bank it, but some were going to buy it and build townhouses on the block. The buyer said he will build it specifically for university accommodation. It is typical of Sydney buyers coming to Newcastle saying 'Isn't this cheap?' but it's cheap compared to Sydney, not cheap compared to Newcastle. It worked beautifully on Saturday for us.
How did the auction unfold? Bidding opened at $600,000 and 91 bids later it ended up at $790,500. Four bidders played along for a little while and then they were knocked out so there were two buyers from Sydney battling it out. They were bidding bids of $500, $100, $1000 and so on. We had some bids of $100 and then some of $500. We were way past the reserve at this stage so we were just going along with them until one of them declared 'I'm out now'. The bidding went on for a good 20 minutes in total. Twenty minutes is a long time when you're bidding. If you get three or four or five or six or seven bids, it's all over in a few minutes. It was at least 20 minutes of back and forth. It just flowed and we got them hungry. I've never had an auction with 91 bids before.
Was the result a surprise? I'm not sure if it was a surprise but we got excellent money for the block. In Newcastle, we are fairly insulated in the property market. We are getting out-of-town buyers coming along and buying property, and we are getting people that want to live in Newcastle. This is a prime example. that we are getting money out of Sydney. The house is on a busy road but it's got the University, it's got Jesmond Centre, it's got the hospital nearby and public transport. It has all of the above. Yes, it's a busy road but if you've got buyers coming from Sydney that doesn't bother them.
