Lucky eights drive a record sale price

Chinese buyers, keen to pursue the lucky symbols associated with a Blackburn North property in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, helped push its price $150,000 past the reserve over the weekend.

There were 10 bidders for 98 Shafer Road - which is on 588 square metres - many of them attracted by the auspicious number eights in its address.

Fletchers director Tim Heavyside said the price was a record for Shafer Road and while Blackburn is very popular, this house "attracted huge Chinese interest because it featured so many number eights".

Melbourne's auction market maintained its buoyant position over the weekend, while Sydney pulled back slightly with buyers nervous about stoking a new boom.

Sydney's auction clearance rate fell two points to 82 per cent, according to data from Australia Property Monitors, while Melbourne posted 75 per cent, up one point from last weekend. Melbourne's data, from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, was based on 555 results, of which 137 properties passed in, 86 on a vendor bid. There are 75 results still to be reported, which will likely result in a lower clearance rate.

Sydney's inner west continued to perform strongly. The most expensive house sold at the weekend was 97 Newton Road in Strathfield, which fetched $3.22 million through Devine Real Estate.

Reece Theedam, from Haus Real Estate, sold 7 Myrna Road in Strathfieldfor $2 million.

Strathfield's good private and public schools and university attract strong buyer demand, he said.

"Doctors have kept Strathfield alive," he said. "My last few transactions were all to doctors.

"What's happened out here is the market's been very hot, but some buyers are starting to back off because they think it's too hot."

And the more expensive the properties, the fewer the bidders.

Jake Rowe from McGrath Manly did not get a single bid for a harbour front property at 99 Stuart Street, Manly. It passed in at $3.4 million.

"We're in negotiations with three buyers," Mr Rowe said. "It's much harder to get people to put their hands up at that level."

One of the most prominent properties to pass in at the weekend was in Melbourne. The Elsternwick mansion owned by nightclub owner Nick Zampelis passed in on a vendor bid of $6 million. The eight-bedroom house at 30 Elizabeth St, Elsternwick, is on a 2947 square metre block with a garden originally planted by early 20th-century landscape designer Edna Walling.

Biggin & Scott agent Bill Stavrakis said the property had a reserve of $5.95 million. He is in negotiations with three parties who all expressed interest before the auction. Marshall White director John Bongiorno had four buyers for a 1920s era double-storey house in Toorak at 217 Kooyong Road.

On the market at $3.55 million, it sold for $3.865 million after an auction that took nearly an hour.

In Glen Waverley, private school Wesley College sold 11 blocks of land from the edge of its suburban campus, fetching a total of $13.08 million. The lots, at 109-119 Rose Avenue, were about 730 square metres and sold between $1.14 million and $1.315 million through Barry Plant.

Developers pushed hard for a brick veneer house at 36 Sargood Street, Altona.

Sweeney director Paul Lindemann said five bidders fought for the property, which is on 1133 square metresof land near Altona railway station.

It sold for $1.18 million, well over the $950,000 reserve.



Sunday sales

BALACLAVA

SO 50 Gourlay St WB 6rm 470sqm $1,225,000 Wilson

CAULFIELD

SO 15 Cranham St B 6rm 613sqm undisc Gary Peer & Associates

CAULFIELD NORTH

SO 363 Glen Eira Rd B 10rm undisc

CAULFIELD SOUTH

SO 21 Clarinda St 7rm undisc

SO 3 Leopold St 8rm 650sqm $1,543,000 hockingstuart

GARDENVALE

SO 55 Gardenvale Rd B 500sqm undisc Rodney Morley Persichetti

GLEN HUNTLY

SO 1/132 Booran Rd BV 5rm strata $637,500 Hodges

ST KILDA EAST

SO 328 Inkerman St 7rm 568sqm $1,200,000 hockingstuart

PI 6 Wavenhoe Av B 5rm 708sqm $1,200,000 VB res $1,360,000 Gary Peer & Associates