A Brisbane bidder has paid $4.9 million for an iconic house opposite where he grew up, yet he almost skipped the auction.
Agent Alistair Macmillan of Ray White Wilston says that when the buyer was a youngster, he was friends with a child of the owner and spent time at the home.
Despite a strong connection to the grand 1920s property, the buyer was nearly a no-show.
“He texted me on the morning of the auction, apologising for not coming back to me and saying that he wasn’t going to be at the auction,” Macmillan says. “But we got him there … he rocked up with his wife and registered, and ended up owning it 40 minutes later.”
Four bidders registered for the auction and two took part.
The Newmarket sale contributed to Brisbane’s 21 per cent clearance rate on the weekend. Agents scheduled 167 auctions and reported 122 results to Domain, with 26 sold, 20 withdrawn and 76 passed in.
Macmillan says the buyer and his family were “stoked” to become the new owners.
“I don’t think they attended the auction with the expectation they were going to buy it,” he says.
The auction opened with a bid of $4 million and increased in $100,000 increments until the price reached $4.6 million. At that point, the auction paused, and during a 30-minute negotiation, the buyer increased his bid to $4.9 million. The home was announced on the market, and the hammer dropped.
The vendors also lived across the street from the home before they bought it in 2009. The six-bedroom house has a wine cellar, a pool, multiple living spaces and retreats and vast city views.
“It’s an iconic residence for our marketplace,” Macmillan says. “Watson Street is by far the most prestigious street in our area, and this particular property has just got so much presence from the street.
“To get a house on Watson Street is very challenging in itself, but to get a property like this on 1200 square metres with a grand, big Queenslander is incredibly challenging – so the interested buyers were all locals who knew the home really well, walked past it and admired it for many years. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
11 Watson Street, Newmarket QLD 4051
With its barley-twist pillars, decorative plasterwork and “sweetly nostalgic pastel bathroom”, as the listing put it, 3 Morgan Street is a treasure trove of authentic flair. It fetched $1.61 million under the hammer, against a published reserve of $1.5 million.
Melbourne’s clearance rate was 59 per cent, with 427 reported results from the 628 auctions scheduled. Domain shows 252 properties sold, 79 were withdrawn and 96 were passed in.
Woodards Carnegie and Bentleigh agent Benjamin Dax says Morgan Street is desirable and tightly held due to its preserved period homes, and neighbours past and present came to watch the sale.
“We had people who used to own in the street, who we sold homes for years ago, attend the auction – that’s the kind of street it is,” Dax says. “It’s a very long-term decision. The family who owned it had been there for decades.”
Bidding kicked off at $1.4 million and rapidly reached the reserve. “It was pretty fast and furious,” Dax says. “Because [the two families] both had budgets at that level, they just kept competing pretty quickly.”
“Both were young couples with very young children and looking for a forever home – buy, move in, and then in time and when finance allows, extend further.”
The auction was so quick, a couple of other prospective buyers didn’t get a chance to bid, Dax says.
The winning bidders, a local family, paid $2.11 million for the deceased estate at 61 Laycock Street. They were fought to the finish by another family. Four bidders were active, including a developer, from nine who registered.
The property had a guide of $1.8 million during the campaign. The auction started with a bid of $1.75 million, and coasted along in increments of $25,000 until $1.95 million, when it tightened to $10,000 bids. It was called on the market at $1.9 million.
Less than half of Sydney’s auction vendors were toasting a sale, and the weekend clearance rate only reached 48 per cent. Of the 964 scheduled auctions and 582 results reported to Domain, 281 properties sold, 222 were withdrawn and 79 passed in.
However, agent Trent Tarbey of McGrath Sans Souci says his auction had a competitive edge. “It was a healthy campaign with healthy bidding – not a sign of the current market,” he says.
“It felt like it was back to 2025, but it was a good house on a good block of land in a good street. It was a deceased estate, so I had owners who were realistic about selling and wanted to meet the market.”
Tarbey says developers were drawn to the 15.24-metre frontage, and families appreciated that they could get more land for their money than in neighbouring Earlwood, and Marrickville.
“It is one the premier streets of Bexley North, with very close proximity to the Inner West, so we drew attention from some of our Inner West buyers,” he says.
Emily Power Emily Power has been a newsroom journalist for almost 20 years. She was previously the editor of Domain magazine in Melbourne, and is a specialist in property reporting.
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