Debra Bela

Updated 28 Apr 2023, 3:04pm

First published 28 Apr 2023, 1:00pm

News Corp Australia Network

This property at 26 Wynnum Rd, Norman Park has just sold at auction.

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More bidders than the Ray White Collective Group has seen in a year took part in a Brisbane auction event on Thursday night but the under-the-hammer clearance rate was ‘lower than it should have been, considerably’.

Around 200 people attended Thursday night’s auction event, almost a third of whom were bidderS. Picture: Instagram, Ray White New Farm

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As many as 70 bidders signed up to buy homes in Brisbane’s inner city with the auction event kicking off at 6pm at the Calile Hotel in Fortitude Valley, but only three of the 19 listings sold under the hammer with a further two selling prior to auction.

Ray White agents were seen pacing the Calile Hotel pool deck as late as 10.30pm in a bid to secure post-auction deals for the remaining 14 homes that had passed in for between $1.9m and $5.5m.

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“Last night we saw a lower clearance rate (16 per cent under the hammer) but that was reflected on the sellers’ confidence, it wasn’t because of a lack of interest or lack of buyers,” Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush said. “It was our biggest registered bidder night in over a year.”

Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush in action during the evening event. Picture: Instagram, Ray White New Farm

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Mr Cush refuted the suggestion that buyers had signed up to find a bargain.
“When you have that many bidders, you’ve got the weight of the market,” Mr Cush said. “It’s probably an oxymoron to have 12 registered bidders and think that you’ll get a bargain.

There was high energy from the crowd. Picture: Instagram, Ray White New Farm

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“It was purely built on the confidence of sellers saying there is strong bidding, but we are backing in our property and we believe we’ll get the right price for our property in the coming days or week.”

It was almost an hour before the hammer fell on the first sale of the evening, a three-bedroom Kangaroo Point apartment that was the ninth property on the sales list.

25/76 Thorn St, Kangaroo Point.

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The top floor residence at 25/76 Thorn St attracted 9 bidders with the auction opening at $725,000. The home was called on the market at $865,000 and 11 bids increased this offer by $21,000 before Mr Cush’s yellow gavel fell on an $886,000 sale.

An hour later, a riverfront home at 26 Wynnum Rd, Norman Park sold for $5.8m in the richest auction result of the night.

26 Wynnum Rd, Norman Park

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While the auction of a Teneriffe house created a logistical challenge for agents when bidding paused at $2.5m and the two lead bidders and the seller left the venue to have dinner.

13 Mole St, Teneriffe.

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The buyers resumed the auction after dinner but as phone bidders, requiring a different set of permissions to be granted in order to bid remotely. Both eventually submitted increased offers and the four-bedroom house, at 13 Mole St, Teneriffe, sold under the hammer for $2.65m.

After an early morning briefing on Friday, Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush said the team expected all but four of the remaining properties to sell for more than their highest auction bid in the next seven days.

“Today we will see the full power of these buyers, what they would have paid, and that will meet seller expectation and they will act,” Mr Cush said.

Of the homes still being negotiated is 24 Griffith St, New Farm where Ray White New Farm principal Matt Lancashire brought 12 registered bidders to the auction with bidding starting at $4.75m before the four-bedroom house passed in at $5.5m.

24 Griffith St, New Farm is still for sale.

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Ray White New Farm’s Christine Rudolph took an entire floor of apartments at 15 Julius St, New Farm to auction with the properties passing in with a vendor bid of $4.5m.

5 and 6 of 15 Julius St, New Farm is still on the market.

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And 44 Crase St, Teneriffe was passed in at $5.49m, also through Matt Lancashire.

44 Crase St, Teneriffe is now for sale by negotiation.

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* The Ray White Collective Group is made up of Ray White New Farm, Bulimba, Toowong, Clayfield, Spring Hill and East Brisbane.