Debra Bela

Updated 4 Dec 2022, 9:06am

First published 4 Dec 2022, 1:00am

News Corp Australia Network

Place auctioneer Paul Curtain introduces 38 Wendell St, Norman Park at the start of the hour-long auction. Picture: Debra Bela

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THE riverfront home of pioneering Brisbane real estate agent Bruce Blocksidge sold on Saturday for $6.68m in a one-hour marathon auction between three bidders.

38 Wendell St, Norman Park

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The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on 820sq m at 38 Wendell St, Norman Park, had been home to Bruce and his second wife Margaret for more than 30 years before Mr Blocksidge passed away just shy of his 95th birthday earlier this year.

“Mum and Bruce got married in the house, it was a second marriage for them both, and there were 200 guests,” stepson Michael Groom said.

Michael Groom at his parents riverside home in Norman Park. Picture: Zak Simmonds

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A crowd of 40 were present on Saturday as phone bidders took the property to auction, including a neighbour, a Sydney buyer, and a local bidder who was prepared to buy the property sight unseen.

“Compared to recent transactions, this is in the conversation of price for fundamentally what is being valued as land,” Place Estate Agents managing director and auctioneer, Paul Curtain, said. “The house as you can see is a lovely home but ultimately the parties that are most interested in it see it being recreated as a new home or homes given that it is on two lots.

“It shows that supply and demand is always in favour of people selling on the river.”

Mr Groom helped his mother organise the sale of the family home as she downsizes to a more manageable apartment in nearby Bulimba.

“The house is like being on holidays, and I still walk in and just take a moment to appreciate how special a spot it is, the way it overlooks two different reaches of the river and New Farm Park,” Mr Groom said.

The property has a slipway leading to the water.

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Place Bulimba managing director Sarah Hackett is a fellow Wendell St resident and welcomed four registered bidders and at least one conditional buyer to Saturday’s auction.

“It is beautiful as is but there is an opportunity to build your dream home here,” Ms Hackett said.

The phone bidder from Sydney opened the auction with an offer of $5.5m and 35 bid increases followed, some as low as $5000 as three active bidders tried to keep the price down in an indication that their interest was more in the view and the land size than the keys to a cherished family home.

“Let’s hope we don’t get down to $100,” Place auctioneer Paul Curtain said as he accepted a $5000 bid to take the home to $6.43m.

At $6.505m a time out was called and agents with phone bidders in their ears, paced around the riverside pool and pontoon deck area while across the river, market stalls at the Brisbane Powerhouse billowed in the wind and a CityCat pulled in to the New Farm ferry terminal.

The river kept moving as the auction paused to negotiate. Pictures: Debra Bela

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“I would have thought they were looking for $7m,” a buyer’s agent said before the time out was called.

During the break, Place Bulimba’s Lauren Marmotta took her phone down to the water’s edge to show one of the local buyers what they were bidding on.

Mr Curtain had to find a replacement auctioneer for his 11am auction as the Wendell St auction went for an hour. Picture: Debra Bela

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“They hadn’t seen it, they just had a baby so they’ve been tied up in baby land,” Ms Marmotta said. “That was why I tried to FaceTime him during the auction. We didn’t know they were interested until this morning.”

The auction resumed with an increased offer of $6.65m from a buyer who already lived on Wendell St, and the property was announced on the market.

The Sydney buyer bowed out of the auction and the couple buying sight unseen had two more attempts at securing the block before it sold to the neighbour for $6.68m.

“Bruce loved property, it was his life,” Mr Groom said. “And he loved how property has changed in Brisbane, and progressed to where it is today.”