A FINAL bid of $100 sealed the deal at the auction of award-winning Built By Eli builder Eli Conroy's home in Mayfield East on Wednesday evening.
The home, which had been renovated and extended by Conroy, at 8 Kitchener Parade in Mayfield East sold under the hammer for a suburb record of $1,821,700.
It smashed the previous record of $1.75 million for a five-bedroom home on a 1,056 square metre block at 13 Margaret Street in 2022.
"People talk about a slowing market but great homes will always fetch a high price and this is a testament to that," listing agent Joel Soldado from Harcourts Newcastle said.
"The quality was there, it was an exceptional home and it was one-of-a-kind.
"That's what people like, they want something that no one else has got and Eli did such a lovely job that people saw that and were happy to pay for it."
Mr Soldado said the property had attracted strong interest since it went on the market in January.
"We had 120 groups throughout the property throughout the campaign so that was big, big numbers," he said.
"For a three-week campaign, it was spectacular."
Despite torrential rain across Newcastle earlier in the day, the agent said the on-site auction still attracted around 50 people including seven registered bidders.
The property: A renovated four-bedroom, one-bathroom 1920s bungalow owned by Built By Eli founder/builder Eli Conroy. Features include a kitchen with custom-made spotted gum cabinetry and gold-flecked quartz, an undercover alfresco area with a rooftop succulent garden and a saltwater pool.
The agent and agency: Joel Soldado from Harcourts Newcastle.
How many registered bidders? We had seven registered bidders including local buyers and a couple from out of town. We essentially had two very emotional buyers going toe-to-toe. The one that ended up buying is an industrial commercial electrician and he has always worked in the industrial area not too far from the house. Growing up, his favourite street was always Kitchener Parade with the big trees lining the street, with nice homes and big blocks so that was always his dream to live there and he certainly got it.
How did the auction unfold? We had 13 bids in total. The opening bid was $1.6 million. We then went straight to $1.7 million, so it moved pretty fast. It went up to $1.5 million and it was really quick. At one stage we were selling it for $1.82 million and the bidder said 'Mate, what about 500 bucks?' so it went up $500 and then the last bid was a $100 bid. The final price was $1,821,700.
Why was this property special? It's an exceptional family home and when you're there you kind of forget where you are. The auctioneer's words were that he felt like he could be in Byron Bay or Bali, and that's what the home does. It takes you to a different place and buyers felt that.
Was the result a surprise? I wasn't surprised because it was an exceptional home. But as an agent, you never really know. The house that held the suburb record sold in a higher market and it was a much larger home on a bigger parcel of land but this one had the quality and all of those attributes that pulled on the heartstrings. I was hoping to break the suburb record because I knew I had an exceptional home but we were extremely realistic from the start, We started guiding the property from $1.5 million to $1.65 million and we built the momentum from there throughout the campaign. The reserve was $1.7 million so we were extremely realistic and the market spoke.
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