![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7b851c417d189a0af91b8e82d460bae6c0e27460.png\")
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July 27, 2026 \u2014 11:51am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n A first home buyer paid $722,500 for an updated three-bedroom apartment in North Melbourne at auction on Saturday, using the federal government\u2019s 5 per cent deposit scheme<\/a>, after the vendor cut their reserve to sell.<\/p>\n Three parties registered to bid for the well-presented home with a balcony and leafy outlook at 5\/55 Haines Street, although one didn\u2019t turn up.<\/p>\n The property was one of 692 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne last week. By Saturday evening, Domain Group had recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 55 per cent from 464 reported results throughout the week, while 94 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.<\/p>\n Two potential buyers arrived for the auction of the North Melbourne apartment, which was on a stratum title<\/a>, which means each owner in the building has a title to their apartment but holds shares in a company that manages common areas, instead of an owners corporation.<\/p>\n The buyer made a genuine bid of $690,000, below the price guide of $700,000 to $730,000.<\/p>\n Related Article With no further offers, the home was passed in. The reserve had been $735,000 but the buyer and vendors reached an agreement in post-auction negotiations.<\/p>\n There is no legal requirement for a vendor\u2019s reserve to be in line with their property\u2019s price guide.<\/p>\n Jellis Craig Fitzroy selling agent Trevor Gange said the vendors live in New Zealand and no longer require the property, which was recently rented.<\/p>\n Interest in the home was largely from first home buyers, except for one investor who didn\u2019t turn up, Gange said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is still a challenging market. There are still deals being done,\u201d he said. \u201cBuyers feel like they have more power.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a great market to buy in. There is always people who want to sell, and to buy in a challenging market is better than to buy in a rising market.\u201d<\/p>\n An unliveable East Melbourne fixer-upper sold for $2 million, well above its reserve price of $1,625,000.<\/p>\n Related Article The three-bedroom terrace at 146 Simpson Street was listed with a price guide of between $1.55 million and $1.65 million.<\/p>\n Four parties bid, starting from $1.4 million, in $50,000 increments to the bottom of the price guide.<\/p>\n Then the stride shortened to a mix of $10,000 and $5000 offers, and two parties fought it out over the last $300,000.<\/p>\n Ray White CRE\u2019s Toby Campbell described the sale as a \u201cbrilliant result\u201d after the home was in one family for 85 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was above their wildest hopes,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThe house is totally unliveable. You can\u2019t move in. Some of the floors are collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n Interest came mostly from parties looking to renovate the home themselves, Campbell said, and they were attracted to the single-level layout in a sought-after suburb. One builder-developer bid.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The buyers are a couple who intend to renovate but are unsure if they would move in or sell it, Campbell said.<\/p>\n He estimated it would need $1 million in renovation works to make it \u201cliveable\u201d and $1.5 million spent to make it \u201cnice\u201d.<\/p>\n In Melbourne\u2019s west, a family paid $858,000 to upsize to a five-bedroom house in Hoppers Crossing.<\/p>\n The well-presented home at 41 Birchwood Boulevard was listed with a price guide of $790,000 to $850,000. The reserve was $840,000.<\/p>\n Ray White Hoppers Crossing principal director Shahid Khan said the home didn\u2019t sell when it was previously offered to the market. But after some updates, such as rendering and work on the gutters, and a relaunch, the home sold within 25 days.<\/p>\n Khan said some buyers worried that small issues could have major costs to fix, but the refurbishments allayed those concerns.<\/p>\n Related Article Six parties bid on the Hoppers Crossing home, beginning at $770,000 and rising in $10,000 offers to $800,000.<\/p>\n It then increased in $5000 and $1000 offers. An attempt to place a $100 bid was rejected.<\/p>\n The new owners are moving from a three-bedroom to a five-bedroom house.<\/p>\n \u201cThey like the location and want to stay in the same area,\u201d Khan said.<\/p>\n The vendors are moving to be closer to their children\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n Khan said the market was all right in the $700,000-to-$750,000 range but slower above.<\/p>\n Sellers have the most success with buyers \u201cif a property is priced well and they can see the value, especially with the land\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n LJ Hooker head of research Mathew Tiller said Melbourne\u2019s auction clearance rate showed the market was \u201ca little bit soft at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the 55 per cent result demonstrates that there still are sales occurring and people turning up to auctions,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not a dire result but a little bit soft.\u201d<\/p>\n Tiller said the number of properties coming onto the market was slowing down as owners hesitated amid the economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785139047_874_99f7e60c4394111dc80c2cb4d385f5dfcdc62005.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785058394_908_e2bca84c0231af8fb9cfb4acb30faa7bb0002774.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Home](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/79d0cbd435794e9d6353157dbfc650e77b47fefa.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7b851c417d189a0af91b8e82d460bae6c0e27460.png\")
Elizabeth Redman<\/a> is the national property editor at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 27, 2026 \u2014 11:51am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-826509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}