Soccer dad scores: one win, one draw … one house for a suburb record

News Corp Australia Network

A DESIGNER home in Brisbane’s north has broken the suburb record for Wilston after selling at auction on Saturday.

Fewer than 40 houses have sold in the tightly held inner-city suburb this year and none of the calibre of 68 Angliss St, which was built for two doctors seven years ago.

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While Sydney father-of-four Andrew Sullivan was getting his kids ready for soccer 1000km away, REIQ 2022 Buyers Agent of the Year Melinda Jennison was standing in the rear entertaining area of the 730sq m Brisbane property with bidding paddle No.55, preparing to compete against six other bidders to buy the five-bedroom, tri-level home for her client.

“I wasn’t on the phone with her,” Mr Sullivan said.

“The first I knew was when they sent a message and then phoned through. I was trying to get the kids in the car to go to soccer. It was a great result; we won one game, drew the other … and bought a house.”

Ray White Wilston principal Alistair Macmillan worked with auctioneer Phil Parker on the sale, accepting an opening bid of $3.5m from another interstate buyer on the phone.

“We had three interstate buyers today, and the majority of our bidders were looking to embark on a new build or reno, and due to the rising construction costs, they’ve decided to buy something already finished,” Mr Macmillan said.

The auction went up in $100,000 bids, with Ms Jennison of Streamline Property Buyers Agents entering the bidding at $3.7m. At $3.9m, Ms Jennison offered a $30,000 increase on behalf of her Sydney client. Then a family from Samford, who were looking to move closer to town, added $70,000 to take the property to $4m. Ms Jennison replied with a bid of $4.02m and the auction paused to negotiate.

“The market is quite difficult to get a sense of at the moment,” Mr Sullivan said by phone afterwards. “We’ve been looking on and off for 12 months, both at auction and off market. With the last auction, I came up and bid myself.

“But we were relying on the buyer’s agents with this one.”

An increased offer of $4.2m was negotiated and auctioneer Phil Parker returned to the crowd to announce the property was on the market and selling. With no further bids, the house sold for that price to the Sydney buyers who are returning to Queensland.

The $4.2m sale price is $349,000 higher than the previous suburb record, that was set at $3.851m in 2017.

“I think that in the next few years we’ll see a higher volume of homes come to market in Wilston,” Mr Macmillan said.

“There is a demographic here where the kids have left, and they are empty nesters, they don’t require the big family home, and I’m in discussion with clients now about selling homes in the next year or so. So we’ll see some amazing properties here soon.”

The sale was the first of two for the Streamline Property team on Saturday who also bought 57 Gilbert Rd, Windsor at auction for a client for $1.152m.