The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house on Memorial Ave was bought for $3.25m as three bidders tried to out do each other at the auction.
Bayleys listing agent Sarah Eastmond told OneRoof the bidding was calculated and considered.
“It was one bid and then a big pause, another bid and then a big pause,” she said of the tense five-minute-long auction.
After an opening bid of $2.2m, the bidders kept the pressure on and the property was declared on the market at $3.2m. Two final gambits of $25,000 saw the hammer come down at $3.25m.
The vendors, who are shifting to Australia, bought the house in 2018 for $1.38m but had made significant improvements, installing a heated swimming pool and cabana, renovating the kitchen, adding an extension, and resurfacing the tennis courts, One Roof reported.
“Good quality properties are always going to attract good interest,” Eastmond said.
The land size of 1510sq m was also a factor.
“There have been a lot of beautiful properties around the 1000sq m mark that have sold in the last 12 months for between $2m and $3m, but just not that large a parcel,” she said.
The executive home was also set back at the end of a cul-de-sac and backed onto Cobham Intermediate and Burnside Primary.
Eastmond said although the property was zoned for the city’s most popular state schools, most of the families who had shown interest had their children enrolled in the nearby private schools, and a local family ended up winning it.
Also attracting heat at the Bayleys auction were two established homes on nearby streets. A four-bedroom, two-bathroom house on a 635sq m section on Rossall St sold for $1.95m (above its RV of $1.47m), and a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Wai-iti Tce sold for $1.725m (above its RV of $1.68m).