Melbourne couple Amanda and Steve Hancock have fallen in love with Brisbane’s winter, and why wouldn’t you? It’s rainy in Melbourne and Sydney is going to be 10 degrees colder than Brisbane next week.
A Melbourne man discovered there are other benefits to buying a Brisbane property in the current market that go beyond the return potential of investing in an Olympic host city.
“Winning at auction on a Saturday is the best hangover cure ever!” Steven Hancock said after beating eight other bidders to buy a Tarragindi home for $1.5m.
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You can entertain at any time of the year in the back yard of 63 Salkeld St, Tarragindi.
Steve and Amanda Hancock moved up from Melbourne four weeks ago and had been staying with friends in Capalaba while they searched for a home.
They had a big night with those same friends on Friday and both arrived wearing dark sunnies for the auction of 63 Salkeld St, Tarragindi on Saturday morning.
But within half an hour they were sharing a can of Milton’s finest with sellers Dean and
Megan O’Neill as the new owners of the four-bedroom renovated home south of Brisbane.
Melbourne buyers bought 63 Salkeld St, Tarragindi at auction.
The couple, with two children, had never lived in Queensland but had been talking about moving for the past 12 months, and now they are here, the message to their fellow Melburnians is clear: “Pack up and move up, don’t regret a second of it,” Mrs Hancock said.
While Melbourne is auction central, Mr Hancock said there are differences in the Queensland market that have taken some time to get used to.
“We had no idea what the real prices were going to be because you can’t get a price guide for auctions here whereas in Victoria you legally have to provide a range when you sell a house, you pretty much know it’s going to go 10 per cent above the top range but here you have no idea.”
Around 60 people attended the auction which was held in the rear entertaining area.
Mr Hancock knocked out all but two of the remaining eight bidders when he kicked off the auction with a bid of $1.25m. A Stafford couple from Brisbane’s north side had set up their three-year-old twins with a picnic around the outdoor dining table and replied with a counter bid of $1.3m.
Four bids later, an Atlas Brisbane estate agent chimed in with a bid of $1.42m on behalf of a phone bidder, and the picnic table party began shuffling in their seats. But the Hancocks held on to the lead and at $1.49m, auctioneer Justin Nickerson paused the auction to negotiate between them and the sellers.
The auction resumed with an increased offer to $1.5m and was sold for that price to the Hancocks of Melbourne.
Ray White Sherwood – Graceville agent Jiggs Long said Queensland auctions are run differently to auctions in the southern states and take a bit of getting used to.
“In Melbourne you are given an indicative price range to understand your buying capacity, where in Queensland it’s a little bit cryptic,” he said.
“But if you ask the right questions to your agent, or reverse engineer the question you might get the information you want.”
But that didn’t stop another Melbourne family from making a strong impression at the auction of 20 Richmond St, Corinda on Saturday, beating 10 competing bidders to buy the two-storey, five-bedroom, renovated Queenslander for $1.361 million.
Melbourne buyers also bought 20 Richmond Street, Corinda.
Mr Long said the best way to prepare to buy property in Queensland is to look at comparable properties in the neighbourhood, understand the value of land in an area, and then go hard and fast at the auction.
“If you come in with a strong bid at the start, you shake a lot of people out of the tree,”
Mr Long said.
He said interstate buyers who had been renting in Brisbane, were now becoming active buyers.
“They are coming out of the woodwork now they’ve got a taste for the market in Brisbane and understand it more,” Mr Long said.
The auctions were among 79 held across Greater Brisbane on Saturday.
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