FAMILY HOOKED ON BELMONT
A FAMILY is following in each other’s footsteps to a hot part of the Belmont property market.
A bidder acting for his brother-in-law secured a three-bedroom weatherboard house at 29 Laura Ave at Saturday’s auction.
The 772sq m property sold for $586,000 in an auction that finished $56,000 above the vendor’s reserve price.
Bidder Steven Trotter said the buyers had inspected the property on Thursday.
“I’m buying for my brotherin-law. He’s in Melbourne at the moment working so they’ve been looking around for a while,” Mr Trotter said. “They came through here on Thursday night and gave me a call to bid for him.
“He’s planning to work on it over time. He’s mid-20s and will move down here with his partner.”
Mr Trotter said that the weatherboard house was very similar to his nearby renovation project.
“We’ve renovated ours and we live over in Hill St. The layout is slightly different but the era of it and everything about it just reminds us of ours when we bought it about four years ago,” he said.
“There’s even a fig tree out the back.”
There were two bidders for the property, which Barry Plant, Highton, auctioneer Kieron Hunter said offered plenty of potential.
“Everybody wants a property with options. There are options here to subdivide, to renovate and extend, to clear the block and build townhouses down the track and to lease it out with the Belmont High School zoning,” he said.
Mr Hunter was expecting far stronger interest from both investors and first-homebuyers before the auction.
The property had been offered with a $510,000 to $530,000 price range.
Belmont’s median house price has risen 3.7 per cent in 12 months to $555,000, according to Hometrack data.