16 Moss Street Prahran.
Position AAA+++ in Melbourne real estate and a most fascinating auction. Marshall White’s John Manton began the campaign quoting $1.6m and auctioneer John Bongiorno opened the bidding with a vendor bid of $1.7m.

Spirited bidding by two parties was strong with $50,000 bids, down to 25’s, then 10’s, then 5’s. After two breaks, the second of which was about ten minutes, the property was passed in to the highest bidder at $2.125m and reported as sold for $2.13m. Again, a crowd of about forty people were in attendance. We rated this home at 751/1000 and it is a special inner urban period residence. No downstairs bedroom is a drawback; however, lots of positives; location, period features, off street parking for probably three cars, two courtyards and a great use of natural light, despite its south facing rear orientation.

99 Manning Road Malvern East.
This period home on the eastern side of Bourke Road was quoted at $1.2m by Marshall White agent Anthony Reis. Great facade, but not updated to suit everybody. We rated the home at 754/1000, strengths being location, land size and orientation.

Weaknesses may have been no grass for the kids to play in and the school at the rear. A crowd of about seventy people attended the auctioned, conducted by John Bongiorno. Opening with a vendor bid of $1.2m, three bidders advanced the price from $1.2m to $1.3m, from then on two bidders fought it out in bids of $1,000 to $1.332m, the winner issuing a knockout $3,000 bid to silence his competitor, buying the home at $1.335m. Attended by six or seven Marshall White agents who worked the two bidders very well – the under bidder issued his final bid at least three times and each time was encouraged to stay in the race, to the benefit of vendor who no doubt is now about $30,000 better off due to the agents. Even the eventual buyer was encouraged to stay in it after a couple of times indicating he was out.
A fair result, given 99 Manning Road sold in May for $1.3m on slightly smaller land and the market has had the jitters in the last month or so.
67 Kerferd Street Malvern East.
Price, Property, Position. I thought this home ticked all three. Agent Andrew McCann of Bennison Mackinnon was quoting $1.5m pre auction and this did not strike me as being over the top.

Gasgoine Estate, period home, north facing rear, land not huge, surrounded by good quality homes.No under cover car accomodation may have put some people off. Auction opened on a vendor bid of $1.45m and closed on a vendor bid of $1.5m, without a single bid made from the crowd of about forty people. We rated this home at 777/1000 and wouldn’t expect it to be on the market for too much longer. A large number of homes have been sold in that precinct recently with some serously good prices. 67 Kerferd is almost entry level for a period home in an around Central Park.

Some other Malvern East (Central Park precinct) results from the last few months –
Address                         Date                      Land                   Price                Price per sqm
28 Central Park Road      1/3/08                   756 sqm               $2,487,500           $3,290
14 Turner Street               15/3/08                587 sqm               $1,905,000           $3,245
75 Kerferd Street             19/4/08                902 sqm               $2,460,000           $2,727
77 Kerferd Street             3/5/08                   872 sqm               $3,275,000           $3,756
64 Beaver Street              12/5/08                936 sqm               $3,325,000           $3,352
70 Coppin Street              19/5/08                906 sqm               $2,375,000           $2,621

67 Kerferd Street at $1,500,000 equates to about $2,800 per sqm, which does seem like  unreasonable buying, given that some people may want to update it.