Hayley Granato cheers after winning the auction of 34 Killawarra Rd, Ashgrove. Photo: Debra Bela
AN ORIGINAL condition Ashgrove Queenslander that cost two years’ salary in 1972, has sold at auction for $1.31m, more than 13 times the average annual salary in Brisbane today.
It has been 48 years since this house last went to auction.
Real estate agents lost count of bidders who rushed to register for the auction of 34 Killawarra Road, Ashgrove in Brisbane’s inner west.
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“I can’t give you exact numbers, we had some late arrivals, you could say 12 to 14 bidders,” Ray White Lutwyche agent David Lazzarini said.
Yellow bidder paddles could be seen scattered through the crowd in the front yard of the 911sq m property.
“This is the strongest interest I’ve had in a property for quite some time due to the location and the land size and the prestige properties around it. It’s a grand Queenslander in good condition for it’s age. It’s 90 years old.”
The house as it looked when it was first built in circa-1930.
David and Alan Mooney’s mum and dad bought the three bedroom house at auction in 1972 for $16,000.
Alan and David Mooney with a framed copy of The Courier-Mail newspaper clipping that advertised the auction in 1972.
With their mother now settled in a nursing home, the brothers had tidied the house on its 911sq m elevated block before putting it on the market.
Inside the home at Killawarra Rd, Ashgrove.
In the auction crowd of more than 80 was Peter and Hayley Granato, whose own 1930s family home in Bardon had just gone under contract after an extensive renovation.
Hayley and Peter Granato after the auction.
“We’ve been looking for years really,” Mrs Granato said. “We renovated our last place and then had three babies and now the youngest is three so we thought maybe it’s time to renovate again.
“Pete’s cousin lives around the corner and it’s a great pocket for us, plus we needed something to move the kids into because we’ve just sold our house.”
Ray White New Farm principal and auctioneer Haesley Cush reminded everyone to social distance before starting the auction.
Bidding in the front yard started at $900,000 and rose in $50,000 lots with the Granatos joining the auction with a bid of $1.15 million. At $1.2m the property was announced on the market and bidding slowed with the Granatos bidding against a couple who currently live in Ashgrove but wanted an elevated position.
The property sits in the Avenues of Ashgrove and is only the second house to sell on Killawarra Rd in five years.
At $1.310m Ray White auctioneer Haesley Cush’s hammer fell and Mrs Granato fist-pumped the auction win.
Peter and Hayley Granato at the moment they won the auction of 34 Killawarra Rd, Ashgrove.
Property activity in Ashgrove has remained steady in the first half of 2020 compared to last year, with 115 houses selling in both periods, CoreLogic property data shows.
However the sales volume was 10 per cent higher in the first six months of 2018 when 129 houses sold.
The median sale price for houses in Ashgrove broke the $1 million mark in March and sustained that through the COVID-19 lockdown period during April, the latest property data shows.
October 2018 was the last time Ashgrove recorded a median sales price of $1 million.
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