This house at 128 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington sold at auction fro $1.262 million.
COVID-19 cancelled his August wedding but Jackson Tobin was determined to buy a house for his would-be bride at auction on Saturday, far away from where they are currently in lockdown.
“It’s been raining all morning,” Mr Tobin said from his home in Melbourne. “We’d just had breakfast and decided to go back to bed, wait for the rain to stop and bid at the auction before we do our one hour of exercise together.”
A relaxed back deck with views over the neighbourhood.
Mr Tobin was one of 12 bidders to register to buy the three-bedroom Queensland cottage at 128 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington, at auction, with Ray White Paddington’s Judi O’Dea calling him her “favourite lockdown person”.
Interested parties gather in the backyard before the auction begins.
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“I’m determined to find him a house,” Ms O’Dea said. “And this is a hot property, particularly with families.”
“He bid at an auction last weekend, he’s been looking for three months and he had to cancel his wedding a couple of weeks back because of the lockdown.”
128 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington
As soon as auctioneer Justin Nickerson called for the opening bid, Mr Tobin threw $800,000 on the table, via a phone bid.
“I know first-hand, people are telling me straight up that they’re moving to Brisbane as soon as they can,” Mr Tobin said. “It’s at the point where I’m not even showing them the houses we’re looking at in case they go for the same property, and I’m pretty sure they’re doing the same thing.
“May the best person win and may that person be me.”
An answering bid of $900,000 came from a couple under the swing set in the backyard of the 357sq m inner-city property.
Mr Tobin answered with $950,000 and then a third bidder raised the property to $1m, already more than double the price Jonathan and Jessica Grealy paid for the property in 2005.
Jonathan and Jessica Grealy with their daughter Mya, 9, sell their home at 128 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington.
“I always wanted to create something that feels really comfortable and homely and relaxing and that is how it’s been for all of us,” Mrs Grealy said.
Brett and Rita Lawrie were also standing under the swing set. They were looking for their next family home in proximity to a block of units which Rita’s parents had built in the area.
“We live just down the road,” Mr Lawrie said.
The kitchen at 128 Kennedy Terrace.
At $1.175m Mr Lawrie entered the auction, joining five other active bidders among the crowd of more than 60 gathered under the back deck, on the kerb and in the backyard.
Five minutes into the auction a seventh bidder, on the phone from Taringa in Brisbane’s inner west, entered the auction with a bid of $1.22m.
Auctioneer Justin Nickerson looks toward the Taringa phone bidder during the auction of 128 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington.
“He was in love with this property,” Ms O’Dea said. “Not the typical profile, the family is a little older.”
At $1.255m with the family from Taringa in front, the auction was paused to seek instructions from the sellers. The house was announced on the market and after a short volley of bids, the house sold for $1.262m to the family from Taringa.
“That’s okay, we’re looking at Gordon Park and Nundah next, with the help of in-laws who are our eyes up there,” Mr Tobin said.
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“The bids started to creep up, it was about $100,000 over where we wanted to go.
“Those more sought-after inner-city pockets are getting a bit more up there.”
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