This home at 34 Annie Street, Auchenflower went to auction on Saturday after being in the one family for more than 50 years.
TWENTY-one registered bidders were not enough to stop an inner-city house from passing in at auction after bidding stalled at $840,000.
In one of the first Public Trustee auctions since the statutory authority returned to the market following the COVID-19 lockdown in Queensland, only three people raised their bidder cards to take part in the auction of 34 Annie Street, Auchenflower.
“(With Public Trustee auctions) people think they’re going to get a massive bargain but our role is to look after the seller’s interest. So we sell for what’s fair on the market,” Public Trustee director of property Joanne Edsor said.
But after closing the auction and thanking the crowd of 100 for their attendance, auctioneer and agent Paul Gaffney scrambled to secure a deal and within five minutes the property was sold under auction conditions for $860,000 to the family who made the opening bid.
Southerners buying in Queensland sight unseen
Public Trustee auctioneer and selling agent Paul Gaffney at the auction of 34 Annie Street, Auchenflower.
“We did 19 auctions last weekend and we sold 13 of them, half of those, the first person to bid ended up buying the house,” Mr Gaffney said.
The reserve had been set at $900,000.
The crowd gathers before the auction begins.
Standing on the street in the middle of the crowd was freight train driver Anton Bubrle who had been looking after his mother’s two-bedroom house in Auchenflower since Ludmila Bartunek moved into a nursing home two years ago.
Anton and Bianca Bubrle in the house Anton grew up in.
“I have very mixed feelings, I grew up here. It’s sad, a chapter of my life is gone,” Mr Bubrle said. “It cost us $9000 at the time (in 1969). But mum isn’t moving back and it’s time. Anything around here is redone to such a high standard, it’s become a very rich area. Trust me, we weren’t rich when we moved in.”
SEE WHAT ELSE IS FOR SALE IN AUCHENFLOWER
But the memories of his mother’s famous homemade cheesecakes and pork schnitzel that she used to make for the Czech Club, and the creaking of a particular floorboard at the entrance to the living room, will never be forgotten.
The kitchen was where everyone came to chat while Ludmila Bartunek would make her famous Czech food.
“I’ve always liked the sound of that crack, for me it sounds like home,” Mr Bubrle’s wife Bianca said. “I noticed it the first time I came to visit Anton in 1994.”
The property was one of more than 50 to go to auction across Brisbane yesterday.
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