Dilapidated Sydney house sells for $4.1m

This dilapidated 'time capsule' house sold for $3.87m will be bulldozed for an apartment block. Photo / Google

Crazy house sales in Sydney this weekend, which netted vendors millions above their reserve prices, saw one dilapidated wreck destined for the bulldozer smash expectations by almost A$2 million ($2.1m).

The Victorian era "time capsule", which is lined with layers of period wallpaper, stunned homebuyers when bids leapt A$1.8m above its reserve at a thrilling auction yesterday.

Up to six bidders stayed in the race down to the wire to buy the house which eventually sold for A$3.87m ($4.1m), the Sunday Telegraph reported.

"In the 37 years I've been in real estate, it was one of the hottest auctions I've experienced," said Michael Marano of Oxford Real Estate, who handled the sale.

Already set among unit blocks, the Victoria era house will be razed and replaced with a four-storey apartment block.

Developers outbid homebuyers as bids raced past the A$2.1m reserve set by the NSW Trustee and Guardian.

The four bedroom house, which has three marble fireplaces and has been in the one family for 90 years, will now be bulldozed to make way for an apartment block.

Set amid apartments blocks, the deceased estate at 5 George Street, Marrickville in Sydney's inner western suburbs, will be replaced by four levels of units on the 860sq m block.

The sale was triple the suburb's median house price of A$1.375m.

Another house which shattered its reserve price was Nirvana, a grand 1898 home in the lower North shore Sydney waterfront suburb of Longueville.

One of the area's oldest houses, it sold for A$5.05m after agents had priced its reserve at between A$3.5 and A$3.8m.

Inspired by the lush gardens on the 1563 sq m block, formal verandas and classic Federation features, bidders easily overtook the reserve until the final hammer.

Saturday's sales in Sydney made records on what was a test for the market in rainy weather.

Auctioneer Damian Cooley told the Sunday Telegraph that his company Cooley Auctions had put up 100 properties for sale on the last weekend of a month which had seen "unseasonably large numbers for February".

"We would usually expect this in the weekend before Easter. It's come early, as many vendors want to capitalise on the strength of the market.

"These are boom times for real estate."

Core Logic made an initial estimate of the weekend's property clearance rate at 80.72 per cent.