Fawkner: Opening bid $60k above asking range stuns at auction

Ray White Coburg’s Hamza Ali with the buyers of 72 William St, Fawkner, after the house sold on the weekend.

A Fawkner house that’s been in an Italian-Australian family for six decades unexpectedly scored a grand sale on Saturday.

Ray White Coburg’s Hamza Ali said the circa-1965 home at 72 William St was listed with $740,000-$790,000 price hopes but a massive first bid wowed the crowd watching it go under the hammer.

“The opening bid was $850,000 so with the first bid it was already on the market,” Mr Ali said. “I was like, ‘What is going on?’ I was shocked.”

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The mega-bid knocked out much of the competition but another set of determined buyers drove the final price to $966,000, a sum $176,000 above the asking range’s upper end.

“The purchasers were first-home buyers from Balwyn North,” Mr Ali said,

“They loved the house – they are a young couple and they are Italian too.”

About 130 buyer groups inspected the house’s large front garden, timber-fitted kitchen and garage with its own storeroom, toilet and kitchen during the sales campaign.

The home features polished timber flooring, ducted heating, a living room heater set within a former fireplace and split-system cooling.

An aerial view of the large crowd that gathered to watch the auction.

Vendor John was selling the residence that his late parents, father Nicola and mother Rosa, had lived in for about 60 years.

After immigrating from Italy to Australia, the couple rented in Brunswick before moving into their first Fawkner residence, where they saved up money to build their dream home in William St.

After working in the Victorian railways and at Broadmeadows’ Ford plant, Nicola opened a milk bar in Major Rd and then another store.

He later set up a supermarket in Tyson St, Fawkner, named Nick’s Big Star Supermarket.

There’s timber cabinets in the kitchen alongside modern appliances.

A rear undercover patio runs the length of the house.

“My parents’ front yard was an amazing place for flowers, but the backyard was just like a total vegetable patch,” John recalled.

“They grew everything, tomatoes, broccoli, broccoli, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce.”

He recalled plenty of family functions such as birthdays and anniversaries at the house, often involving the local church and other friends.

“It also an occasion because they made their own salads and made their own tomato sauce and their own pickles and dried tomatoes,” John said.

There’s a family bathroom inside the home, plus another bathroom in the shed.

Nicola made his own wine and salamis in the garage and was also a keen handyman who enjoyed working in the space.

John described selling the home as both a sad occasion and “sort of like an end of an era”.

But he added that he would always treasure his memories of the house including the times he had spent time there with his parents, plus his wife Rosemary and their two children.

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