Sydney auctions: Historic film hub claims Hollywood price

The sale of a terrace home in Glebe with a fascinating connection to the silver screen was among the highlights of a busy weekend of auction sales across Sydney.

The stately four-bedroom home on Glebe Point Rd, which drew a winning bid of $4.815m, holds a place in Aussie film history.

Sellers Justin and Belinda Hoare purchased the property in 2003, when the home was the headquarters for the Sydney Film Festival.

It was the main office for the festival for 30 years between 1974 and 2004, before its headquarters was relocated to Elizabeth St in the CBD.

405 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, is the former head office of the Sydney Film Festival.

The festival pre-screened hundreds of films from near and far at the Glebe Point Rd property.

The Sydney Film Festival featured a number of notable films between 1974 and 2004, from comedies like Aussie classic Muriel’s Wedding in 1994 to Richard Kelly’s psychological thriller Donnie Darko in 2002.

In 2003 – the year during which the Hoare’s purchased the property – the festival screened George Clooney’s directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

“All of the films that were shown at the festival would have been projected there first,” Mr Hoare said.

“We converted their projection room into a bathroom and our main bedroom had an alcove which I learned was the director’s office.”

Between 2003 and 2005 the couple gradually completed renovations on the property, turning a film festival studio into family home which Mr Hoare said housed “many, many happy memories.”

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Actors George Clooney and Sam Rockwell promoting Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in 2003. The film screened at the 2003 Sydney Film Festival.

Guided in the low $4m range, bidding for the property opened at $3.8m.

Five bidders competed in an auction fitting of the home’s dramatic past, with bids flying in well after the home had cleared its guide.

A crowd of 40 people witnessed the hammer fall after a winning bid of just $5,000 extra was enough to call a wrap on proceedings.

The auction was held by Ray White NSW CEO Tim Snell, who said interest was always going to be strong for this kind of property.

“This auction was always going to be hotly contested, for the fact that an offering like this is quite rare,” he said.

“To have big lot of land with parking and such a wide frontage in the heart of Glebe, it’s really rare and getting rarer.”

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Inside, the home has maintained its original aesthetic.

The home’s price comes in at $2.437m above Glebe’s median for houses.

Selling agent Matt Carvalho of Ray White Glebe said the home had “great bones”, with buyers seeing its potential.

“It’s a really grand home with potential to even further add some value,” he said.

The home’s buyer was a woman who bought the property for herself.

However, she was not present at auction, with Mr Carvalho saying her father was actually bidding on her behalf.

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P. J. Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding featured at the Sydney Film Festival in 1994.

At the moment, Mr Carvalho said the market in the area was “very property specific”.

“Some homes might have only one or two bidders,” he said.

“But good, A-grade are always going to have a lot of interest in them.”

With the property now sold, Mr Hoare said he and Belinda were looking forward to balancing life between their properties in The Central Coast and the Central West.

“We’re swapping to this sort of coastal-country lifestyle,” he said.

The Hoare family celebrates the sale with selling agent Matt Carvalho.

There were 1,147 auctions scheduled in Sydney this week, up 1 per cent year-on-year, according to PropTrack.

It was love at first sight at an auction in Alexandria, where a buyer picked up a revitalised Victorian terrace on Brandling St after seeing the property for the first time on auction day.

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This home on Brandling Street, Alexandria, was purchased by a buyer who saw it for the first time on auction day.

Selling agent Brad Gillespie of The Agency said he had never seen or met the buyer before and it is understood he purchased the four-bedroom property for his son.

The home sold at auction for $3.8m.

Quite the impulse buy.

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This Castle Hill home sold at auction for $2.703m.

In the Hills District, a spacious six-bedder in Castle Hill attracted plenty of interest and a pretty penny at auction.

Five active bidders competed for the home which eventually sold for $2.703m, a price $278,000 over the suburb’s median house price.

The winning bidders were a young family from within the area, who wanted a to upsize into a larger family home.

Ray White Castle Hill selling agent Benjamin Chen said the buyers were attracted to the home’s school catchment and already have big renovation plans.

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