Richmond 1850s bluestone charmer passed in at weekend auction: Title Tattle
One of Richmond’s oldest homes – a 154-year-old bluestone cottage – was passed in at weekend auction on a $900,000 vendor bid.
The Bosisto Street house was built by a stonemason in 1858, when the inner-Melbourne locale was rural. It was well before the town hall tower, the St Ignatius spires, Dimmeys, trams or trains. At the time Richmond's big attraction then was entrepreneur George Coppin's Cremorne Gardens, a 4.5-hectare pleasure park with the Pantheon Theatre, a zoo, a lake and bandstand plus a hotel. It was the location in 1858 with Australia's first successful hot air balloon flight taking off from Cremorne Gardens, the start of aviation in Australia, 50 years before aeroplanes.
The cottage comes with rear garden on the 343-square-metre block, which includes mature eucalypts.
Set between Bridge Road and Victoria Street, it last traded about four decades ago.
Jellis Craig agents Hayden Reed and Clayton Smith had been quoting between $900,000 plus for the three-bedroom house which now has a $975,000 asking price.
Local historian Robin Jackson suggests it is among the oldest half-dozen properties in the inner-Melbourne suburb.
There were nine weekend sales and two passed in at Richmond on the weekend. Across Melbourne the clearance rate was a healthy 63% compared to 61% last weekend and 52% this weekend last year, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria.
There were 591 auctions reported to the REIV with 370 selling and 221 being passed in, 135 of those on a vendors bid.
Next week the REIV estimates 600 auctions will be conducted.
Sydney’s auction market posted slightly improved results its 61.8% clearance rate up on 61.1% previous weekend and the 57.7% last year, according to Australian Property Monitors.
