By Kinta Walsh-cotton For Daily Mail Australia
07:00 07 Jul 2024, updated 08:42 07 Jul 2024
Rebel Wilson has pulled her $2.3million Sydney penthouse from weekend auction after she previously rescheduled it from June to July.
The Pitch Perfect star, 44, snapped up the Balmain investment property off the plan for $1.88 million in 2015.
Now the actor, who enlisted younger sister Annachi ‘Anna’ Wilson to sell the house, has cancelled the auction altogether, reported The Daily Telegraph on Sunday.
It’s unclear when or if Rebel intends to put the luxury pad up for auction again, though it seems she may have pulled it on the advice of her real estate agent.
Anna, 32, became a sales agent for Cobden & Hayson real estate earlier this year after previously working as a buyer’s agent.
Cobden & Hayson chief Matthew Hayson revealed in his video market update this week that there is now a below 50 per cent success rate at auctions in Rebel’s area.
This mid-week report may have been what led to Anna and Rebel pulling the Balmain property from auction for the foreseeable future.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Anna for comment.
Anna who is the youngest of Rebel’s three siblings, is said to have helped her famous sister transform her previous Birchgrove property which the Pitch Perfect star sold for $9.5million in 2022, reported The Nightly in May.
‘While most agents transition from sales to buyer’s agents, I’ve chosen to go in the other direction, making the switch to share my knowledge and help more people,’ Anna said on the Cobden & Hayson website.
Anna is said to have secured more than $30million worth of real estate for clients in her previous role as a buyer.
Rebel listed her long-held Balmain property for sale earlier this year with an asking price of $2.3million after purchasing it off the plan for $1.88million in 2015.
Tucked away in the heritage listed Lever Brothers soap factory in Sydney, the investment property was originally slated to go to auction on June 22 but she rescheduled the sale to this month.
The Hollywood actor hired Cobden & Hayson agents Anna and Matthew to handle the sale, reported The Daily Telegraph last month.
Spreading out over two levels, the ‘house-like’ apartment boasts 130sqm of space with two balconies and a rooftop terrace off the upper level kitchen.
With stunning views of the CBD skyline and Anzac bridge, the cooking space features Carrara quartz stone benchtops and a luxurious breakfast bar.
Two bedrooms and a study space fill out the entry level of the unit, with the master bedroom boasting a sprawling walk-in robe and en suite.
EV drivers will be thrilled to find a charging station installed in the double security parking garage of the building.
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Bollywood actors Shatrughan Sinha, Sara Ali Khan and Arjun Kapoor may soon have new neighbors. The Union Bank of India has issued a public notice to sell properties of Indus Projects Limited and its promoters after they failed to pay the dues. The reserve price for the prime property to be auctioned is ₹104.11 crore.
The building is located in the same neighbourhood where Bollywood stars such as Sara Ali Khan, Arjun Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha and his family reside.
The notice says that the bank plans to auction the 9-storey residential building owned by the promoters. The building comprises seven 4BHK and a duplex located in Mumbai’s Juhu Vile Parle Development (JVPD), Kapole Society in Vile Parle West.
The residential property is a nine-storeyed building located in Nutan Laxmi CHS Ltd. The plot measures 800 sq yards in the Nutan Laxmi Co-operative Housing Society Ltd., North South Road, J V P D. Scheme, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai, the bank notice shared by Hecta, a marketing platform of repossessed properties being auctioned by banks and financial institutions, showed.
Also Read: Amitabh Bachchan’s next door bungalow up for sale. Reserve price set at ₹25 crore
Indus Projects Limited, a public company incorporated in 1997, is the owner of the building. The notice mentioned names of Kishor Mehta, Abhai Mehtax, Mahavir Mehta, Madhur Mehta and Indus Mechanical Engineering Company Private Limited as borrowers of the bank.
Indus Projects Limited could not be reached for a comment.
The total outstanding dues are around ₹90.46 crore. The owners owe Union Bank Of India around ₹71.85 crore plus interest at applicable rate, costs, dues, and expenses and they owe State Bank of India ₹18.60 crore plus further interest at applicable rate, costs, dues, and expenses that may accrue from April 23 till total repayment and settlement of dues, the notice said.
The bungalow is being auctioned by Union Bank of India under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (SARFAESI) of 2002.
“Since you failed to comply with the said notice within the period stipulated, the Authorized Officer has taken possession of the immovable secured assets under Section 13(4) of the Act read with Rule 8 of Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002,” the notice said.
Also Read: India’s ultra rich invest 32% of their wealth in residential assets: Knight Frank Report
“Since the owners have failed to clear the dues of the secured creditor, the immovable secured assets that have been taken possession of by the Authorised Officer of the bank, will be sold by holding public E-auction on June 20, 2024 by inviting bids from the public through online mode on www.mstcecommerce.com,” the notice showed.
This deal is at a 25% discount from market price. The amount has to be paid from banking channels as it is a fully cashless transaction and payment has to be completed within 15 days from the auction date, said Sridhar Samudrala, founder and CEO, Hecta.
“These are ready-to-possess and ready-to-occupy floors in a premium location. Rarely do we get access to such premium properties that too at a discount,” he added.
Wish to buy a property through a bank auction? Here’s what you should know
Most of these properties are available at a discount to market price as these are auctioned by banks only after the loan borrower misses multiple payments and the lender auctions the property to recover the outstanding principal and interest amount on the loan.
Buyers wanting to procure properties through a bank auction should verify details of the property, especially the legal details, before they decide to bid for them.
Buyers should be aware that the reserve price quoted excludes dues (such as electricity, property tax, maintenance), which are payable by the buyer.
The prospective buyer should also check for physical possession status of the property, whether the physical possession has been obtained by the bank advertising the sale, after following the due process.
These properties are sold on ‘As is where is’ basis or ‘Whatever is there is’ or ‘No recourse basis’ which means that the buyer needs to check the inclusions and exclusions and cannot withdraw from the deal once the auction is over (unless due to exceptional legal circumstances), says a legal expert.
In case of bungalows or apartments that are auctioned, buyers should check if there are any liabilities associated with the properties that are being auctioned, said a legal expert.
A total of 175 lots across southern England has been unveiled by Clive Emson Auctioneers for the firm’s milestone 250th auction this month.
They include a cliffside chalet-style bungalow which featured in TV’s Poldark, the historical Cornish mining drama series. With breathtaking views, the property overlooks Porthcurno beach and the famous Minack open air theatre; the residence is at St Levan, near Penzance, Cornwall, and has a guide price of £395,000-plus.
There have been more than £3 billion in sales for clients since the firm’s first auction 35 years ago. The regional land and property auctioneering firm was founded in October 1989 by now-chairman Clive Emson.
James Emson, now managing director, says: “It is difficult to convey how proud we all of are of what has been achieved since my father set up the business in October 1989, with the first auction in December that year listing 24 lots and members of the family posting stapled auction catalogues through letterboxes, complementing marketing campaigns over the phone in the pre-internet age.
“Over the years we expanded from our Kent headquarters in Maidstone and have five offices covering southern England, from Kent, London, Essex and Norfolk to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight and well above the M4 corridor.”
Since 1989 the firm has sold tens of thousands of lots including houses, flats, shops, offices, warehouses, factories, garages, barns, underground bunkers, sea forts, water towers, colliery buildings, pubs, hotels, former places of worship, woodland and development and grazing land.
Two years ago, the company set a new record with the highest price achieved outside of London in an online auction – a commercial lot in Purfleet, Grays, Essex, sold for £5.4m in a bidding war; the client was a local authority.
The latest auction – the fourth of eight this year – ends on June 12, with bidding live from 10 June.
Of the 175 lots listed, 75 are vacant residential, 35 residential investment, 31 commercial property, 19 development/conversion land 15 grazing/land.
With a guide price of £800,000-plus, a terraced five-storey building with offices overlooking the harbour and sea in Torquay, Devon, has planning consent for conversion into 12 apartments; meanwhile a former doctors’ surgery in the fishing village of Emsworth, near Portsmouth, with planning permission for redevelopment into a hotel and café, has a guide price of £895,000-plus; and a 1.71-acre development site near Helston, Cornwall, with the sandy beach of Praa Sands 2.5 miles away, has planning permission for 14 dwellings. Guide price: £485,000-plus.
By Max Aitchison For Daily Mail Australia
13:35 28 May 2024, updated 13:39 28 May 2024
Some Americans have been left gobsmacked by the way many houses are sold in Australia – but Aussies are unsure what all the fuss is about.
A clip of an auction in Melbourne went viral after a bemused New Yorker told his 50,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, about the ‘crazy’ way Australians sold houses – and jokingly suggested they were keeping it from the world.
‘Think about all the Australians you’ve known,’ Stephen Smith wrote.
‘Maybe they’re your friends or coworkers. Maybe they’re serving you brunch….
‘But you know what they’re not serving you? The truth about how they sell homes.’
The clip, which has since amassed over 2.5 million views, prompted a deluge of similarly baffled responses.
‘This is real?’, one asked.
‘So a man stands in the literal street outside the house being sold and takes bids from anyone? Do the homeowners sit inside and listen? I have so many questions,’ another wrote.
Someone else quipped that the ‘American mind boggles at having an auction run by someone other than an unintelligible Texan and to sell something other than livestock’.
But the vast majority of responses were instead from Australians confused about the fact that people did not know this is how houses were sold in the country.
‘I’m Australian and I don’t understand what’s supposed to be secret about this,’ one said.
‘Wait.. doesn’t every other country sell houses through auction?? Surely this isn’t unique to Australia?’, another said.
Others said it often served as a great social occasion for neighbours.
‘Not only are most Australian homes sold this way, it’s often a big, impromptu street event too,’ they said.
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‘Last house on my road that sold at auction in Sydney had about 100 people attend, and all my neighbours had a drink together. It’s great!’
Another said that ‘going to auctions is like a Saturday sport here in Sydney’.
Meanwhile, others defended the auction process, arguing that it allowed every bid to be above board and reduced the stress of making a bid only to have it rejected.
‘It may be theatrical, but it’s transparent. None of this American undercover lying about who bid what,’ they wrote.
‘No gazumping, contract signed, deposit paid, cooling off period for finance approval, both sides move to settlement – the auctioneers are clowns but the process is a much better way of maintaining certainty for both vendor and purchaser and very few sales fall over as a result,’ another said.
Others, however, were more critical of the auction system.
‘This is the one instance of ”Americans being baffled and appalled by Australian behaviours” where they are 100 per cent correct,’ one said.
Another added: ‘I’ve bought two houses in my life and probably paid 300 per cent over market value to avoid attending these perverted little auctions.’
Isa Hafalir, University of Technology Sydney economics professor , has lived in both Australia and the US and has first-hand experience of buying properties in each.
He said auctions were ‘very rarely’ used in the US but were popular in Australia because of the competitive real estate market
‘In Australia, real estate agents and auctioneers want the neighbours to come and a big group of people, even if they are not serious buyers, because it has this kind of psychological effect that this is hot property and many people are interested in it, Professor Hafalir told news.com.au.
He said it was also a more transparent process for buyers because they could see who bid what – unlike in the US where parties can offer above or below the asking price.
Over 13 per cent of houses and units sold in Australia this year have been by auction, according to PropTrack data.
It is most popular in the ACT at 27 per cent, 22 per cent in Victoria and 20 per cent in NSW.
The figures for other states and territories were far lower – a fact reflected in some of the responses to the viral video.
‘Very few houses in Western Australia are sold by auction. It’s very much a Sydney and Melbourne thing,’ one person said.