A Hamptons-style six-bedroom home in Mount Kuring-gai passed in without a bid after a Microsoft outage disrupted communication between the solicitors handling the sale.
Two parties had been expected to register for 5 High Street, but the strongest prospective bidder was unwilling to proceed without seeing requested changes to the contract documents before the auction.
The outage, which affected Microsoft Outlook, Teams and Copilot in Australia on Friday, caused problems accessing and sending emails. The auction went ahead but closed without a bid, while a second interested party arrived only after it had ended.
“It all fell apart because the solicitors couldn’t talk to each other,” said Dean Finch, the Stone Real Estate selling agent. “I ended up having to send things through WhatsApp to get the changes requested.
“But they were still not confident [about bidding].”
Both interested parties were families from the wider local area. The property had a price guide of $1.95 million and a reserve of $2.3 million.
The two-storey house contains five bedrooms in the main residence, three of them with ensuite bathrooms, as well as a self-contained studio above the garage.
Finch said he hoped to sell the property within the next fortnight. If that did not happen, the vendors, who want to downsize, planned to rent it out.
Other Sydney auctions attract first-home buyers and investors
The Mount Kuring-gai property was among 646 homes scheduled for auction in Sydney this week.
In Elizabeth Bay, a first-home buyer secured a one-bedroom apartment at 6/39 Roslyn Gardens for $760,000 after bidding began at $620,000. Six parties registered, with five taking part, and the reserve was reduced from $745,000 to $735,000 during the auction.
Melinda Antella, of BresicWhitney East, said first-home buyers were finding opportunities because they were not competing with investors to the same extent.
At Enmore, a two-bedroom apartment sold under the hammer for $1.34 million, $10,000 below its reserve. The successful brother and sister planned to use it as a city bolthole and rent it as short-term accommodation.
Ray White Erskineville agent Ercan Ersan said he had seen increased investor interest in recent weeks, with buyers returning where they believed they could find value.
Auctioneer Dave McMahon said buyers were seeking greater certainty over interest-rate movements, and that clarity could give them confidence to enter the market.
