Segenhoe apartment in Newcastle sells for record-breaking sum at auction

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment at 1/50 Wolfe Street sold under the hammer for $1.425 million on Saturday to a buyer from the Blue Mountains.

Listed with Spillane Property's Donna Spillane and Patrick Skinner, the sale smashed the building's previous sale record by more than $200,000.

The previous top sale in the complex was $1.2 million paid for a top-level apartment at number 24 in December 2021.

The art deco-style apartment had undergone a significant renovation and was the only one in the building to offer a second bathroom.

Built in 1936 and designed by renowned Sydney architect Emil Sodersten, the striking building is known for its distinctive "butterfly" concept design.

Mr Skinner said the property attracted a lot of interest throughout the campaign, including overseas buyers from as far afield as Bahrain.

"We were expecting to get a lot of out-of-area buyers enquiring based on the fact that whenever we sell one of these heritage-listed properties in the inner city, we do get a lot of outside interest," the agent said.

"We had a lot of interest from buyers in Canberra, Sydney and inland country areas, as well as overseas enquiry from the UK, the US and Bahrain.

"It was a real mix of buyers with everything from people looking for an investment property to to people looking for a place to live."

We spoke with the agent about the auction and the result:

The property: A two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that was extensively renovated, including new bathrooms and a new kitchen. The property offered direct garden access from its ground-level position and the sale also included two secure car parking spaces.

What made this property special? It is such a unique property and there really is nothing you can actually use as a comparison because there are plenty of new build apartments in the city but to get an art deco heritage apartment, it's the only apartment of its age in Newcastle being a 1936 built. This one is very famous because the architect, Emil Sodersten, was also the architect of the War Memorial and he was very famous for this building as well. There is a mix of one and two-bedroom units in this complex but this is the only apartment that has two bathrooms, so that makes it very rare. There are 24 units in the building but there are only 19 car spaces, so the fact this property had two made it highly sought-after. It was a fantastic renovation.

How many registered bidders? We had three registered bidders.

Where were the potential buyers from? We had one from the Newcastle area, another from the Blue Mountains and one from Sydney. The winning bidder was the buyer from the Blue Mountains who plans to keep it as their home away from home. They have family in Newcastle.

How did the auction unfold? We had a lot of people watching on, probably about 50 or 60 people which was mostly a mix of neighbours and people who live in the building. There were also a lot of prospective buyers who were really interested to see how something like this could perform being such a unique property. We had very strong bidding from the get-go. It was a two-horse race in terms of the bidding between the two out-of-area buyers. It opened up at $950,000 with the building record at $1.2 million and it ended up selling for $1.45 million. It was a very quick auction, no more than five minutes. We had 13 bids in total with aggressive bidding.

Was the result a surprise? Yes, it was above everyone's expectations, so the owners were ecstatic. It was a family selling it and it was probably the best renovation I have seen of any apartment that we have sold. When you look at this building from an investment point of view, it's the scarcity factor. They just don't come up for sale that often, especially when it's already turnkey and ready to go. We thought it was going to be an owner-occupier that bought it to enjoy for themselves and it was.

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