May 25, 2026 — 11:08amA three-bedroom house in Melbourne’s west with “stumping issues” sold for $751,000 at a competitive auction on Saturday.The generously proportioned weatherboard home at 9 Maxweld Street, Ardeer, featured timber details throughout and was listed with a price guide of $690,000 to $740,000, and a reserve of $735,000.Four active bidders, all “young professional, first-home buyers”, took part in the auction, selling agent Justin Luciew from Douglas Kay Estate Agents said.“There were a few bidders among them who had missed out on other homes in the area,” he said.One additional bidder had registered, an investor calling on the phone from interstate, but did not place a bid.Bidding opened at $690,000, rising in $10,000 increments, then falling to $5000 and $1000 bids before the auction came to a close.The home itself, Luciew said, “is solid but needs work,” with the suburb the biggest drawcard.“Ardeer is very popular, especially among young professionals. There were doctors and IT professionals among the bidders,” he said.The buyers are planning to move into the home and complete renovations.Luciew said that while “turnkey” homes in other suburbs are often preferred over those needing work, property in Ardeer was bucking this trend.“Bidders see the value of buying in Ardeer,” he said. “It has a community feel, the parks are great, and it is close to the CBD by public transport.”He added that the suburb had seemed to escape any negative impacts from the rate hikes or changes announced in the federal budget.“Other suburbs seem to be affected but not Ardeer,” he said. “Investors are still out there.”The property was one of 1032 scheduled to go to auction in Melbourne last week.By Saturday evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary auction clearance rate of 59 per cent from 687 reported results throughout the week, while 118 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate.Meanwhile, in Thornbury, an architecturally designed family home sold under the hammer for $2,165,000.The home at 205 Raleigh Street was listed with a price guide of $1,800,000 to $1,950,000 and had a reserve of $1.95 million.The four-bedroom home featured an open-plan living zone with high ceilings and expansive glazing connecting the indoor and outdoor areas.Selling agent Ian Dempsey from Ray White Northcote said that the competition was “very good”.“There were five active bidders, all families with primary school-aged kids, so a very similar buyer profile,” he said.“The new owners are a family who live around the corner and who know the sellers, who are downsizing locally.”One of the biggest aspects the new owners liked about the property was its style, Dempsey said.“It is a bit creative,” he said.Dempsey said that he had seen increasing interest from interstate investors in the Melbourne market.“They are coming back,” he said.In Blackburn, a first-home buyer paid $846,000 for the keys to a single-level brick unit on a tree-lined street. The property was passed in at auction for $780,000 and sold shortly thereafter through private negotiations.The unit at 1/38 Elder Street was listed with a price guide of $780,000 to $850,000 and a reserve of $800,000.Selling agent Grant Lynch from Jellis Craig Whitehorse said there was only one bidder and a single bid at the auction.“The buyer fell in love with the street and negotiated,” he said.He said the Blackburn neighbourhood is “highly sought after,” with the suburb a big drawcard for the new owner, who currently lives with her parents in Chadstone.“All of her friends live nearby, so it suits her lifestyle,” said Lynch.The home was a deceased estate, held by a single owner after it last sold for $154,500 in 1998.“The sale was overseen by her two best friends, for the woman’s daughter who lives in Canada,” Lynch said.Shane Oliver, chief economist and head of investment strategy at AMP, said the auction clearance rate indicated a “softened Melbourne market.”“It is well down on some of its recent highs like September 2025, where the monthly average clearance rate was around 70 per cent,” he said.“It is at the bottom of the range of the rate for Melbourne from the past twenty years, aside from the pandemic period, which was an exception.”Oliver said that a combination of three consecutive RBA rate hikes, the uncertain economic outlook due to the war in the Middle East and tax changes announced in the Federal Budget were all affecting the market.“I don’t anticipate that it will change much in the next three to six months,” he said.More:AuctionsProperty marketProperty pricesAffordable housingMelbourne house pricesFirst-home buyersProperty downsizingProperty upsizingProperty listingsFrom our partners