Auctions just woke up & a live test of the renovate & sell play
344 Birrell St, Bondi
25 August 2026
Auction volume across Bronte, Waverley, Bondi, Clovelly, Randwick & Coogee hit 37 in the week to 16 Aug — more than double every other week since mid-July (14–19). Clearance moved with it, up to 41% from 28% the week before. Bondi Beach and Coogee drove most of it, jumping to 10 and 8 auctions from a normal 1–2. One week isn't a trend, but it's the first real sign of the winter hibernation thawing.
I've watched a few houses sit for a long time, change strategies and eventually sell. A good example is 344 Birrell St, Bondi.
First listed back in February with a fluctuating guide as high as $6.5m, the property was ultimately withdrawn. A fresh, short campaign followed with an initial guide of $5.7m — it sold for $5,860,000 last weekend.
Let's look at it in more detail. Bought Feb 2022 for $3.33m, extended with two extra bedrooms and a pool to become a 5-bed, 3-bath, 1-car home. It's a 277sqm semi-detached lot — $21,155/sqm. Over $2.5m gross uplift before renovation cost.
For sale now, 50 Alfred Street, Bronte is running 344 Birrell's playbook — 238sqm, bought late 2024 for $3.5m, high-end reno adding a bedroom and two bathrooms, making it 4-bed, 3-bath, 1-car, chasing a similar ~$6m. That's about $25,210/sqm — above what Birrell actually cleared, and more than double 225 Birrell's unrenovated rate. While arguably it's a slightly better street, this one faces east to rear, is narrower by some margin, lacks the fifth bedroom and has no pool. The renovation itself is high spec — but can it secure that kind of premium?
It passed in at auction last Saturday, so no result yet. Worth watching whether it sells in the coming weeks, or faces the same stop/start fate as Birrell Street's prolonged campaign.
It’s true that buyers are still willing to pay a premium for renovated stock, but that premium is narrowing compared to the hard costs of the works. Same month, we saw an unrenovated property a little further up Birrell St sell for circa $11k per sqm. For this, the buyer gets a freestanding home on 460sqm of land, but the renovation budget required would be significant, and many buyers are reluctant to take on major renovations given spiralling costs.
In your target suburbs, it's worth pondering whether the best buys are turnkey, or those with further potential and what best fits your longer term goals. Remembering the renovation depreciates but the land, in time, will appreciate.
— Mark Timmins, Marked Buyers Agency
