Bushranger Ned Kelly, The Block’s Danny Wallis in Melbourne auction action

Victoria is on its way to a post-election auction bump, with a second-chance auction for a piece of Ned Kelly history and serial The Block buyer Danny Wallis among the sales action.

PropTrack Data shows the state’s clearance rate today came in at 69 per cent, from 629 recorded results.

Danny Wallis sold his 6 Gray Lane, Albert Park, property for $2.15m, decently above the $1.8m-$1.95m he had been seeking when Whitefox’s Peter Servas sent it under the hammer — and a solid uptick from the $1.8m he paid in 2020.

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Records show Mr Wallis owned the three-bedroom property through his firm DSAH Holdings.

It is the latest in a series of homes he has sold off in response to state government changes to rules around investment properties and landlord requirements in Victoria — including 38A Grey St, St Kilda, which he bought off the hit Channel 9 renovation reality show in 2019.

It became the first home the entrepreneur and businessman sold in response to the government’s changes including increased land tax to recoup Covid-era losses.

Meanwhile, a Benalla property known as the Bootmaker’s Shop, which bushranger Ned Kelly fled to before a violent struggle after escaping from the courthouse over the street in 1877.

It was sold under the hammer for $360,000 after it tested the market for the second time this year.

6 Gray Lane, Albert Park, was sold by entrepreneur and serial The Block buyer Danny Wallis.

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The well appointed home is one of many investments Mr Wallis has now sold.

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The shop at 64A Arundel St had initially gone under the hammer on April 11, but only attracted one bidder and passed in at $250,000.

A second attempt by Ray White to sell it a month and a federal election later ended with the $360,000 sale of the property to a buyer who indicated they were part of Ned Kelly’s lineage.

Kelly was 16 when he took refuge in the shop, which today has a plaque installed in it to commemorate the bushranger’s visit during which he threatened to shoot constable Thomas Longin after the cop grabbed the criminal’s genitalia.

Kelly later killed the constable in a gunfight known as the Stringybark Incident.

Ray White‘s Shayne McKean handled the listing, while Jeremy Tyrrell called the online auction which attracted three bidders and a result that was “off and running at a price that no one was expecting”.

The Bootmaker’s Shop at 64A Arundel St, Benalla, has sold for $360,000.

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Inside the building where bushranger Ned Kelly once brawled.

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While the original auction might have fallen victim to the typical election “handbrake” on the market, as well as school and public hollidays, the prospect of an interest-rate cut within the fortnight had Mr Tyrrell convinced strong underlying demand from buyers will quickly boost the auction market.

“I think it will only accelerate from here,” he said.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine backed the call, indicating that after recent weaker clearance rates today’s 69 per cent figutre showed “it’s back on in Melbourne”.

“And I would expected that we will start to see that clearance rate really strengthen over the weeks and months ahead,” he said. 

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