The three-bedroom home on Harney St in Marrickville sold at auction for $1.04 million, pipping the reserve price and the $950,000 price guide.

There were six registered bidders, four of who took part in the auction, but at one stage the auction looked like it might not produce such a high result.

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It took nearly four minutes for auctioneer Emmanuel Comino to receive an opening bid and the initial offers came in slowly, while the crowd of about 50 in attendance were largely silent.

The pace eventually picked up once bidding hit the $900,000 mark, with the property eventually selling to a South African family who liked the unit’s house-like proportions and private swimming pool.

Selling agent Adrian Tsavalas of McGrath-Newtown said the home’s rare ownership arrangement had been a challenge during the marketing campaign and put off some buyers from registering.

“Many buyers didn’t understand what company title meant,” Mr Tsavalas said.

The ownership structure is one that predates strata title and was introduced to NSW in 1961.

It entails that a company owns the block of units and land it occupies and any potential buyer of a property does not get a title deed but instead gets “shares” in the building and a share certificate.

With the company title came unusually large quarterly levies of $2500.

“There was huge interest in the property but a lot of buyers were unsure about the company title,” Mr Tsalavas said. “In the end it was a good result.”

The seller told the Sunday Telegraph she was happy with result and never had any issues with the ownership arrangement.

Mr Comino said it was a competitive auction and the six registrations suggested there was healthy interest in the home.

The 295sqm property with three bedrooms is located within a block of four and is one of the only Sydney units to be listed with a private pool in the backyard.

The property was one of nearly 400 that went under the hammer Saturday, a modest decrease from the nearly 450 auctions held last weekend.

This week’s auctions were expected to have a similar success rate to last week when 66.4 per cent of the properties that went under the hammer sold.

Auction Services director Rocky Bartolotto said auction conditions were improving, with registrations increasing since the federal election.

“There are still plenty of buyers out there willing to bid if it’s the right property,” he said.

In the eastern suburbs, one of Clovelly’s last original fisherman’s cottages sold for $3.635 million under the hammer to a buyer with plans to knock it down.

The price for the Boundary St home was $285,000 above the reserve and well above the opening bid of $2.9 million.

Four bidders registered for the auction, but selling agent Daniel Gillespie of Belle Property-Bondi Junction said it turned into a showdown between two committed buyers.

“It was a great result. Very strong,” he said. “These types of homes with building potential and (water views) sell very well because they are becoming rare. Most of the other properties on the street are already built out.”

On the north shore, a two-bedroom unit in Cremorne with 108sqm of floorspace sold at auction for just over $1.25 million — $81,000 above the reserve.

It is the highest price ever paid for a two-bedder in the Mirvac-built Peppertrees development at 17 Hampden Ave in north shore suburb Cremorne.

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The auction attracted six registered bidders, four of who participated in the auction. A crowd of about 50 people came to watch the bidding, which started at $900,000.

Selling agent Matthew Smythe of Belle Property-Neutral Bay said the price was pushed up by three enthusiastic buyers who battled “toe to toe at the end of the auction”.

Meanwhile, a northern beaches family who won a Freshwater home through a lottery in 2016 had no such luck when they put the home up for auction. The waterfront home worth about $4 million when they won it passed in at auction on a bid of $3.8 million.