“We weren’t [initially] certain in terms of what you could potentially put on that land and how much the council would approve but once most developers did their due diligence, we had a good sense of that this property was going to perform quite well at auction,” Nguyen said.

His colleague Tom Hector said it was a “very sad sale” for the family, who were only now selling the land as a deceased estate after their parents died.

“The owners lived in that house up until the end, which was quite recently,” he said.

“I’ve been told they’ve had developers knocking on their door for the last 30 years … but [the family] didn’t sell because their mum and dad were still alive.

“It was their wish to never let that property go,” he explained, adding that it was now costing the family too much to hold on to.

The property, in the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury, is close to a golf course and shops and was advertised as “an unmatched residential building opportunity”, with Tom Hector telling 7News the site was ripe with potential.

“The developers have to let their imagination go wild, subject to what they can do with an urban planner,” he said.

Elsewhere in Australia, another family are still holding on to their property despite continued interest from developers.

The Zammit family are staying put on their two-hectare site in Sydney’s The Ponds, with their stubborn refusals making headlines worldwide last year.

“The fact that most people sold out years and years ago, these guys have held on. All credit to them,” Ray White Quakers Hill agent Taylor Bredin told 7News last year, adding that up to 50 houses could probably be built on the land.

“Depending on how far you push the development plan, you’d be able to push anywhere from 40 to 50 properties on something like this, and when subdivided, a 300-square-metre block would get a million dollars.”