Price goes way north
BUYERS have deemed a pocket of North Geelong every bit as valuable as its cosmopolitan neighbour, Geelong West.
No.29 Saywell St, North Geelong, just over Church Rd and formerly within the Geelong West boundaries, went to auction at the weekend, selling for a whopping $705,000.
The price was well above initial expectations between $600,000 and $660,000.
Vanders Real Estate, Belmont, auctioneer Rod van der Chys said the Melbourne buyers had a keen interest in the property given its proximity to the highway.
“I don’t think there was a local among them — as in someone from Geelong who just sold in Grovedale,” he said.
“They were all Melbourne people or out-of-towners, or had a connection with Geelong; they lived here before or grew up here and they’re coming back.”
There were five bidders on the four-bedroom home.
Bidding opened at $620,000, which Mr van der Chys called an aggressive “get out of my way bid”, given the quoted price range.
“It probably set the tone for the auction,” he said. The tightly-held pocket is lined with character homes and is far away from the noise of the highway and Church St, while still being close to Pakington St, reserves and trains.
“When I was doing my market research there were very few sales and certainly in the whole marketing campaign it was the only one on the market,” Mr van der Chys said.
“There’s lots of older types in the area that have been there for 40-50 years, it’s tight- ly held but for a good reason.”
Despite its proximity to West, Mr van der Chys noted that Geelong buyers could not see the value.
“This is the awakening of the area. We did have some Geelong people turning up their nose at $600,000, thinking it’s North Geelong, but it’s North Geelong attached to West, not North attached to Bell Park,” he said.
“The price we got was a West price. The market saw (the value) and said why would I pay less for this over Church St just because of a name.”
The buyers were a young family moving from Point Cook.
CoreLogic data shows that the median sales price in North Geelong is $340,000, with a 1.5 per cent increase in price over the past year.