Bungalow on a high CALIFORNIA DREAMING A REALITY
SELLERS of an original Californian bungalow on a big corner block were rewarded for setting a high target for their East Geelong property.
A clutch of recent high prices, including $1.32m for an extended Californian bungalow next door and $892,000 achieved at auction last weekend for a renovated house in nearby Darling Street, raised the sights for the owners at 17 Anderson Street, East Geelong.
Bidders at Saturday’s auction were up to the task, given that turnover in the inner city hot spot had halved this year and just 10 homes are on the market, Hayeswinckle Newtown agent Matthew Roberts said.
The house sold for $860,000, beating the reserve price by $25,000 and confirming recent strong value in East Geelong house prices, albeit on the low sales volume.
“It’s funny at the moment, we seem to have a lot of properties that have already been renovated and what the buyers who were successful, and a few of the others that were participating today were really looking for was that sizeable allotment that they could do their own renovation and longterm plan for,” Mr Roberts said.
He said the two street frontages and the double garage on the 666sq m block were valuable assets.
“The reserve was $835,000, which was quite high in my opinion,” Mr Roberts said.
“Anything over $800,000 you take the money and run, but the current market conditions are helping us.
“For us to get to that level it’s a long-term proposition for a few of the buyers and they were happy to pay a little bit more because when you spread it out over 10 or 15 years it’s a drop in the bucket.”
Buyers Henry Drysdale and Ashlee Strachan had returned to Geelong this year.
“We’ve been renting on Loch Street and really love the East Geelong area,” Mr Drysdale said. “We wanted to stay in East Geelong and we wanted a home on a big block and luckily this came up and we were able to secure it today.
“It really appealed to us and something we can work on in the future.”
Mr Drysdale said the strong sales for renovated properties in the area were a positive.
“It gives us a lot of confidence in the area as an investment when you see those type of sales that are happening around here.”
East Geelong’s median house price has jumped 22.4 per cent this year to $697,500.
But sales have dropped by half as homeowners shunned the market.
“East Geelong doesn’t have a lot of turnover anyway, so it’s tightly held to begin with. But when you’ve got a further drop of 50 per cent in turnover it’s just going to help prices go even further,” Mr Roberts said.