Hobart’s priciest street

ANEW report reveals Hobart’s priciest and most affordable streets, but there is one surprising absentee in the most expensive stakes. Prestigious Battery Point is missing in action. However, neighbouring Sandy Bay has picked up the slack with its main drag — Sandy Bay Rd — coming in at No.1 by a wide margin. Its street median is an eye-watering $2.4m.

The report from Ray White’s national research team examined sales from November 2019 to today.

Per realestate.com.au, there have been dozens of homes sold in this street for over $2m in the past three years.

Just in the past 12 months, there have been seven Sandy Bay Rd homes sold in excess of $2m including Federation home

Abingdon for $2.86m and the church at No.520, purchased for $4.6m and set to be transformed into a dwelling.

A Golden Mile waterfront home at No.488 fetched $4.82m while an empty block at No.688 sold for $2.125m.

Hobart’s next most expensive street was Hickmans Rd in Margate — $1.7m — an area that offers lifestyle homes on average.

At $1.58m, tightly held Kaoota Rd, Rose Bay is an area that offers big family homes, often with river views — and a mix of older houses with modern marvels.

Every street on the most expensive list had a median above $1.19m, which was posted by Nelson Rd, Mount Nelson.

Ray White data analyst William Clark said the most expensive properties in Hobart were similar to those in other cities.

“They tend to have the best views in the area, and reasonable access to the city, a beach, river, lake or national park. Privacy and large lots are common traits, too,” he said.

Mr Clark said while Battery Point was Tasmania’s most prestigious suburb, none of its streets made the list.

“There were too few sales on Battery Point streets,” he said.

At the affordable end of Hobart, buyers would need to head out of the city to beachy Carlton to find the city’s cheapest street.

The report found Carlton River Rd has a street median of $270,000.

The next best are both in New Norfolk, Glebe St ($323,000) and Blair St ($412,000).

Albion Rd, Bridgewater and Coobar Rd, Risdon Vale ($415,000 and $422,000) rounded out the top five for affordability, in yet another example of how much the market has changed in the last two years.

While considered ‘affordable’ in this report, an early $400,000s median value is about what greater Hobart’s median was in 2020.

And now, Hobart is not far from double that figure.

Outside of Hobart, four regional streets have street median prices above $1m — Meander Valley Rd, Hagley; Bayview Dr, Blackstone Heights; Skyline Ave, Grindelwald; and Dolphin Sands Rd, Dolphin Sands which came in at $1.27m.

Primrose St in West Coast town Rosebery was Tassie’s cheapest street with a median value of $95,000.

Mr Clark said the traits of the affordable areas tended to be inverted compared to the expensive areas.

“That means smaller lot sizes, far away from the city centre, and often on a busy road,” he said.

“Hobart has developed incredibly quickly in the last 10 years.

“Ideally, you would like to see new developments easing pricing pressures. We have seen that happen in other cities.”

Australia’s most expensive street is Wolseley Rd, Point Piper, NSW ($33m), and the cheapest out west in WA, Downing St, Norseman ($35,500).

The report’s methodology excluded streets with less than three sales or if the median value was 15x the suburb median.