$1M WITHIN REACH
It’s a line in the sand that only two Tassie suburbs can claim, but a handful more are pushing toward a $1 million median price, writes Jarrad Bevan.
THREE Hobart Eastern Shore suburbs are among the best bets to join a prestigious property market club.
Only Sandy Bay and Battery Point have current median house prices above $1 million, but a handful of areas are not too far under that magical mark.
Per realestate.com.au’s latest figures, Sandford, Cambridge and Acton Park have annual median values sitting at $940,000 (17 sales), $920,000 (10 sales) and $897,500 (32 sales).
Markets don’t grow in a perfectly straight line, but if Sandford’s median grew by just 1.5 per cent per month for the remainder of the year, it would push past the $1m line by Christmas.
Petrusma Property director Jake Towns — who sold No.2299 South Arm Rd for $1.095m in August and No.421 Dixon
Point Rd for $1.87m in April — said if there was more stock available in Sandford, it would already have a $1m median price.
“Could it be there by this time next year? Absolutely. If you looked at just the past three months it would be, as well,” he said.
Mr Towns said anything under that mark in Sandford would be in “original” condition. And by the time a buyer adds a renovation, they would have a $1m-plus property, he said.
“In the last year we have sold three knockdown properties in the mid $900,000s.
“I’ve sold a fair few vacant blocks in Sandford for $500,000-plus and these days you’d be lucky to build a family-size house for under $600,000 so that pushes it past $1m again. It’s scary for the next generation.”
Mr Towns said there were a number of factors at play that are pushing housing prices higher in Hobart including an imbalance between supply and demand and expat Tasmanians returning to the Apple Isle.
“People are returning home to Hobart from the mainland to escape the hustle and bustle, to take advantage of the more affordable pricing here or because of Covid-19, which compounds our supply issue.”
Mr Towns described Acton Park as Sandford’s “more expensive brother”.
“If that one hasn’t already, I’d be surprised if it wasn’t over the $1m line very soon,” he said.
PER Real Estate Institute of Tasmania figures, Acton Park house values have about doubled between 2005 and 2020. The median then was $441,500, and last year it reached $890,000.
Across nine sales this year the median is $1,029,250.
Acton’s change in days on market statistics are extraordinary, just eight days in 2021 compared to 32 last year, 43, 27, 24, 35 and 85 in the five years prior.
Sandford also has an eight-day time on market figure this year — the fastest the REIT has recorded for this suburb dating back to 1996. It has never been in single digits before and over the past few years has been 33 days, 47, 53, 33 and 41.
Across just seven 2021 sales, Sandford’s median is $950,000, that’s $210,000 higher than 2020’s median with 20 sales.
Suburb, 12 months median, 12 months sales, 12 month change in median $940,000, 17, 31.4% $920,000, 10, 58.3% $897,500, 32, 8.1% $893,600, 16 13.8% $875,000, 11, N/A
$875,000, 37, 18.9% $855,000, 10, N/A Source: realestate.com.au data