Central Geelong renovator finds $1m-plus buyer
An old Victorian era house near Geelong’s hospital added $160,000 to its value over seven years. New owners are expected to eye future renovation plans.
New owners of a tired Victorian era house close to Geelong’s University Hospital is expected to eye future renovation plans.
The three-bedroom house at 62 Swanston St, Geelong, sold for $1.1m last week after 12 months on the market.
Gartland Geelong agent Harry Brook said the buyer was interested in the 457sq m property as a residence.
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Mr Brook said the new owners intended to keep the existing tenants in the double-fronted weatherboard house on the edge of Geelong’s CBD.
The broad Activity Centre zoning underpins the seven-figure value in the property, which has rear-lane access and is walking distance to the city’s hospitals, shopping and entertainment precincts.
“That one actually sold to a residential purchaser,” Mr Brook said.
“Actually they’re going to retain the existing residential tenant for a little while and in due course – I’m thinking one or two years from now, they’ll give it a red hot crack and do a nice renovation on it.”
Mr Brook said the Activity Centre zoning makes the purchase stack up for residential purchaser.
“It makes it hard because that house needs a bit of love,” he said.
The turn of the century house last made headlines in 2018 when it sold as part of a deceased estate for $920,000, beating price hopes at a hotly contested auction by $200,000.
The house has been leased periodically ever since.
Swanston St has historically been a hot spot for medical practitioners, with brass nameplates affixed to the facade of the typically white weatherboard houses between Ryrie and Malop streets.
But more homes have been renovated for residential uses in recent years.
“I think for them they just wanted to as close to the CBD as possible. They wanted the opportunity to have that lifestyle. They pretty much said we can walk down to the restaurants and bars and everything and just chill out.”
Geelong has a median house price of $880,000, according to PropTrack data, after briefly touching $1m in early 2024.
It’s the third house on the strip between Ryrie St and Malop St to achieve a $1m-plus sale. It’s a tightly-held street, where neighbouring houses have been held since the mid 1970s.
Four houses have changed hands on the block in the past two years, including a $975,000 sale at 44 Swanston St, last July and a $1.11m sale at 54 Swanston St in September 2023.
Originally published as Central Geelong renovator finds $1m-plus buyer