No sign of market cooling as Apple Isle runs hot

Mainlanders seeking an escape from the hustle and bustle of big city life are ensuring Tasmania’s housing marches ahead while others falter.

Trial Bay House at 3101 Channel Highway, Kettering.

Escapees from the hustle and bustle of mainland Australia continue to buoy major Tasmanian centres, particularly as travellers head across Bass Strait through the summer months.

Agents in Tasmania don’t expect a break to the selling season in January as is typical in the larger markets, as mainland buyers who drove much of the activity through the pandemic continue to circle alongside locals.

View Real Estate chief executive Adrian Kelly remembers the days when selling in winter was impossible, but now that the state has been “discovered” by mainland travellers, the market ticks along all year round.

Trial Bay House has exquisite views of the coast.

“It doesn’t matter what week of the year it is; people are always trying to buy something,” he said.

“The old days of the four seasons have gone out the window for us.”

PropTrack’s monthly Home Price Index reveals prices in Hobart have come off 2.92 per cent from their peak in April but still sit 1.06 per cent higher over the year to November and are up 43.8 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels. The broader regional Tasmanian market is holding up better, just 0.29 down from its peak and up 7.33 per cent annually.

Forbes Global Properties Australia director Tracey Atkins said the Tasmanian market was red hot for those looking to get back to nature.

Trial Bay House sits on a secluded, elevated peninsula overlooking the waters of Trial Bay and is surrounded by 42ha of rolling land. Originally designed 40 years ago by architect Ray Heffernan, renovations and additions were added by the current owners under the direction of architect James Jones.

Melding the original timber-dominated design with a modern, concrete block design, the house won the 2010 Australian Institute of Architects Robin Boyd Award for best residential house.

Potential buyers from overseas and interstate have called through the six-week campaign, with the price range set at $9m to $9.9m.

Further north in Launceston, The Agency’s Eric Andersen said the local farming community was helping to hold up prices in the $2m to $3m price range as buyers secured an asset as a weekender or retirement plan.

“It’s certainly eased off a little bit; it’s gone from silly back to pretty close to normal,” Mr Andersen said.

This week, he listed a property at 93 Lachlan Parade in Trevallyn, which he believed would garner strong interest for its quality build and eco-friendly attributes, such as solar panels and double glazing. With four bedrooms, two bathrooms and enough space for six cars, the family home’s vista overlooks Launceston and its surrounds.

“If you built Lachlan Parade now everything fell in line, it would probably cost you at least $1.8m to $2m … three years later, the cost of replacing that house has just gone through the roof,” Mr Andersen said.

The sale of the property is being run via an ­expression of ­interest campaign, with a price guide of $1.5m.

In Howden, a Tuscan-inspired home has come on the market, offering the right buyer a unique home or an astute business­person a new tourism venture.

For the past few years, Villa Howden has been offered to the public as a holiday escape. The imposing 854sq m building, which was built in the 1970s, has eight bedrooms, each with ensuites and views over Tasmania’s North West Bay and surrounding gardens. A separate 92 sqm two-storey villa has two additional bedrooms.

Circa Heritage and Lifestyle South Melbourne senior salesman Dominic Romeo, who is handling the sale, said many Brisbane and Sydney buyers were interested in moving south.

“Whenever I list a historic house, I get bombarded, mainly from Sydney, the NSW southern highlands and Brisbane,” Mr Romeo said. “In Brisbane, it is for the weather. In Sydney, they understand colonial architecture and there is still that rush to get out of the city.”