Records tumble for Mornington Peninsula’s luxury homes
Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has always been a home away from home for Melburnians, but it is now taking a step up as luxury home records tumble.
Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has always been a home away from home for Melburnians, but it is now taking a step up as luxury home records tumble.
Whether it is a coronavirus-driven jump as people look to get out of town, or whether the area is now on the radar of more serious investors is not yet known.
But areas like Portsea, Sorrento and once hidden away Flinders have never seen as much activity and it is extending well beyond the traditional summer buying period.
In one of the latest sales, a Flinders home once linked to the family of legendary AFL coach Jock McHale has sold in the mid-$20m range.
The clifftop mansion, fronting 90 King Street, was billed as a $30m extravaganza when it went on the market and can still lay claim to be the area’s most expensive residential home.
The five-bedroom property by luxury developer Brooke Starbuck features a 35-seat spa that is suspended above a pool overlooking the ocean, along with custom-made luxury furniture sourced from overseas.
Large transactions are changing the face of Flinders and elevating to it to the top ranks of the peninsula, with Christopher Weyers recently lodging a caveat.
The mansion was sold by Peninsula Sotheby’s International director Rob Curtain, who dubbed the 2000sq m home an “engineering triumph” when it went on the market. While he declined to discuss the sale, Curtain points to a rush of transactions that are resetting values on the peninsula.
“You’ve got the perfect storm,” he said. “There is the lack of travel, buyers who have been planning luxury buys fast tracking their plans … low interest rates and poor yields on money in the bank.”
Mr Starbuck bought the property as a vacant block from McHale’s family in 2015 and built the dream home with the aid of the Williams Group builders and architect Bruce Henderson after carving off some smaller parcels. While the mansion was unique on the Flinders and Portsea clifftops as a new build, the deal’s success could prompt other developers to enter the market.
There is already stiff demand for Flinders homes.
Good Guys chief executive Andrew Muir now appears to be well ahead of the curve after he bought a Flinders holiday home from Daniel and Danielle Besen for about $17m in 2017. The wing-shaped dwelling, Miramar, has seven bedrooms, and had held records in the area.
More buyers are looking to change their lifestyles, taking up a Mornington Peninsula abode rather than sticking to their grand homes in suburbs such as Toorak and Brighton.
The pandemic has allowed people to work out of the office and buyers ranging from financiers to law firm partners are looking to capitalise on working from home in the grandest style possible.
The jump in $10m-plus sales across the peninsula’s classic areas this month has further proved that the rush to secure trophy properties is heating up, according to agency Kay & Burton.
A home in Constitution Hill Road in Sorrento soared above its $8.5m-$9.3m price guide in a sale handled by Kay & Burton’s Gerald Delany and Liz Jensen.
The property, known as Mount Clear, comprised a landholding of about 4375sq m and an architecturally designed home with enough space to accommodate multiple generations.
It sports uninterrupted bay views taking in the Sorrento-Queenscliff Ferry along to the Sorrento Sailing Club and across the Shipping Channel to Arthurs Seat, Mount Martha, Mount Eliza and the Dandenong Ranges.
A nearby property also sold for more than $10m.
“People are finding their dream homes,” Jensen says. “They have talked about this for years but are usually travelling overseas.”
With borders closed for now, she says purchasers are happy to justify spending on larger holiday homes and even more permanent residences. “Their whole families and all the generations are very excited,” she adds.
As ever, Portsea is leading the way. Honan Insurance executive chairman Damien Honan last month bought a Franklin Road, Portsea clifftop home for $22.2m, seeing off bidders that included property developer David Deague and retailer Mark McInnes. The mansion was sold by the estate of the late Margaret Wallace-Smith. It drew eight bidders in an auction handled by Curtain.
