Salamanca house becomes Hobart’s top sale for 2024

Hobart’s top house and apartment sales of the year show the Apple Isle continues to attract big bidders.

The Finish Line secured Hobart’s top apartment sale for the year.

Hobart’s top house sale in 2024 emerged as 91 Salamanca Place, Battery Point, with its $6.5m price reveal coming the week ­before Christmas.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home with a retail space at ground level is set among Salamanca’s Georgian stone buildings. The narrow 1960s triple-level property was sold by the Nickolls family to Tasmanians.

About one million people visit the local Saturday Salamanca markets every year, with MONA the second most visited tourism attraction on the island.

The home with 546sq m space designed by Brian Wyatt with high ceilings and extensive glazing has views of the River Derwent and Mt Wellington. It has hydronic heating and ceiling heating.

Set on 386sq m, the building had been a warehouse for FH Stephens.

It had been listed with $6m-plus hopes, having last sold in 2000 for $450,000.

Elders Tasmania agent Abi Freeman secured the Battery Point record, bettering a 2022 ­riverfront house sale.

Set on 386sq m, the building had been a warehouse for FH Stephens, the shipping and forwarding agents taken over by Mayne Nickless in 1971.

The ground level 250sq m space is occupied by the Becker Minty concept store of Jason Minty.

Steve Yannarakis of St Andrews Estate Agents suggests the Hobart prestige market is 10-15 per cent off its peak.

“A notable aspect is that mainland purchasers have been largely absent, a departure from the trend pre- and immediately post-Covid,” Yannarakis said.

Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Russell Yaxley says 80 per cent of the high-end $3m-plus home buyers are Tasmanian.

Ashfield of dreams

Hobart’s likely next most expensive sale of 2024 was ­Ashfield, a hillside Sandy Bay home dating back to the 1830s.

It was sold in November by Peterswald agent Kim Morgan for an as-yet undisclosed price following the death of acclaimed plantswoman Barbara Jennings in August.

The 4400sq m Margaret Street estate was referred by colonial Hobartians as Lambe’s Garden, renowned for its huge pear trees. David Lambe was the first colonial architect of Van Diemen’s Land as a sovereign colony under the Crown.

Four cannons were once at Ashfield’s front door, aimed downriver, installed during the Russian invasion scare of the late 19th century.

Four cannons were once at Ashfield’s front door, aimed downriver, installed during the Russian invasion scare of the late 19th century.

Jennings had lived there for six decades, after marrying her late husband Roger, a former Tasmanian solicitor general.

She always regarded herself as a custodian, rather than an owner. “It’s a stewardship,’’ she told Mike Bingham, the late The Hobart Mercury reporter, in 2003. “And I’ve got to look after it and maintain it.

“I never actually have time to sit back on a garden bench in a flowing white dress with a Pimms in my hand. Instead, I wear scruffy old clothes and a beanie and knee-pads.’’

Her memorial was held in the garden with the notice advising “no flowers, plant a tree”.

Finish Line honours

The year’s highest-priced Hobart apartment sale in 2024 was $3.5m in July in the low-rise complex known as The Finish Line, given its location on Sullivan’s Cove.

The first-floor, three-bedroom, three-bathroom Battery Point apartment was constructed in 1929 for the Huon Fruit Growers Company. Its conversion into five apartments was undertaken by builders Fairbrother for sailing enthusiasts Pip and Mike Cooper. Mike Cooper was a member of the crew on Tasmania, the only local boat to claim the Sydney Hobart since 1945.

There is a $2.85m-plus asking price through Freeman for the neighbouring three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment at 2/2 Castray Esplanade. With interiors by Georgina Freeman, the apartments feature Icedrift Quartz Stone, American Oak veneer joinery and Northern Black Butt floors.

The Finish Line has five apartments with decor by Georgina Freeman.

Some of the apartments have been available at the peak rental rate of up to $2990 a night.

Battery Point also saw a $3.45m apartment sale in August at 1 Castray Esplanade, known as The Silos, which was bought by tourism entrepreneurs James and Hayley Baillie. The sixth-floor, 143sq m apartment was first sold in 2002 for $480,000 to longtime Ford Scott Financial Planning chief Ray Lorkin, the late Kingston Tigers Football Club legend who played 528 games, and his wife, Jillian. They sold in 2009 at $1.22m.

The towering concrete Silos complex developed by Geoffrey Harper has views of the Tasman Bridge, which was rebuilt after its January 1975 collapse when hit by the ship Lake Illawarra.

Greystanes highlight

As the hammer comes down on 2024 Hobart sales, pre-Christmas deals were still occurring, highlighted by Greystanes, a $4.4m prestige sale at Sandy Bay. The modernised 1910 five-bedroom Arts & Crafts-style home had last sold in 2014 when bought by tourism entrepreneur Jan Glover, a seventh-generation Tasmanian, and David Stary at $1.7m.

Sandy Bay had another $4.4m sale earlier this year when a 1930s Spanish Mission-style home sold to engineer James Burbury and his wife, designer Sophie.

The Burburys sold their nearby 1920s brick cottage with extension by architectural firm Preston Lane for $2.9m. It was bought by Cedric Hodges, who leads the Deloitte Access Economics team in Tasmania, and his wife, Emily, who works for the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

They had met in Canberra while interns at Commonwealth Treasury.

Of course the island’s acclaimed economist Saul Eslake first left Hobart in 1979 to work for Treasury en route to becoming chief economist for ANZ and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

It was 2013 when Eslake and wife Linda Arenella found their $1.8m dream home 20 minutes’ east of Hobart, with the convict-built 1826 Georgian-style Acton House.

Eslake, who heads Corinna Economic Advisory, leases out one of the smaller furnished stone abodes in the 6.6ha grounds at about $350 a week.

Stoke House a hit

One of the island’s most viewed residential listings on realestate.com.au this year, with 32000 page views, was Stoke House, the restored nine-bedroom, six-bathroom 1887 Gothic Revival residence in New Town, the Hobart suburb.

Listed by Deb Stephens at EIS Property, the triple-storey, 20-plus room house was built for the lieutenant governor John Dodd.

The triple-storey, 20-plus room house was built for a lieutenant governor.

Its current guidance is $4.5m-plus, having started out at $5.5m in September.

Set on 4408sq m, it last sold in 2018 for $3.55m when bought by Coal River Valley cherry farmer Min Quan Shi.

Just across the street, the even more historic Mayfield, a triple-storey, six-bedroom, two-bathroom brick-rendered Gothic home, is for sale through Circa Heritage & Lifestyle agent Dominic Romeo. Dating back to the 1850s, it is on the market for the first time in 40 years.