World’s your oyster as Pearl Beach sets record with $8.6m sale
Prestige sales on the dress circle at Pearl Beach, on the NSW Central Coast, have highlighted one of the most striking features of the real estate boom.
Prestige sales on the dress circle at Pearl Beach, on the NSW Central Coast, have highlighted one of the most striking features of the national real estate boom.
It’s not just been the record prices, but the quick succession of rolling record sales as buyers seek out the best abodes as soon as they hit the market.
Previously record sales have typically been outlier prices that took years to be bettered, but not during the pandemic.
It was just last spring that former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate lost her mantle for having the priciest weekender at Pearl Beach.
It followed the $5.805m sale of Seascape, a contemporary oceanfront home with resort-style infinity pool, just 16 days into its marketing last October.
By January the coastal hamlet’s top price was $6.3 million for an architect-designed, three-level home with 45m of beachfront plus a boatshed.
Last week an $8.6m sale was secured through Stuart Gan at Central Coast Realty.
The property last traded in 1993 for $575,000, with its two-storey residence built some 22 years ago.
Pearl Beach’s first $5m sale came in 2007 with a purchase by BridgeClimb founder Paul Cave.
Two years later the then billionaire-in-the-making Brett Blundy bought one of the 30 or so beachfronts for $5.8m but onsold for a loss in 2015 at $5.2 million to Holgate.
The village’s palpable working class flavour has long disappeared with Malibu-style mansions built on the beach.
Prices first soared past $1m in boomtime 1989 when adman John Singleton bought Pibitou. It was sold in 1996 for $695,000.
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Canberra market hot
Canberra had the best performing weekend clearance rate with 94 per cent of the 65 homes selling at auction, according to realestate.com.au.
Bill Lyristakis at Berkely Residential set a $3.01m Barton record under the weekend auction hammer.
The charming single-level Belmore Gardens listing came with four bedrooms and two bathrooms under new roofing after the 2020 hailstorm.
There were six registered bidders for the 797sq m holding with an official $1,139,000 land value. Its rates are $7272 annually and its land tax $12,300.
The Barton house price record has stood at $2.15m since 2017.
Canberra’s run of record-breaking house prices saw six suburban records in the space of a week last month: in Conder, Holt, Oxley, Gilmore, McKellar and Latham.
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Freshwater flair
Sydney secured the nation’s top advised result, which came pre-auction in Freshwater when $6.625m was paid.
The original brick home at 22 Kooloora Avenue sits on an 866sq m block.
The neighbouring trophy home suggests what’s possible for the knockdown site, which came with a $5.25m price guide through Cunninghams Northern Beaches agent Andrew Lutze.
Sydney’s weekend success rate sat at 91 per cent from 600 results, according to realestate.com.au.
Listing volumes in Sydney are at seasonal record highs for winter, with the now announced extended lockdown prompting vendors to rethink their strategy and adapt to the changed open-for-inspection and auction conditions.
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Right on Kew
There was an 84 per cent success rate in Melbourne, the second busiest weekend this year as the city emerged from its recent lockdown interruption to listings.
The top reported sale was in Kew at $4.485m.
The contemporary five-bedroom home at 16 Ross Street, Kew, had been listed with a $3.9m to $4.29m price guide.
It came with wide oak floorboards, pure wool carpets, marble surfaces and soaring double-glazed windows and doors.
The three-level home comes with a theatre/games room with wet bar and wine fridge.
It was marketed as having karaoke capacity.
The property last traded in 2015 at $1.87m when it was a knockdown cottage with a $1.6m-plus price guide.
The 90-year-old weatherboard set on 430sq m had previously traded in the 1950s for £820.
Cordell Connect says there was a $1m rebuild development approval in 2017.
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Pre-auction action
Pre-auction sales dominated the top end transactions across the nation, including Brisbane, where the top sale was in St Lucia.
The $3.3m sale came after just six days on the market through Jason Adcock at Adcock Prestige.
There were 26 buyers through the first open house, followed by three written offers. It was bought by a local family who are upgrading.
The 101 Hawken Drive offering is a two level Hamptons-style home built in 2019 on a 1067sq m holding. It had traded at $1,505,000 in 2016 before its substantial renovation.
Adelaide’s top sale was a tightly held 1930s Tusmore offering sold pre-auction at $2m.
The four-bedroom home at 11 Kennaway Street sold through Jordan Begley and Bronte Manuel at Toop & Toop Real Estate for the first time in over four decades. It sold after just three days on the market. It came with sandstone facade and veranda with terrazzo tiles.
Queensland saw a weakened 66 per cent weekend clearance rate, while Adelaide’s 92 per cent was the second best mainland capital city result.
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Race to Gold Coast
Horse trainer Lee Freedman has sold in Sydney, having decided to operate his stables out of the Gold Coast following his return from Singapore.
The Hall of Fame trainer’s redundant two-level contemporary Woollahra terrace fetched $2.95m through BradfieldCleary agents Bob Guth and Georgia Cleary.
The Wallis Street terrace had been bought in 2019 at $2.59m from David Ipp, the late commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Freedman has recently bought a four-bedroom home for $1.85m on the Gold Coast’s Broadbeach Waters with a floating pontoon.
Though he made his name in Victoria, he trained his first winner, Blockade, in 1983 in Queensland. Intrepidacious, his first runner since returning to Australia, ran second earlier this month in the Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich.
Rival trainer Gai Waterhouse has been active on the property front in Sydney. She spent $7.3m last week when horse trainer David Hayes offloaded his Kensington stable premises that backs on to Randwick Racecourse.
The Doncaster Avenue property was bought by Hayes, now back training in Hong Kong, and his wife Prue for $610,000 in 1989.
Waterhouse owns both of the adjoining premises, including property bought from the Australian Jockey Club.
The Federation cottage and eight horse boxes on 613sq m was listed through BradfieldCleary agents William Tsagaris and Bob Guth.
There was competition from Racing NSW, with its CEO Peter V’landys throwing in a few bids.
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Bargain buy
Melbourne had the nation’s cheapest sale: a $210,000 one-bedroom unit at St Kilda East. The price guide from Daniel Peer at Gary Peer & Associates had been $200,000 to $220,000.
The 19/87 Alma Road offering was offered as “securely let on a yield of 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent at $315 per week”. It last sold at $165,000 in 2004.
Melbourne saw an 84 per cent clearance rate from 800 results.
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