Derby real estate: Tas town about to break $1m mark yet again
After cresting the milestone for the first time late last year, a Tasmanian hamlet is about to have a second house sell for $1m+, with a third just falling short at auction this weekend past.
Launceston
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A northeast Tasmanian hamlet is in the midst of an “electrifying” property boom which has seen some properties grow in value by nearly 1000 per cent in just three years, surging over the million-dollar mark.
The boom in ex-tin mining town Derby, population just 176 according to the 2016 Census, has been driven by its network of world-class mountain bike trails, says Knight Frank Launceston agent Justin Wiggins.
While the August 2021 sale of the ‘Crack House’ at 78 Main St, Derby for $1.31m remains the only time the town’s residential market has jumped the million-dollar mark, a twin allotment at 70–72 Main St sold at auction over the weekend for $903,000.
Both transactions were handled by Mr Wiggins, who told The Mercury he was currently in the process of drawing up a further contract which would again see the Derby residential market crest $1m.
The 70 Main St address, which last sold in 2014 for just $130,000, a growth of nearly 600 per cent in eight years – dwarfed by the Crack House’s growth of 991 per cent in just three years from $120,000 in 2018 to $1.31m in August lat year – sold to an interstate buyer from NSW who loved their biking, Mr Wiggins said.
“And I’ve got plenty of buyers waiting,” he said, noting he had also made four recent sales in Ringarooma to buyers who were seeking proximity to the trails at Derby, the transformation of which he described as “electrifying”.
As further evidence of Derby’s renaissance, he noted the Dorset Hotel, which had been for sale, had gone under contract over the Christmas period.
Mr Wiggins, who lives at Branxholm and was schooled at Winnaleah, said house prices were similarly ballooning in the northeastern towns of St Helens and George Town for the same reason.
“Mountain bikers are not going overseas like they once were,” he said.
Mr Wiggins said much of the interest was from buyers in NSW or Hobart.
Founded in 1870, Derby “reached its peak in the 19th century when the town’s population reached over 3,000 and The Briseis Mine (previously named The Brothers Mine) was producing upwards of 120 tonnes of tin per month,” according to Blue Derby Mountain Bike Trails’ website.
After decades of decline, the township was given an injection of life when the first 20km section of MTB track was opened in 2015.
It now encompasses more than 125km of track, hosting internationally renowned competitions.
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