My Address

Words by EMILY POWER Photos by GREG BRIGGS

Alife split between coastal and metro. The hubbub of suburban day-to-day balanced with small town composure.

It’s a tonic for the soul, and a scenario that former winter Olympian Steph Prem has made her real estate reality.

Prem, a five-time national snowboarding champion and the only woman to represent Australia in the snowboard cross at the 2010 Vancouver Games, took an international view when it came to opening a health and fitness studio in Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula.

The personal trainer and clinical Pilates instructor is the founder of Studio PP, which operates fitness and wellbeing classes in South Yarra and on Collins Street in the city.

She opened the third studio in Portsea after a fact-finding trip to the US demonstrated a demand for beachside Hamptons health and wellness studios by visiting Manhattanites. She thought that would work well here.

Fit and fab in Portsea

Steph Prem splits her time between the city and the peninsula.

The pier at the Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club.

And so her coastal studio opened on Point Nepean Road in Portsea, propelled by sea-changing clientele who flocked from the city to the Mornington Peninsula during the pandemic. Now Prem resides in Melbourne for half of the week and spends Friday to Monday in Portsea.

Prem says to live on the peninsula through all seasons is to experience a variation of pace. It’s very busy in summer but otherwise, it has a chilled, village vibe.

“There are definite mental and physical benefits I have felt from the lifestyle,” she says. “The work-life balance is the attraction. I live an active lifestyle, so I have learnt to

love the juxtaposition of the busy city life versus the coastal life.

“And as much as I love living and working in the city, where a lot of my friends are and a lot of my business is, I like living down the coast because my former life was as a professional athlete.

“I enjoy the active side of coastal living – paddle boarding, walks along the beach, jogging ... and cold-water dips off the pier every morning.”

Prem said the attraction of a slower-paced life was a driving force for the move.

“It is something I preach but need to work on in my practice,” she says. “Portsea and Sorrento have a villagetype feel, and people know each other by their first name and you always run into someone you know as you walk the dog.

“I lived in Europe when I was an athlete, and being back in a coastal village reminds me of being part of a small European town.”

The evolution of this much-loved part of Victoria from a holiday destination to a permanent or parttime residential base has lifted the real estate market like a dawn high tide at Tootgarook.

The latest Domain House Price Report shows half of the top 20 Melbourne suburbs with the highest annual growth are on the Mornington Peninsula.

Buyers facing strong competition have needed to be as primed and ready as the local Prosser fishmonger family’s trawler in a school of gummy sharks.

However, the peninsula’s median house price decreased by 0.6 per cent over the September quarter, according to Domain data, which is the first drop in prices since December 2018.

When demand goes up so do house prices, as does the cost per kilo of flathead fillets from the local fish ’n’ chippery over Christmas. But these signs of easing (for real estate, perhaps not so much for fresh fish), will please buyers who dream of making the peninsula their home.

To live heartily on the coast is to embrace the outdoors, Prem says.

One of her favourite walks “in the world” is the 1.5-kilometre Farnsworth Track, a cruisey path that links the Portsea surf beach to the monolithic London Bridge in the Mornington Peninsula National Park. The scenic route is a portion of the famous 30-kilometre coastal walk through the peninsula.

Prem’s morning chai latte is from Blakeaway (an offshoot of Blake’s Feast) on Point Nepean Road, opposite her Portsea studio.

The iconic Portsea Hotel is a favourite of hers for lunch and dinner, where the rolling lawn meets the water and the beer garden is a rollicking gaggle of Melbourne’s who’s who in the warmer months.

Prem says there is a collegiate attitude among other beach-based small businesses, which the locals support with relish. She buys her athletic wear at Emia boutique in Portsea, pops into Marlow Spa in neighbouring Sorrento for massage or a facial, and grabs an acai bowl at Baked, also in Sorrento.

“I feel like that basing myself down there, and having the luxury of being there semi-permanently, has allowed me to meet more of the community, and not just rely on my friends who are there over summer. You sign up for things you might not do normally. I genuinely love my Mondays and Fridays down there; they’re a joy.”

“I enjoy the active side of coastal living – paddle boarding, walks along the beach, jogging

... and cold-water dips off the pier every morning.” - FORMER WINTER OLYMPIAN STEPH PREM

Emia boutique shopping.

Lunch at the Portsea Hotel.

LIMITED 2 AND 3-BEDROOM RESIDENCES REMAIN PARK VIEW from $1,215,000 RIVERFRONT from $1,920,000

WATERFRONT DISPLAY SUITE OPEN FOR PRIVATE VIEWINGS (IN-PERSON & ONLINE)

BOOK NOW

SEAFARERS-RESIDENCES.COM.AU/DISCOVER OR CALL 1300 308 295

AT LAST, A HOME THAT LOOKS AFTER ITSELF

A Seafarers lifestyle extends far beyond the luxuries of your grand-scale home. As Melbourne’s first international hotel-branded residences, it also places a dedicated team of 140 staff at your service, and gives you access to all the guest amenities of Australia’s first 1 Hotel, including:

– Private dining rooms with chef catered dinners – Pool, gym, sauna, spa and rooftop garden – 24-hour concierge and valet parking – In-home room service and organic pantry stocking – Housekeeping and linen service – Botanical care and maintenance services – Pet care and walking.

Situated on the last piece of Melbourne’s original waterfront, this is the final opportunity to experience absolute riverfront living in the city’s evolving heart.

Artist’s impression

HOTEL RESIDENCES

Seafarers 1 Hotel & Homes residents will have access to all that the hotel has to offer.

Five-star apartment life

Embodying a new era of luxury riverfront living for Melbourne, the amenity and services at Seafarers 1 Hotel & Homes on the north bank of the Yarra River is designed to be beyond compare.

Developed by Melbourne-based property development group Riverlee, the waterfront apartments are the city’s first international hotelbranded residences, featuring an unprecedented level of private and shared amenity as part of an aspirational residential experience.

“We have made something extraordinary, that goes beyond what has previously been seen in the Melbourne market. An international level of living awaits, and we are confident it will be the beginning of a new lifestyle standard that buyers will begin to expect in Australia,” says David Lee, development director at Riverlee.

The globally acclaimed 1 Hotels brand ensures the residences feature

There is also a 24/7 concierge on call, designed to make residents’ lives seamless, from the moment they arrive home and even while they are away on holiday. From valet parking to business services, housekeeping, in-room dining, chef-catered dinners, organic pantry re-stocking and pet care, Seafarers is designed to cater to residents needs.

With elegant interiors designed by Carr, the residences have innovative, quality joinery, fixtures, and highly functional storage.

These elements showcase how colour, texture and light can combine to elevate a space and reflect a resident’s broader holistic experience of the precinct.

The apartments also promote a seamless indoor-outdoor lifestyle and create the ideal space for entertaining or simply relaxing.

Designed by award-winning Australian architecture firm Fender Katsalidis, the Seafarers building and surrounding public spaces are a

all the celebrated sustainable design elements of the hotel below, which is being touted as Australia’s first nature-inspired, sustainable hotel.

Residents at Seafarers will have unlimited access to 1 Hotels’ wellbeing facilities – including a pool, full-service fitness centre, day spa and sauna – as well as a 500-square-metre, resident-only rooftop terrace with lounge, library, lush gardens and two private dining rooms overlooking the Yarra River. vital part of the emerging Northbank precinct. This vibrant community is defined by placemaking public open spaces including a waterfront public park, Seafarers Rest, and a vast retail and hospitality offering set against the picturesque Yarra River and within walking distance of the CBD.

Attention to detail and an allimportant amenity offering are defining elements that position these branded residences as a unique market offering.

Seafarers aims to elevate the idea of apartment living to a five-star hotel experience while retaining all the considered comforts and conveniences that make a luxury apartment truly feel like a home.

Park and city view residences are priced from $1.215 million and riverfront homes from $1.92 million. The display suite is now open for private appointments.