ALBERT PARK

Aspects of the Ashworth Street stables conversion, a garden sanctuary

JOEL ROBINSON

The quiet achievers

Buyers are finding a way into this most desirable of suburbs

Beachside Albert Park, one of Melbourne’s most active prestige suburbs, kicked off 2020 with several big-ticket sales and it’s been busy ever since. But local agents say things are a little different now.

“It seems business as usual from a sales point of view, but just in a most unorthodox way,” says The Agency Albert Park agent Michael Paproth. “The market has gone underground. The top end of $4 million-plus has gone off market, which suits both buyer and seller as it gives privacy to these transactions that both sides appreciate.”

In March the suburb saw a $9.01 million sale when Lawler House, complete with its own tower outlook, sold for the first time in nearly three decades. The Page Street residence, built in the 1880s and renovated in 2008, secured more than $600,000 above its $8.4 million reserve. It was sold by Greg Hocking Holdsworth after the death last year of estate agent John Holdsworth. A few doors down there was an off-market sale of a 1910 home for around $7.4 million, and then in May the 1860s-built Windermere sold for at least $9 million, again through Greg Hocking Holdsworth.

Warwick Gardiner, who sold Lawler House with Simon Gowling, says demand always outstrips supply in Albert Park and that has never been more so, with record low levels of available properties. “With few on the market and buyer demand high, we haven’t seen much of a drop in prices, if any,” Gardiner says, adding that low supply and huge demand has been the trend since the start of the year. He is optimistic about the rest of the year.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I saw a mini spike in prices and activity when our latest restrictions are lifted in mid-August,” he says. “We saw evidence of this in mid-June, when the first rounds of restrictions were eased.”

Paproth says the new norms will stay for the rest of this year. They include a more personable selling environment, limited open homes and inspections by appointment. He says sellers will need to price their homes based on 2020 sales, not the peak of the market, although he says we’re not far off that. “The reduced volume of available homes will ensure pricing remains at or around current levels.”

Paproth is marketing a stables conversion that was sold for $7.25 million last December. In a sign of the strength of the market, he is asking $8 million for the private garden sanctuary on a 705sq m Ashworth Street block one row back from the beach. The twobedroom home with retreat fuses rustic original character with modern design. The living and dining room with its soaring ceiling opens through French doors to the garden with pool.

There are $6 million to $6.6 million hopes for Valor, a four-level home in Kerferd Road designed by Matyas Architecture. Built by Fili Property with interiors by Zunica, it has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, and a lift from the basement, with its cinema and exercise studio, to the rooftop, which has a hot tub. Kay & Burton Toorak agents Darren Lewenberg and Ross Savas have the listing.