Bellarine Times
Tuesday 4 May 2010
VOL 3. No 18
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
Acclaimed Australian actor and Queenscliffe resident, Matt King, and Marylou Gilbert, from The Book Shop at Queenscliffe, are looking forward to the diverse Sea of Words programme which features events throughout May. See Page 3 for more information.
TIME TO BUY Photo: ALISON MARTIN
Local real estate agents unanimous in their belief that the Bellarine remains undervalued and that prices will continue to surge over the coming years
BY ALISON MARTIN INCREASING demand and ballot systems are setting precedents on the Bellarine, yet experts maintain peninsula properties are currently “undervalued”, with prices set to soar. Wallington Real Estate agent, Allason Lynch, said there were 600 people on an inquiry database for land in Ocean Grove and acreage in the Wallington area, which remained scarce but in high demand. “Land in the Kingston Estate sub-division in Ocean Grove is selling out in the first few hours of being released,” Lynch said. “We had 19 blocks available in the last release and 38 people had to go into a ballot for the blocks. We will have 24 blocks in the next release and there will potentially be similar numbers.
“There is a mix of people looking for Ocean Grove property, some are locals, some from Melbourne and we even have people from the UK and Ukraine on our database. “Properties are listed and sold within half an hour. We just can’t keep up with demand.” Sales manager for Curlewis Park residential estate on Jetty Road, Rod Anderson, said land buyers had also shown strong interest in the new Clifton Springs sub-division. “We released the first stage of Curlewis Park on April 17 and within two weeks had 31 contracts signed; with about 50 people walking through the sales office door a day,” he said. Anderson explained that most contracts had been signed by local buyers who had been waiting for the land to be released and the website was still to be
developed; so huge interest was expected once the marketing programme expanded to include buyers outside the region. “Curlewis Park is very affordable compared to the rest of Victoria and it adds a lot of extra infrastructure for the local community,” Anderson said. “Parcels of land range from $135,000 to $166,000 and good design principals are an important feature. There can only be one house per lot, front gardens are being encouraged and housing will be modern-contemporary in keeping with the bayside environment.” The property surge is not restricted to new blocks, however, with new precedents being set for existing Bellarine homes and properties across all price ranges. BFP director, Bruce Falk, who sold the iconic Spray Farm property for $7.05 million last month,
said the result was a positive boost for the area and there was no doubt Bellarine property prices would continue to rise. “It was an exceptional result considering it is a post global financial crisis price. We had five or six potential buyers bidding above $6.3 million,” he said. “But my background is the Mornington Peninsula and the Bellarine is probably still 75 per cent cheaper, based on the Spray Farm sale price.” He said understanding the market and the value of Mornington properties explained why the Bellarine had enormous growth opportunities. “The reason Melbourne people started buying on the Mornington Peninsula was because it was an escape from the population, but the Bellarine now has two-thirds less population and is so much cheaper,” Falk said.