Five Canberra agents share fond memories from their childhood homes

The search for property is often focused on what’s coming next, what new home is on the market and which suburb is the next up and comer. But taking a look back is often equally as informative.

Whether you’re an avid investor or a coast-to-country dreamer browsing the pages of Allhomes magazine each week, the notion of “home” is one that unites us. After all, memories are made within four walls.

We chat to five Canberra agents who take us back to a simpler time, back to their childhood homes, when Garran was on the very outskirts of Canberra and a $1 million property sale made for a city-wide record.

Ante Vatavuk

Licensed agent

InStyle Estate Agents

For Vatavuk, growing up in suburbia was as idyllic as it could get. The family-oriented suburb of Holt provided the backdrop for a safe and simple upbringing, forging memories that still last to this day.

“When you’re out in the suburbs as young kids, you’d go to leave the house at daybreak and come back at night fall and nobody would bat an eye,” Vatavuk says.

“I’d take off with friends on my bike, do jumps, roam the streets and it was a fun time and place to just be a kid.”

Adamant urging from his parents led Vatavuk to purchase his first home in Ngunnawal at age 26, but it was in Watson where he re-connected to the strong community atmosphere he valued so much as a child.

On a large corner block with a veggie patch to the side, he made life-long friends by sharing his homegrown hot chillies as they put up with his blasting metal music out the windows.

Tania Butler-Kemp

Sales consultant and operations manager

Independent Inner North & City

Butler-Kemp’s grandparents bought their Garran home back when Garran was considered the very outskirts of our city.

Now the suburb is enmeshed in south Canberra and the home is in the loving hands of Butler-Kemp and her husband.

Not only have they been able to keep the home in the family but they’ve thoughtfully renovated it to bring the style into the 21st century while holding on to all the character that Garran’s known for.

“I have really vivid memories of taking my barbies there to play under the shade of the gum trees at Garran Oval,” Butler-Kemp says.

“Then growing up and walking my dogs around it with my grandparents and now I love nothing more than wandering over and sitting under the trees. It’s really cool to see everything change around me, but the trees remaining just as they are.”

Jake Winters

Sales consultant

Carter + Co Agents

While not technically a born and bred Canberran, being a third-generation Queanbeyan local surely counts for something.

Winters would cross the border over to ACT each day to make the quick journey to Daramalan College in Dickson for school.

“The best thing about growing up here is that everything is so close together,” Winters says.

“From one side of Canberra to the other, its just 45 minutes. We’re a city, but unlike somewhere like Sydney or Melbourne, Canberra retains a small-town feel.”

Winters has watched on as the NSW neighbouring city grew to include first-home buyer hubs like Googong and the wide spread road works that have completely changed the cityscape over the past 20 years.

Sophie Luton

Licensed agent

Luton Properties Manuka

When real estate runs in your blood, you begin to pick up on the little things very early on in life.

Luton fell for the charm and character of heritage homes right from the moment her family moved into their home on leafy Barkly Crescent in Forrest when she was a young girl.

Since then, the three-bedroom cottage has undergone multiple renovations and extensions, but the breadth of possibilities offered is what Luton loves about homes like hers.

Her real estate career officially kicked off 13 years ago, but Luton recalls a few “off the books” hours well before then.

“My life growing up was Saturdays taking packed lunches to dad’s auctions wherever he was,” Luton says.

“We’d do letterbox drops for him and have little baskets attached to our bikes just for the papers.”

Rob Cappuccio

Licensed agent

Belle Property Kingston 

Driving through Stirling, Cappuccio still sees some of the well-known faces of his childhood, dropping their own children off to school or picking homegrown produce from fruit and veggie gardens that were present on almost every block back when he was little.

“Anyone who’s European or who has European parents knows all too well the yearly fruit processing and making of sauces from the produce in your own backyard,” Cappuccio says.

His father built their solid-brick home to last a lifetime back in 1986 and before that, it was a youth filled with block parties and bike rides in Chapman and Duffy.

“I can remember back in 1984 we all picketed and had placards up protesting the [Mount Stromlo] forest coming down,” Cappuccio says.

“We used to have bonfire nights on the reserves and the whole street would turn up which just wouldn’t happen anymore.”

Read more of Allhomes’ 20th anniversary story series here.