Houses in The Ridgeway and Hughes set suburb records with first $2m sales

The suburbs of The Ridgeway and Hughes have set a new bar with their first $2 million sales after two houses broke their respective suburb records.

A six-bedroom property at 96 Ridgeway Road, The Ridgeway sold via private negotiations for $2 million, while a five-bedroom home at 10 Spence Place, Hughes sold under the hammer for $2.025 million.

The 2.35-hectare property at The Ridgeway, affectionately known as Orana, was on the market for only 10 days before it was snapped up by a Queanbeyan family, said selling agent Samantha Granter of Belle Property Kingston.

“Within three to four days of it being on the market, we had multiple offers for the property and eventually one came through that the sellers couldn’t turn down,” Ms Granter said.

Some of the drawcards of Orana was its sheer size, the quality of the home and its location that offered a peaceful retreat.

“The ultimate drawcard was the pool – it was an absolute showstopper. The pool and the al fresco area at the back was what gained most people’s attention throughout the marketing campaign,” Ms Granter added.

When Orana was first listed on the market, Ms Granter was confident that it would break the suburb record.

“I had no doubt about it. There’s only a couple of homes of this sort of calibre in this suburb and it’s probably one of the top-tier properties in the Queanbeyan region as well,” she said.

Ms Granter added the vendors had decided to part with their home in a bid to downsize.

According to internal Allhomes data, Orana had 5045 views on the Allhomes website and app, and an overall engagement number* of 133,621 in the 10 days it was on the market.

Government records show The Ridgeway’s previous suburb record was set in 2016 at 148 Ridgeway Road for $1.275 million. Orana surpassed the record by $725,000.

Elsewhere, the property at 10 Spence Place, Hughes brought in 13 registered bidders at auction with five actively participating in the bidding war.

Selling agent Robert Peaker of Blackshaw Woden, Weston Creek & Molonglo said the residence had 190 groups through the property during the open home inspections and close to 200 groups booked private inspections during the three-week auction campaign.

“Come auction day, we had nearly 200 people gathered in the front yard eager to watch,” Mr Peaker said.

“The campaign was very strong with a lot of interest from both local and overseas buyers.”

Bidding for the home kicked off at $1.6 million and swiftly made its way past the $2 million mark thanks to five bidders increasing the price in $25,000 increments, Mr Peaker said.

“It came down to three parties who fought it out to the very end. One of the parties put in a $5000 bid to keep themselves in the game but it wasn’t enough,” he added.

“The eventual buyers were from overseas and will be moving to Canberra to live in it.”

Under the sellers’ 16-year ownership, the property was extended and renovated and a pool was added. Now the sellers will take on a new project on a smaller scale.

“The sellers spent a lot of time, money and effort to get the property to where it is now. They put so much heart into it. They aren’t so much downsizing, but will work on something smaller that will suit the next stage of their lives,” Mr Peaker said.

Internal Allhomes data showed No. 10 Spence Place had 12,363 views on the Allhomes platforms including the app and website, and an overall engagement number of 301,816 during its auction campaign.

According to government records, Hughes’ previous suburb record was set earlier this year at 7 Colvin Street, which sold for $1.92 million. The latest sale surpassed the previous record by $105,000.

*Engagement levels are calculated by the number of clicks on a property’s floor plan, photos, video, 3D tours, property history and utilising the map functions such as clicking on the aerial view of the property and land details.