How these homes became surprise record-breakers

It’s not unusual to hear of house price records being smashed in some of the most sought-after neighbourhoods. Perhaps Point Piper or Vaucluse in Sydney, Toorak or Malvern in Melbourne.

But after property prices boomed in the pandemic, records have been smashed around the country in some far less prestigious postcodes.

Some deals have left neighbours shaking their heads, and perhaps rubbing their hands together, at how much it now costs to live in their unassuming street.

Here are some new house price records that could come as a bit of a surprise.

If a Sydney buyer has a $7 million-plus budget they could look at Hunters Hill or Coogee, acknowledges The Agency North property partner Catherine Murphy.

But Epping?

“Who am I going to sell this to?” Murphy wondered when she landed the listing of 24-26 Gloucester Road.

Plenty of people were willing to pay more than the previous suburb record of $5.75 million, set in 2018. Murphy held 20 private inspections for qualified buyers before selling the home last month within a week.

Drawcards included the large block of 4116 square metres, proximity to the train station, five bedrooms and a Palm Springs-style pool.

Family homes nearby usually fetch about $2 million to $2.5 million, and while Murphy declined to comment on the sale price at Gloucester Road, one source with knowledge of the deal pegged it at about $7.5 million.

SOLD - $4,180,000

23 Anthony Road, West Ryde NSW 2114

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Murphy also set the North Epping record in November at $3.525 million, when she sold a six-bedroom house at 11 Durham Street.

Other recent Sydney surprises include a new suburb record in West Ryde of $4.18 million, and the $3,315,000 record in Abbotsbury in Sydney’s south-west.

SOLD - $5,050,000

40 Gould Street, Frankston VIC 3199

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In Melbourne, lockdown-weary buyers are paying a premium for the seaside, such as a $5.05 million deal struck in once-overlooked Frankston this month.

The older-style, five-bedroom house with development potential at 40 Gould Street is set on the absolute beachfront and comes with its own beach box.

“It is not what you would normally expect, to achieve these sorts of prices,” RT Edgar Peninsula listing agent Vicki Sayers said, adding that the large land size, waterfront position and sweeping views were drawcards for the holiday home buyer.

“It has probably one of the best views I have ever seen.”

The median house price in Frankston, a 45km drive south of the CBD, was $735,000 in December last year, according to Domain data.

On the other side of town, a glamorous family home sold for $6.85 million this summer, a new suburb record for the north-eastern suburb of Templestowe.

Set on almost 4000 square metres, the six-bedroom residence at 10 Summerhill Road came with all the mod cons including a pool, tennis court, gym with steam room, billiard/theatre room and bar, wine cellar, marble kitchen and butler’s pantry.

Even so, it’s a new benchmark for an area where family homes can be had for $1.5 million and acreages for between $2.5 million and $4.5 million, selling agent Theo Politis of Barry Plant Manningham said.

“There’s a lot of homes in Templestowe that would fetch that money or more, they just don’t really trade hands,” he said.

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Brisbane has also been reaching new highs, as cashed-up southern buyers make a move to the Sunshine State.

In riverside Indooroopilly, the sale of another lavish pad broke the suburb house price record in November, not by an incremental gain but by a huge leap of almost $6 million.

The six-bedroom house, on a 6020-square-metre-block at 78 Jilba Street, traded for $12 million.

“There is nothing even close in Indooroopilly,” selling agent Jason Adcock, of Adcock Prestige, said.

The family home features an infinity pool, entertaining pavilion, pontoon, library and sunken lounge.

At the other end of the market, a four-bedroom house in the outer southern suburb of Logan Reserve, in the city of Logan, traded for $765,500, a record for its estate.

The median house price in the suburb was just $457,500 last year.

Further north, Townsville’s record was reset with the private sale of a $6 million mansion at 32 Stirling Drive, Castle Hill.

The highest private treaty sale in the city last year was $3.2 million for 4 Braemar Drive, in the same suburb, through Smith and Elliott’s Sally Elliott.

Both are outliers, and Elliott noted that the middle of the market in Townsville ranges from the high $400,000s to the mid-$600,000s.

In once-affordable Hobart, a penthouse apartment reportedly sold off the plan for an eye-watering $8 million.

The St David luxury apartment complex at 9 Sandy Bay Road stood out for its industrial-style design and parkside location, and the home sold through Harrison Agents’ Tom Harrison.

And in Adelaide, a local family paid $2.65 million for a resort-style home in Hallett Cove, a 20-kilometre drive south of the CBD, breaking the suburb record by more than $1 million. The home traded through Giordano & Partners’ Grant Giordano and Jacqui Illicic.

Perth’s property market overall is not back to the record highs reached after the mining boom, but some individual suburbs broke records as prices rose last year.

On the oceanfront in Swanbourne, in the city’s sought-after west, a house on an 878-square-metre block of land at 22 Odern Crescent fetched $13.3 million through Space Real Estate’s Justin Davies.

It far eclipsed the neighbourhood’s next-highest sale of $7.3 million in 2015.