1. Fitzroy North: Redux

    It was just three weeks ago that the Radical Terrace commented on the brouhaha surrounding the $4.2m sale of a Fitzroy North property fronting the elegant Edinburgh Gardens at 39 Alfred Crescent. It was indeed a notable sale, for prior to the sale of 39 Alfred Crescent only one home on the arching avenue sold above $2m (that outlier being the large plotted #85 which sold for $3.05m in Sep 2009). The Melbourne real estate community reacted with shock - or at least intense interest - at the $4.2m sale in the suburb of Fitzroy North in Melbourne’s historically working class northern suburbs. Some agents even used the sale as proof of the contemporary willingness to ditch the famed Eastern Suburbs of Kew and Hawthorn for the convenience of the Inner North, according to The Age. Now Nelson Alexander, the same agents responsible for the earth-shattering revelation that a $4m+ could be sold in Melbourne’s north, have listed the record holder’s immediate next-door neighbour with $3.5m+ expectations just one month after.

    Today’s listing sits on a comparable lot size, but instead of a California Craftsman like at #39, ‘Mygunyah’ is a c1888 Victorian Italianate (flirting with Boom Style, but not quite making it) with a rare side yard not commonly found in inner city Victorian terraces. Throw in 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a car spot, and a separate studio, and Nelson Alexander agents Nicholas West and Andrew de Angelis think they have an estate worthy of their mid-$3mils pricing hopes. 

    Not surprisingly, the duo are trying their luck with yet another on-site auction on 28 July, hoping to mimic the earlier success of #39, the most well-known suburb record setter of the year…thus far…

    The listing: ‘Mygunyah,’ 41 Alfred Crescent, Fitzroy North

  2. Market ‘Resetters’: Chatswood & Fitzroy North

     

    McGrath agents Peter Chauncy and Amanda Hunt are two happy folks this week. Their much-publicized sale of a fixer-upper Federation on a desirable Chatswood street attained a whopping $2.2m. As Sarah Whyte reported at SMH, the price was $800k above the reserve. Homes on park-adjacent Blakeley St are tightly held; aside from a sale at number 6 for $1.5m earlier this year. Aside from that, Blakeley St homes haven’t sold since 2008 when numbers 21 and 26 went for $1.172m and $1.315m respectively. So is it really re-setting the market? Time will tell. According to Whyte, the buyer was an “expatriate from Singapore” who may have deemed the home to possess qualities worthy of such a high price. Chatswood, and its neighbouring suburbs, have experienced a growth of upper middle class Chinese expatriates in the last 10-20 years and perhaps this pocket of the suburb is eager to assert itself as a prestige pocket due to its parkside location and easy walk to the hub of Chatswood. 

    Another over-reported home sale took place on Fitzroy North’s regal Alfred Crescent. 39 Alfred Crescent, otherwise known as ‘Walkley’, sold for $4.2m through Nelson Alexander agency (who have another Fitzroy North trophy property on the market). The Age deemed the sale nothing short of apocalyptic with Fitzroy North now getting “hefty sums commanded in the private school belt of the leafy eastern suburbs.” However, our favourite part of the article were the commentary from the surprisingly erudite Kay & Burton agent Gowan Stubbings. He noted that 1) buyers are not “suburb-specific” they way they once were (True. Thank you, Gen X & Y.) and 2) buyers that would normally have been attracted to Richmond are being lured to the inner northern suburbs. Interesting.

    But is it a market resetter? Several other homes in the Edinburgh Gardens precinct of garnered prices in the low-$3mils, so $4.2m is certainly high (especially since the home is not above-and-beyond special or renovated). The Radical Terrace is eager to track property prices in Chatswood and Fitzroy North over the course of the next year, that’s for sure.