Record price achieved for Junortoun property

FOR the first time, A residential property outside the Bendigo central business district has sold for more than two million dollars.

The property, at 68 Lanark Drive in Junortoun, was sold for close to the asking price of $2.3 million, according to Brock Pinner, marketing manager at the selling agent with McKean McGregor.

Not the only recent price record, a vacant residential section of 480 square metres at 20 Barkly Street in the Bendigo Hospital precinct sold for $1 million, more than twice what it went for when last on the market in October 2018.

Mr Pinner said while he estimates there are possibly several other properties near the one sold in Junortoun that could go for a similar price, it was still an outlier in the wider Bendigo market overall.

He said its high price came down to a range of factors working together, including its architecture, closeness to the McIvor Forest, and most notably, scarcity of similar properties in the area.

“It was a beautiful building and absolutely immaculately maintained,” he said. “It was sort of one out of the box a little, in terms of the workmanship that’s gone into the property.

“But, in that area in particular, I would say there’s two or three other properties that are certainly very, very high-spec builds, so I would think if two or three other properties in that street come up for sale, they would be in excess of $2 million as well.”

“Certainly, on an average, I wouldn’t say that the suburbs of Bendigo, or particularly Junortoun, will get anywhere near an average of $2 million for a sale price, but there are isolated instances where that’s absolutely going to happen.

“There’s enough people in Bendigo at that level that are happy to live in the suburbs with a little bit of extra land that want to build significant homes.”

As for the Barkly Street sale, Mr Pinner put the drastic rise in value largely down to the lack of vacant land so close to the city centre.

“It’s a quality parcel of land for one,” he said. “It’s got dual street access to probably the most premium street in Bendigo, being Barkly Street, but it’s really just the scarcity of land in that precinct.”

He said while there was more market interest in October, since then interest rates have risen and potential buyers are less keen to make offers.

“We saw a strong period of sales in that sort of October period, and then, as soon as we saw an interest rate rise, it certainly dampened that urgency in the buyer market,” he said.

“It’s just a good reflection of how tied to interest rates are to being active in the property market.

“Our prediction is that interest rates will be on hold for the majority of next year, at this point.”