Apollo Bay’s year in the sun

It has been a dynamite year for the property market on the coast.

Buyer enthusiasm and property sales transactions have been at unprecedented levels, and property values have escalated by up to 30 per cent as buyers scrambled to have their name on title deeds of properties in the Apollo Bay region throughout the year.

Great Ocean Road Real Estate was once again top with unprecedented volume director Darren Brimacombe said.

“Our success is attributed to 30 years of building strong relationships with domestic, interstate, and overseas clients, a trust that becomes invaluable especially when buying sight unseen on the strength of a recommendation.

“Trends include a shift to finding homes or apartments to move into, rather than speculative investments.

“A high portion of properties were bought by Melbourne residence planning for their move or future holidays and with borders open again, a fresh buyer surge will arrive in 2022, all hoping to fulfil their aspirations.”

New records were set across all property types in Apollo Bay throughout 2021.

Apartments and townhouses were in strong demand with medians sitting around $638,000 for year ending 2021 and Great Ocean Road Real Estate selling 2/15 Cawood Street recently in excess of $900,000.

Houses in premium locations established new records and benchmarks, with the median now sitting at $897,600.

Mr Brimacombe said a home at 18 Point Avenue, Skenes Creek was negotiated earlier this year for $860,000 through a Zoom platform auction, exceeding the price expectation by $65,000, the property was last sold in 2019 for $399,000, a clear indicator of the market growth over the past two years.

“The market has shown no signs of cooling. Last week, 23 Panorama Crescent Marengo, a classic Marengo beach home, situated on a sizeable 699m² with highly sought after ocean frontage, was sold following an expression of interest campaign via an online Zoom bidding process which saw seven attendees link up to compete for the property.

“A total of 39 bids were placed resulting in the property selling for $1,950,000, a whopping $350,000 above the reserve, an outstanding result for our vendors!

“High demand and low stock levels continue to drive the 2022 market.”

Land is also in demand as buyers have been swooping on land in new subdivisions at Milford Estate.

Sales record high demand and record pricing in excess of $600,000 with the median sitting at around $602,200.

Mr Brimacombe said the culture of co-operation in their office was one of their great strengths.

“It is a comment often express by our clients, and is clearly evident with our selling strategies, with agents urging on their introduced buyers.

“The result is one of complete jubilance with grateful sellers celebrating success and buyers who missed out, fairly knowing they had every chance.

“Expression of interest campaigns are now widely our preferred as the most effective method of sale and the clearance rate is a resounding 90 per cent plus.”

The Apollo Bay entry level now sits in the $700,000 to $770,000 range with top end properties hitting $3,000,000.Great Ocean Road Real Estate have several impressive listings at the moment.

These included a duplex style home at 2/33 Noel Street Apollo Bay, which boasts a dazzling 180 degree view sweeping the rolling hills, bay and township of Apollo Bay.