Prestige property buyers eye Tasmania as Sydney and Melbourne prices skyrocket

Blending culture, pristine nature, cuisine and accessibility, Tasmania is attracting plenty of visitors. Figures show more first-timers are jetting in for gourmet weekends on the 68,000-square-kilometre island than ever before.

And, it seems, a few more days in Tasmania are just not enough.

About 31 per cent of visitors in 2016 were on their maiden trip to the state, according to Tourism Tasmania and Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show net overseas migration arrivals rose by 9.2 per cent in Tasmania for the year ending September 30, 2016. The state’s population is 519,800, about 26,000 more residents in 12 months.

Observers say these figures confirm what locals see in Hobart and regional villages. Since David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) opened in 2011, droves of discerning individuals have been flying south to feast on fine food, wine and culture.

And they are often deciding they like Tasmania’s high-quality lifestyle so much they return to look for historical and coastal lifestyle homes representing premium value for relatively low cost.

Last year tourism directly contributed $1.17 billion (or 4.6 per cent) of the state’s gross product, $1.38 billion indirectly, the highest in the country.

“They see a city like Hobart offering a simpler life and this really savvy cohort of executive-level individuals, aged 45 or so, who have often travelled extensively and returned to Australia with children expressly wanting to give their kids the kind of lifestyle they left, are often deciding to sell their Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane homes and reinvesting here for a third of the price,” Knight Frank Tasmania agent Jim Playsted says.

Unsurprisingly, this year’s influx of new residents has stimulated price rises. The median price for the prestige market in Hobart – the top 20 per cent of the property market – reached $685,000 in the March 2017 quarter, a 5.4 per cent lift for the quarter and a whopping 18.1 per cent jump over the past 12 months.

Small change to prestige property owners in Sydney or Melbourne, it is wise to remember Tasmania’s property playing field has its own different measures, given there is great volatility in prices at its top end because there are few such properties available, Domain Group chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson says.

“The top end in Hobart is evidently the strongest market in Tasmania right now and well ahead of the middle and bottom parts of the market,” he says.

“Ongoing issues like job security and unemployment have far less influence on the top end because these buyers are very established and tending to want to trade up, if you like, to Tasmania.

“They are seeing more bang for their bucks, latest net migration figures confirm this trend and they will be substantially trading up what they can buy for the same money as their mainland homes.”

The global financial crisis is behind some decisions to invest in Tasmania’s prestige market in 2017, Playsted says.

“Many Baby Boomers didn’t realise the impact it would have on their super funds and have been seeing the value in our prestige property market against their mainland property markets and enabled by the arrival of low-cost flights to Tasmania and the NBN/social media evolution, which is having this enormous affect.

“The fact is professional people just wouldn’t be moving their home bases [to Tasmania] if they could not keep tabs of their mainland companies.”

Rorie M. Auld, from Knight Frank Tasmania, agrees top-end property covers a vast price range, from about $1.5 million to $7 million, so it is impossible to compare its market with Sydney or Melbourne.

“What I can say is quality properties are not languishing on the market very long [this year] and there has also been a return to more properties being sold ‘sight unseen’,” Auld says.

Robert Evans, of LJ Hooker Bicheno, reports “quite strong interest” since Christmas and says his clients are looking for well-built executive homes with water views. Energy efficiency is non-negotiable, he says.

“The inquiries are coming from Melbourne and Sydney, semi-retirees often or people planning to tree change and work remotely and we are finding people see properties for the first time online and, while down in Tasmania on weekends are saying to themselves, ‘let’s just take a look’.

“That interest level is keeping us far busier with inspections than it used to and you won’t see them on the roads; they arrive in helicopters.”

In Birchs Bay, about 30 kilometres south of Hobart, four hectares of prize-winning pinot noir vineyards and water views are features of a distinctive property on the market for offers over $2.3 million.

The Birchs Bay property, which has a vineyard and orchard, is at the site of a convict settlement. Photo: Supplied

Run as a hobby farm, the two-hectare vineyard at 3757 Channel Highway produces about 1200 bottles a year and is on the site of a convict settlement from 1815.

The site of a convict settlement from 1815, today the land of the two-title property has a mature orchard, vegetable patch, four dams and a four-bedroom house.

Knight Frank Tasmania agent Rorie M. Auld, who is marketing the property, says prospective Tasmania buyers should look for water views, connectivity, airport access and proximity to cafes and restaurants.

In Falmouth, secluded Mariposa comprises three buildings standing on 10 hectares rolling to the Tasman Sea.

Built from Mount Gambier limestone block, the five-bedroom home with a 20-metre indoor pool, tennis court and remote-controlled slipway is about 50 kilometres north of Wineglass Bay.

Sandstone houses such as Mariposa, in Falmouth, are highly desired among buyers, agents say. Photo: Supplied

The property at 22352 Tasman Highway is for sale at $2.5 million-plus.

“Sandstone property in historical Georgian areas is still highly desirable but there is also great appetite for six-star energy efficient designer apartments on the Hobart waterfront,” says agent Jim Playsted, of Knight Frank Tasmania.

Close to the CBD in South Hobart, a 1930s Georgian sandstone house represents one of the last grand-scale holdings on Hobart’s “golden mile”, according to agent Craig Anderson, of Charlotte Peterswald for Property.

The Georgian house in Davey Street, South Hobart, represents one of the last grand-scale holdings in Hobart, according to agents. Photo: Supplied

Expressions of interest above $2.25 million are sought for the property at 332 Davey Street.

Anderson says Tasmania is the flavour of the month as Sydney and Melbourne become more pricey.

“This is translating to more inquiries in Hobart because of its quieter lifestyle and its weather and because people have realised you can run a bit business via the internet,” he says.