Melbourne’s big lockdown deals as buyers continue to splash cash

Melbourne’s real estate market may have been locked down for the fourth time in 15 months, but it did not deter the city’s most determined buyers, who laid down millions of dollars remotely.

The buyers, some of whom spent more than $10 million on a new property, were those looking for a bigger home somewhere close to where they already lived, and agents say the fact they could inspect and buy only online did not faze them.

A five-bedroom home at 26 Studley Avenue, Kew, sold privately to a local family for an undisclosed price well above $10 million, just two days after the lockdown began.

Selling agent Kay & Burton Hawthorn’s Sam Wilkinson would not disclose the exact price but confirmed the property, which includes more than 2000 square metres of land and a pool and tennis court, had sold to local buyers.

They had been looking for a bigger home for some time in the suburb, Mr Wilkinson said.

“Houses like that don’t come along every day – it’s definitely a generational-type home, so it takes a bit of time for buyers to find something like this,” he said.

Mr Wilkinson said the COVID-19-related lockdown had not had the same impact on the property market as it had in 2020.

“We didn’t have the shock and the anxiety around it like we did in March last year,” Mr Wilkinson said. “The general thought was that it wasn’t going to push on for as long as it did last year, so the market really continued. People just seem to be committing to larger properties.”

Local buyers also snapped up a penthouse apartment in Toorak, at 86 Mathoura Road, which sold for an undisclosed price, believed to be somewhere short of $15 million.

Kay & Burton South Yarra partner Andrew Sahhar said the local buyers were negotiating the sale as Melbourne went into lockdown on May 28.

“The top end of the market has been doing really well,” Mr Sahhar told Domain. “I think with people stuck at home; it was forcing them to make a decision.”

Since the lockdown ended, Mr Sahhar said agents had been kept busy as buyers who could inspect a property only online during the lockdown could now go to see them in person.

Online auctions were also popular with high-end local buyers – a home in Albert Park sold for $9.9 million under the virtual hammer during the lockdown.

Greg Hocking Holdsworth director and auctioneer Simon Gowling said competition was fierce for the tightly held home at 44 Merton Street. 

It has had only had three owners since being built in 1944. The buyers, a local family, became the fourth owners of the home after making a knockout bid of almost $10 million.

“All the buyers were locals; they all lived within a five-kilometre radius of it and had been looking at it for a long time because it’s such a rare piece of real estate,” Mr Gowling said.

In Malvern East, a tightly held four-bedroom home at 5 Rebecca Road sold to a family who lived just around the corner for $1.77 million – $120,000 over its reserve – at an online auction during the lockdown.

“The gentleman who bought it had missed out on a number of auctions recently and lives just around the corner. He plans on knocking down and building his dream home,” Ray White Oakleigh’s Leigh Kelepouris said after the sale.

While it wasn’t one of the most expensive homes to sell, it did reveal a growing trend of people buying bigger homes close to where they live now, Mr Kelepouris said.

“There’s such a shortage of stock around the south-east that all houses are selling really well, lockdown or no lockdown,” he said. 

Like many sought after suburbs, buyers looked to stay in the area even if they were looking for a larger home.

“Malvern East has such a low turnover rate that once people are in, they stay,” Mr Kelepouris said.