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The exodus from Adelaide’s most prestigious street

Mar 11, 2015
Another property for sale in Victorian Avenue, Unley Park. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Another property for sale in Victorian Avenue, Unley Park. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Adorned with stately historic homes and shaded by London plane trees, Victoria Avenue in Unley Park is widely considered Adelaide’s most sought after real estate hub.

So why have a quarter of its residents decided to sell up?

It may be regarded as one of the most exclusive addresses in SA, but if you’ve got the money there’s no shortage of available properties along the prestigious strip that links busy Cross Rd to King William Rd, Hyde Park, via Northgate St.

Since November 2013 eight properties have been sold on the street, and two more are currently on the market (and one for lease).

In the 2014 calendar year there were six sales, at least three cracking the $5 million mark.

Just to put that in context, in recent history the highest number of sales on Victoria Avenue in a single year has been three, in 2000 and 2006.

The 10 that have gone on the market since late 2013 represent more than 25 per cent of the total properties on the street.

Greg Troughton, CEO of the Real Estate Institute of SA, is at a loss as to what it all means.

“I drive up and down Victoria Ave once or twice a week, and I’ve certainly noticed there have been signboards up there a lot more in the last 12-18 months,” he told InDaily.

“What that means for the marketplace I’m not entirely sure, but seeing so many signboards in such a prestigious street is noticeable.

“I don’t know … if (it’s) people living the dream who couldn’t afford it, or who’ve decided to downsize.”

Turner Real Estate’s Managing Director, Robin Turner, suggests the exodus is “nothing more than coincidence”, likely fuelled by persistently low interest rates.

“We’ve seen a big lift in the number of multi-million dollar sales in Adelaide,” he said.

“If someone’s living in a million dollar home and thinking ‘this is more than I need’, it’s a good time to sell; they can decide ‘I’ll take advantage of the buoyant market and off I go’.”

He suggested it could be a confluence of propitious economic conditions and owners “whose life circumstances may be changing and who don’t need a big family home any more”.

Then there’s the flow-on effect; even in Adelaide’s most exclusive suburbs, neighbours try to keep up with the Joneses (or in Unley Park, with the Hickinbothams).

“If one comes on the market and sells well, it can spur a neighbour on that was thinking about it,” said John Williams, of BrockWilliams Harcourts, which sold three Victoria Ave homes last year.

According to Williams, “a lot of Adelaide’s (real estate) is driven by buyer confidence, and how people are feeling”. But “it’s unusual for that many houses to come onto the market at one time, that’s for sure”.

“You can get nice streets where probably one or two houses a year is all you see; sometimes you see none,” he said.

“Luxury homes are tightly held … you can obviously get people selling for other reasons, whether they’re downsizing or moving interstate, but generally these iconic landmark properties can be held for generations.”

After two sales in late 2013 fetched $1.42 million and $1.8 million respectively, Harcourts sold Number 4 Victoria Ave – “the big one down the end”, a four-bedroom, 450 square metre home on a 2287 square metre estate – for $5.125 million.

“So that’s probably where it started – a $5 million (sale) in Adelaide doesn’t happen very often,” said Williams.

“In 2013 there were no $5 million sales.”

He says for buyers it can be a “waiting game” for the right property.

But one resident who recently bought into the street said his decision wasn’t as calculated as that, nor swayed by anything as transparent as the allure of a ‘prestige postcode’.

“We just wanted to be closer to where our children go to school,” he said.

“It seemed like an okay buy at the time.”

He said his neighbours were vaguely conscious of a spate of market activity, but “I got the impression it’s more just circumstances than anything specific”.

If no-one has the answer for the great Unley Park sell-off, it’s clear Victoria Ave is suddenly a buyer’s market – as long as the buyer has a fat wallet, and a tolerance for through traffic.

“Victoria Ave, whilst it’s a very significant street in Unley Park, is also one of the busier thoroughfares too,” said Lew Toop, of Toop & Toop.

“So as lovely as the homes are, it’s not without issue (but) whether that has had an impact on the sales there … ?”

Toop said sometimes major infrastructure work could kickstart a residential exodus, but “I’m not aware there’s anything happening on the street”.

“I imagine it’s circumstantial,” he speculated.

“It’s unusual, but I’m not altogether surprised … There’ll often be two or three (sales) in a year and then none for the next three or four years.”

In other words, if you’re eyeing off a mansion on the (mostly) exclusive tree-lined avenue, there could be no better time.

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