A real estate salesperson promoted the features of a garage in an inner-city area as a prospective studio apartment on morning TV, exposing Australia’s ongoing housing scarcity.
On February 25, an auction will be held for a roughly 55 square meter garage in Melbourne’s St Kilda neighborhood. The garage is expected to sell for between $90,000 and $99,000.
The garage is located at the end of a shared road, and its present owners have been using it as a toolshed for the last 25 years.
On Saturday’s Today Show, listing agent Andrew Turner said that first-time buyers had shown a lot of interest in the property due to its near proximity to the city’s beaches and the Core.
According to the garage’s advertising, “currently being utilized as a garage/workshop makes this a great blank canvas for the first home buyer, builder to design a fashionable new house.”
The garage may “fit an artist, sculptor or car fanatic that owns many automobiles, a boat, or a jet ski or who desires the ultimate “man cave” to pursue hobbies in a tranquil atmosphere,” the description for the garage further claims.
In the previous five years, Mr. Turner claimed to have only sold a single garage once, for $645,000 in 2020.
According to Mr. Turner, there has been a tremendous amount of interest, especially from first-time homebuyers.
“I’ve got interest from vehicle aficionados wanting to get old cars off the street, from a couple of artists wanting to buy the property, and shockingly from those who simply want it for storage,” the seller said.
Investors and purchasers from throughout the country have shown interest in the area and, in some instances, asked for a contract for it.
According to Mr. Turner of 7News, “We’ve had individuals from everywhere express their interest, including someone from Alice Springs, someone from Queensland, and even someone from Poland.”
Clearly, based on the overwhelming interest, I believe it may represent a new trend.
It’s extremely intriguing that there are so many garages nearby, many of which aren’t even in use.
On February 11, according to Mr. Turner, between 30 and 40 groups, many of them young couples and first-time homeowners, attended the initial inspection. He calculated that more than 100 groups had now looked at the property.
The anticipated cost of the property is less than the typical unit price in Saint Kilda of $567,070 and the median house price there of $1.55 million, despite the fact that it will need to be linked to sewage, water, and electricity.
While Melbourne real estate prices have dropped to levels not seen since the middle of 2021, they are still 17.2% higher than they were before the Covid outbreak.
»A 55-square-metre St Kilda garage is going for $100,000«