Five-bedroom Geelong home beats price hopes by $180K

The best streets in a tightly-held inner west suburb are becoming more difficult to define as new contenders upstage traditional hot spots.

Volum St and Roxby St have been the blue chip position in Manifold Heights, a small suburb wedged between Geelong West, Herne Hill and Newtown.

With a covenant protecting its large blocks from subdivision, coupled with owners willing to spend up upgrading the grand early 20th century homes, there are a number of new runners for the title of best street in Manifold Heights.

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Purrumbete Ave, which forms a quarter-circle between Minerva Rd and Manifold Heights Primary School, has a cluster of high-end homes with the goods to take the title.

Take the five-bedroom grand renovated 1930s home at 14 Purrumbete Ave that’s recently sold for $2.475m.

Buxton, Newtown agent Ben Riddle said competition between two bidders meant the 995sq m property exceeded its already strong $2.195m to $2.295m price hopes by $180,000.

“Two local families both have a crack and it exceeded everybody’s expectations from a pricing point of view,” Mr Riddle said.

The family has connections to local schooling, he said.

“Anything where you’ve got a home that’s pretty well done with a big block of land and all the extras, I think people are always to invest a little more price-wise because they tick all the boxes.”

The weatherboard house has three living rooms downstairs, including an open kitchen, living and dining room overlooking the backyard.

Three of five bedrooms are upstairs, where a mezzanine area and balcony overlook the yard.

Manifold Heights has a median house price of $1.27m, which is on a par with Newtown according to PropTrack, and Purrumbete Ave already holds the suburb’s record price of $3.25m.

“Traditionally Manifold Heights always had that Volum and Roxby feel but now we’ve got at least five or six streets that are mentioned in the same breath,” Mr Riddle said.

“Certainly Girton Crescent has that unique park feel in the middle, but now you’ve got streets like Bostock Ave and Strachan Ave and Purrumbete Ave that offer what Manifold Heights delivers.

“That’s certainly something that neighbouring Geelong West doesn’t offer traditionally.

“The infrastructure has gotten better – Minerva Rd and Shannon Ave continue to develop with amenities and there’s some really good schooling.

“So we find that Manifold Heights, while it doesn’t have that high profile that Newtown enjoys, it certainly provides everything that Newtown has.”

Wilsons Geelong agent James Osborne said families looking to buy in Manifold Heights were among the groups inspecting a four-bedroom house at 21 Volum St.

Mr Osborne has listed the circa-1932 brick house with price hopes from $2m to $2.1m.

“We’ve had 50 people through the doors,” he said.

“There’s many families looking to buy in Manifold Heights with Manifold Heights Primary School a sought-after school and the development of Shannon Ave and it’s close to Pakington St which is an ideal position for people.”

Mr Osborne said on top of a 1066sq m block, the property offered a seven-car garage with rear access.

“And there’s no heritage overlay on the property, which has surprised a few people, so it allows people to if they want to go upstairs and get a view,” he said.