Snapped up - 11 vacant blocks sold by Wesley College in Rose Street, Glen Waverley

The auction of 11 vacant blocks by Wesley College in Rose street, Glen Waverley, last Saturday achieved an ‘’unprecedented result’’ for Barry Plant Glen Waverley.

The blocks of between 700 and 750 square metres on a two hectare site sold for an average $1.2 million each. The land had never been used for school purposes and was originally an orchard.

The sale – possibly the suburb’s largest land release - came five months after the college dumped plans for an 84-apartment complex abutting its Glen Waverley campus.

Most of the buyers were families and international buyers. However, agent Adrian Santini said one or two were bought by developers to build display homes. A further 11 blocks was sold to home builder Metricon prior to Saturday’s auction.

Rose Avenue is 500 metres from Centro The Glen, Glen Waverley station and Glen Waverley Secondary College.

“It was unprecedented,’’ Santini said. ‘’We had more than 600 people crammed into a massive marquee which we had set up for the occasion with 15 staff members lined up to handle questions and the paperwork.

‘’The blocks all sold within about 40 minutes, all achieving prices more than 25% above the average for a similar property in the area.

“They even sold for more than established homes on larger blocks.” The suburb’s median house price is $727,000, with the agent theorising that, as the original 22 blocks was reduced to only 11 after the Metricon sale, the supply/demand equation pushed prices up further.

“The majority of buyers were definitely families wanting to build in the area which is so close to excellent local schools and all amenities,” Santini says.

Barry Plant Group founder and market commentator, Barry Plant, said the whole of the property market had their eyes on the sale. “Glen Waverley has evolved to become one of Melbourne’s most sought after suburbs, and the results of the auction shows this is where the real action is in the property market.” 

Melbourne’s house clearance rate on the weekend was 77%, with a median price of $771,000 and the total value of properties sold at $239,320,050.

Two hundred and two flats/apartments achieved a clearance rate of 73%, with a median of $522,750 and a total value sold at $82,354,670.

The sale of 17 blocks of land achieved a clearance rate of 76%, with a median price of $1,180,000 and the total value sold at $14,103,500.