Scotch College expands portfolio, buys house $1 million above reserve

Scotch College expands portfolio, buys house $1 million above reserve
Staff ReporterDecember 7, 2020

Scotch College, one of Melbourne’s top private schools, has bought a neighbouring house for almost $1 million above reserve.

The three-bedroom brick home at 20 Hambledon Road sold under the hammer for close to $3.2 million.

With this purchase, the school now owns all but 11 of 27 houses in Hawthorn’s Hambledon Road. It has spent about $25 million on property in adjacent Hambledon and Fordholm roads alone, Fairfax Media reported.

The exclusive boys' school — where high school tuition fees start at $26,000 — sits on 27 hectares.

The selling agent was Jason Brinkworth of Marshall White, but he did not comment on the sale. Industry sources say the private school was determined to scoop up the property.

The house, owned by the same family for 66 years, had expectations of $2.2 million-$2.3 million.

Scotch College has been buying neighbouring houses for decades. The private school bought two properties in Hambledon Road in 1997 for $567,500 and $460,000, respectively, Domain Group records show. 

It bought another house in Hambledon Road for $850,000 in 2001, before buying the one next door for $1.4 million two years later.

In 2007, the college splashed more than $5 million on three other properties in the street.

Prior to last month’s auction, the school’s most recent purchase was a $2 million house in 2015.

It also owns all of the properties along Morrison Street, which has formed part of the school campus for many years.

Houses in Morrison Street are used for bagpipe lessons, media studies, administration and archiving. 

In a statement, the school said it began buying neighbouring property after losing chunks of the school grounds to the state government for Citylink.

“On three occasions since the 1960s, the government has compulsorily acquired land from the school to construct the [south-eastern] freeway and enable its subsequent widening into the Citylink tollway,” a spokesperson said.

“Bound otherwise by the tollway, Yarra River and Glenferrie Road, the school has a long term strategy to re-establish grounds lost to the tollway by acquiring land to the north.”

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