The house might not be much to look at, but the property in this popular NSW Central West town has everything treechangers are chasing – and they’re prepared to pay top dollar for it.
On offer for the first time in 100 years, ‘Womera’ and ‘Springville’ in Orange, sold for $11.4 million last week – $1.4 million above the reserve.
With 966ha to work with, ‘Womera’ enjoys a reliable 710mm annual rainfall and boasts rich volcanic basalt soils. As well as the four-bedroom brick home, there’s the old manager’s cottage, a bore, five stand shearing shed, two machinery sheds, five silos, steel cattle yards, sheep yards, grain storage shed, 24 paddocks and a double frontage to Weandre Creek.
Next door, ‘Springville’ offers a further 450ha with five paddocks, steel cattle or sheep yards, a shearing shed, machinery shed and Nubrygyn Creek frontage, as well as building entitlement.
While three buyers registered – two locals and another from WA – the eventual buyer was a neighbour from the Euchareena District.
While larger properties such as these are still the outliers in terms of price, Orange has experienced a 30 percent rise in prices for houses in the past 12 months.
McGrath Real Estate Orange and Molong principal Scott Petersen said COVID had accelerated interest in the area, which is about 250km west of Sydney, as more people embraced remote working.
“Orange is an easy drive from Sydney – between three and 3.5 hours or a 40-minute flight – and we get four very distinct seasons here in Orange – Sydneysiders appreciate that,” Mr Petersen said. “Sydney people also love what this region offers – the food, wine and events, the employment from the mining sector, good schools.”
The events calendar is a major drawcard for food and wine lovers, with more than 60 wineries in the region.
Emptynesters and retirees are also drawn by the reliable health services in the region.
“We have the best hospital this side of the Blue Mountains,” he said. “It has all the specialists and a really good oncology unit. The hospital is a very important factor for retirees coming to Orange.”
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
After more than a year, prices have finally levelled out in prime central London, while outer London saw a small uptick in high-end prices from the previous quarter
The first quarter of the year brought some long-awaited signs of recovery in London’s luxury housing market, offering the first positive quarterly price growth since September 2022, according to a report from Savills on Wednesday.
After six consecutive quarterly price falls, luxury home prices in central London levelled out in the first three months of the year, with a 0.1% quarterly uptick in prices. The £3 million to £5 million (US$3.79 million to US$6.32 million) market saw a slightly larger increase of 0.3%.
Outer London’s luxury market saw greater quarterly price growth, with home prices up 0.8%, as some stability returned to mortgage costs and lured more buyers back to the market, according to the report.
All of this is evidence that the market is “in early stages of recovery,” according to Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills.
“The outlook for the housing market has certainly improved, partly because the mortgage market has recovered more quickly than expected,” Cook said in the report. “With the first rate cut rapidly coming into view and recessionary risks easing, greater stability has returned to the cost of mortgage debt, which has positively impacted domestic prime markets, where many buyers rely on borrowing, most notably in leafy outer prime South and West London, as well as the commuter belt.”
Outside of London, prices across the U.K. saw no quarterly growth heading into the beginning of the spring market, which is expected to bring higher levels of buyer activity in many regions.
Suburban regions saw prices dip just 0.1%, while urban areas—like Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Bath and Oxford in England—saw prices increase by 0.6%.
Cook said regional buyers are more likely to be concerned about market uncertainty than London buyers in the lead up to the general election.
“As a result, buyers are still expected to be less committed until the dust has settled,” he said.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts