Hobart suburb records stunning home value growth

Brett Murphy and his daughter Grace getting things in order at their new house in Cambridge with their dog, Dusty. Picture: ROGER LOVELL

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A SUBURB on Hobart’s Eastern Shore is bucking the trend of slower price growth.

Annual median growth in Cambridge is higher than anywhere in southern Tasmania with the latest CoreLogic figures clocking it at over 45 per cent. That figure also places Cambridge in the national top 10.

When Brett Murphy inspected his new home in Cambridge there were nearly two dozen groups doing the same thing.

Mr Murphy said he put in a strong offer with the agent on his way out of the inspection and in doing so may have pushed the price “up a bit”.

“I was very happy when we got the call that our offer had been accepted,” he said.

“When we arrived at the open home it was a little disheartening to see so many people there vying for the same house.

“In the end it was only on the market for four days.”

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Next, Mr Murphy and his partner Glenda Hawkins put their South Hobart home on the market, which they sold in less than one week.

“That is the way the property market is travelling these days,” he said.

CoreLogic data for the year ending in July shows 23 house sales in Cambridge at a median price of just under $600,000. On average these homes were sold in 28 days on the market.

For the same period a year earlier there were 12 sales at a median price of $407,500 and the year before that Cambridge had 19 sales with a median price of $415,000.

Real Estate Institute of Tasmania figures reveal that the top sale of the year in Cambridge has been for $1 million or more for six out of the past seven years.

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REIT president Mandy Welling said Cambridge offered all the conveniences of its neighbouring suburbs — such as Bellerive, Richmond, Acton Park or Seven Mile Beach — but the acquisition of an affordable parcel of land or house and land was more achievable.

“The potential for capital gain is there also as the area becomes more and more popular,” she said.

Scores of homes have been built in the area in recent years, particularly in the Camrise Drive area.

Mrs Welling said she “distinctly remembers” when Chevrolet Court’s new homes were sitting among the area’s commercial developments.

She said, historically, residential growth in suburbs tended to follow commercial and industrial growth.

Currently on realestate.com.au there is just one Cambridge house for sale and a 22ha land parcel.