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18-20 Mossop St, Underbool, recently sold for $68,000 — up from the $60,000 it earned when it last sold four months ago.
Ultra-cheap Victorian houses listed for sale under $100,000 are driving buyers into such a frenzy they’re offering real estate agents bribes to get the keys.
The mix of dives, derelicts and damaged goods come with an odd assortment of inclusions ranging from a sign on the bathroom door saying “please use bucket to flush” to a paint job by the movie production team of The Dry, a shed where the former owner mixed their own fuel and a goat named Faith.
But none of that’s stopping buyers, with many of the homes selling in a matter of weeks — and some in just days.
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However, the time to get a five-figure bargain might be running out, with agents selling the homes revealing they are becoming rarer — and Covid had largely ended the days of getting a house for less than the price of the car you drove to the inspection.
PRD Mildura’s Ian Miers has sold three regional homes under $100,000 in the past fortnight.
But even he was surprised when a “bloke offered $50,000 plus $5000 in my hand if he gets it” for a Cowangie property near the South Australian border.
The offer was rejected, but the three-bedroom home attracted another for $72,500 shortly afterwards.
The same agent was inundated with inquiries for another home in nearby Underbool, which he has now sold for $95,000 — despite a sign on the bathroom door reading “please use bucket to flush”.
15 Dayman St, Cowangie, has received an offer of $72,500.
15 Westh St, Underbool, has just sold for $95,000.
18-20 Mossop St, Underbool, recently sold for $68,000 — up from the $60,000 it made in June.
And in the same town, he sold 18-20 Mossop St a few weeks ago for $68,000 to a buyer from Melbourne.
The deal was struck about four months after he sold it to another buyer for $60,000, who later changed their mind on the purchase, which came with an unusual partially finished green paint job in some rooms.
But possibly the biggest bargain was for a nearby Meringur property just sold for $62,500.
The price included a 1223sq m block of land, a shed with a few beds and a couch in it, a caravan, handful of carports and a goat.
Mr Miers said the Melbourne-based buyers inspected the home on Tuesday and made an offer a few hours later for the property.
20 Delahoy Rd, Meringur, features a series of carports and a caravan.
The Meringur property also came with a goat named Faith.
The caravan on the block provides the property’s main residential component.
“It’s been a while since that’s happened, with multiple sales in a week under $100,000,” Mr Miers said.
“But demand for any of these cheap ones is just huge, and it always is.”
About two months ago he also sold a property in Murrayville for $75,000 where water damage had been replaced with fresh plaster, but not yet painted before the sale.
But North West Real Estate director John Hadley warned the days of dirt cheap homes in the bush had been numbered since prices surged during Covid.
“Before then you could buy a house for cheaper than the car you drove to have a look at it, which did seem a bit out of balance,” Mr Hadley said.
“So Covid did bring things up and it’s given people a bit of confidence to bring homes like this up to reasonable level — so that’s lifting the market as well.”
He’s currently selling 66 Phillips St, Beulah, for $75,000.
27 Gray St, Murrayville, was recently sold for $75,000.
The Murraville home’s kitchen has seen better days.
The facade of 66 Phillips St, Beulah, was last painted by the production crew of motion picture The Dry, starring Eric Bana.
The property suffered heat damage when the neighbouring building burnt down a few years ago, but had its facade painted by production crews for the film The Dry while it was on location in Beulah.
“It would need a re-wire and a new switchboard, and a really good clean, plus probably the pipes would need to be checked,” Mr Hadley said.
One of the homes under $100k in Beulah, was last painted by the production crew of motion picture The Dry, starring Eric Bana.
PropTrack data backs his concerns, showing the median house price in Victoria’s 10 most affordable regional towns has surged anywhere from 61 per cent to 153 per cent since 2019.
Jeparit, the state’s most-affordable town with enough sales to generate a median house price, has gone from typical home values at $80,750 to $148,500 in the space of five years.
Between Swan Hill and Mildura, Graeme Hayes agent Colin Balcam has just sold a home in Nyah West, for $70,000, and also isn’t expecting to see many more like it.
66 Phillips St, Beulah, is likely going to need a bit of work to get it in shape as a home.
1 Gray St, Nyah West, is set to change hands for just $70,000.
The Nyah West home might be best renovated with a bulldozer.
It was listed with an $85,000 asking price, but the owner had ripped off a rear wall of the house as they intended to add a carport, but had to abort the plan part way through.
He described the “rough and ready” home that has a wood stove but no airconditioning as needing paint “right through” and repairs to the area where the wall was pulled off for the carport.
“I would probably renovate it with a bulldozer,” Mr Balcam said.
“A lot of people walked away from it … but it’s only half a block from the pub.”
Horsham Real Estate’s Gerry Smith is in the process of selling a “completely unliveable” home at 69 McDonald St, Murtoa, a short drive from Horsham.
It’s listed for $75,000.
Set back behind a number of shady trees, 69 McDonald St, Murtoa, has a bargain asking price of $75,000.
Of course, the Murtoa property will need a bit of money spent on it after you purchase.
Sure, the bathroom probably isn’t going to make a magazine cover — but you could by the house for the cost of renovating a Melbourne home’s bathrooms.
While the three-bedroom house includes a lounge room and a kitchen, he noted the gas stove needed a gas bottle as the town had no mains connection, and the electricity had been switched off to the house which had been vacant for a “number of years”.
“Nothing is functional in the house, it will require someone with an enormous amount of time and a hell of a lot of patience,” Mr Smith said.
“But we do have someone who does want to buy it and do it up.”
He said the main locations for ultra-cheap homes in the area were towns around Dimboola, Rupanyup and occasionally near Warracknabeal — the birth place of cult favourite singer Nick Cave.
Alternatively, budget buyers can still get apartments in Melbourne for under $100,000.
Three apartments have sold in the once notorious Ambassador Hotel in Frankston this year.
118/325 Nepean Highway, Frankston, sold for $99,000 in June.
A buyer paid just $86,000 for 123/325 Nepean Highway, Frankston, in March this year.
They’re mostly studio accommodation properties — and require owners to ignore local bylaws that say they can’t be lived in full time or used as anything other than student accommodation.
Foster Froling boss Adrian Foster has sold three Frankston apartments from $86,000 to $99,000 this year — all of them in the former Ambassador Hotel.
The property has had a reputation for hosting drug addicts and ex-convicts, but is believed to have turned a corner — and Mr Foster said was now “not a bad place to live”, though comes with CCTV that has a direct feed to the local police station.
“But if I had $100,000, I’d rather buy there than spent it on rent in five years,” he said.
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