Workers at the site of the Heidelberg sinkhole. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling.
Real estate agents selling homes opposite the Heidelberg park where an 11m-wide sink hole has opened up have revealed buyers were walking away due to tunnelling works last year.
They have warned while the area’s highly regarded schools have maintained demand for homes, and competitive sales have continued despite the misgivings of some, the opening of a sinkhole just a few hundred metres from homes in the area could finally “rock the boat”.
The hole in A J Burkitt Oval opened up on Monday evening, and gradually expanded.
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It is now being assessed by North East Link teams, which have been tunnelling for the road project nearby recently.
The government has confirmed the tunnel boring machines were a factor in the sink hole’s formation, with a full investigation now under way and further digging on hiatus while it takes place.
The project’s tunnel boring map shows its machines are currently just near Buckingham Drive, home to some of the suburb’s most illustrious homes.
Residences along nearby Beverly Drive are also among its most sought after, with most selling for $1.5m and up when they have a view to the park.
Property sales around the Heidelberg sinkhole show at least eight million-dollar-plus deals have occurred since 2020. The hole is in the right of the two ovals.
A Beverley Rd, Heidelberg, home sold for $1.61m in 2021, with views across to the football fields where the sinkhole appeared.
Sales records show at least eight homes have sold along the millionaires rows of Buckingham Drive, Beverley Rd and Yellow Box Terrace since 2020.
They include a five-bedroom house sold for $2.6m in an off-market transaction that set a benchmark for the area in 2023.
Nelson Alexander’s Nunzio Sulfaro sold a nearby home subject to mandatory disclosure of the tunnel boring in December last year.
He said while it had largely been business as usual some buyers had been unwilling to consider homes impacted by the works.
“It will be interesting to see how the market reacts,” Mr Sulfaro said.
“It’s in every section 32 if you are affected or not (by the tunnelling), and every question is: ‘is the tunnel under my home’.
“Some buyers have flat out walked away, despite the assurances of the powers that be.
“So the reality is that for some people, they don’t want to live above the tunnel.”
A Yellow Box Terrace, Heidelberg, home sold for $1.85m in 2023 and is just 300m from the ovals.
This Buckingham Drive, Heidelberg, home sold for $2.6m in 2023.
However, the agent said it was hard to quantify if there had been any impact to home values — as there had still been demand for houses along the impacted roads which mostly fell into sought after school zones.
“A lot of the homes still sold under competitive conditions,” Mr Sulfaro said.
Most prospective buyers had been directed to the Watsonia offices of the North East Link project for further information, and many had returned, he added.
“But if anything will finally rock the boat, it’s this.”
Mr Sulfaro said for many homebuyers, the views to the park, which made it like “living on a golf course” had been enough to get homes close to $1.5m along Beverley Drive for some time.
Whether that changed, would be determined by the experts in the coming weeks as they investigated the cause of the sinkhole.
A ritzy kitchen inside a home sold on Beverley Rd for $1.35m in 2022.
This Beverley Rd, Heidelberg, home sold for $1.637m in May last year.
“If anything will truly rock the boat, it’s going to be the sink hole,” he said.
Fletchers Agent Rino Presutto is currently selling one of the nearest homes to the sinkhole, at a distance of close to 400m away.
While tunnelling had been going on beneath the street as little as a few weeks ago, he said there had still been above 50 groups inspect it over the past three months.
“It’s mostly been families and they are coming from everywhere, a lot from Pascoe Vale, Reservoir and Preston, because they love the parkland,” he said.
He said the property was a “good home” and “solid”, but had not connected with the right buyer for its price tag by the end of last year and might return to the rental market if it did not sell soon.
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