The fire damaged three-bedroom house at 157 Solar Drive, Whittington, has sold for $285,000.
A Whittington house left derelict for three years after it was gutted in a fire has been sold to new owners.
The three-bedroom brick veneer house at 157 Solar Drive was razed in the fire in February 2023.
No-one was hurt in the blaze, but the house has been boarded up for several years since, with the telltale signs of the destruction visible especially through the collapsed roof.
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But there is significant fire damage inside the house, which Hayeswinckle, East Geelong agent Jayden Overall said will need to be demolished before new owners can rebuild.
Mr Overall was the second agent called in to sell the 626sq m property, setting a $280,000 to $300,000 guide.
It sold after a six-week campaign for $285,000.
The property had previously been listed for sale in 2024 with a price guide of $300,000 to $330,000.
Mr Overall said the property gained plenty of attention during the campaign, with potential buyers looking to inspect the home, perhaps not realising it had been effectively razed in the fire.
An aerial photo shows the extent of the property, and peeks at the extensive damage from the fire.
“I was probably getting three emails a day on this one because some people thought they wanted to inspect the property,” Mr Overall said.
“If you had been there yourself, there’s nothing to inspect – it’s a danger to go in.
“There was no inspections, but I was getting a lot of inquiry generally from developers.”
Mr Overall said the buyer had indicated they would build a family home.
He said the sale price reflected the significant demolition cost to be borne by the new owners.
Whittington recently topped the list of most in-demand suburbs in Geelong with strong interest from investors in the affordable eastern suburb.
The fire damaged three-bedroom house at 157 Solar Drive, Whittington, has sold for $285,000.
PropTrack data revealed the suburb’s $570,000 median house price had spiked 11.8 per cent over 12 months only the back of the significant interest.
The research factored in the rate of direct inquiries to agents from potential buyers viewing property listings on realestate.com.au, which revealed 57 inquiries per listing in Whittington, ahead of 52 and 50 inquiries for properties in Norlane and Corio respectively.
The eastern suburbs of Newcomb and Thomson recorded more than 40 inquiries per listing, along with Geelong’s perennial favourite suburb with buyers, Belmont.
This three-bedroom house at 16 Solar Drive, Whittington, sold for $504,000 last October.
The $55,000 jump in median price in Whittington was the biggest rise recorded since the Covid pandemic, and comes on the back of the biggest annual volume of house sales in the previous five years.
Mr Overall said while selling property in Solar Drive can be problematic, he always recommends buyers looking at property in Newcomb to also consider the top end of Whittington, including streets such as Oxford, Chapel, Thompson and Truscott St.
“Traditionally, it’s a spot that has a little bit of notoriety, but I’ve been telling people for years, as I sell a lot of homes in Newcomb that you want to keep an eye on Whittington, because we’ve got young professionals moving in and the proximity to the CBD and to the Bellarine is pretty good.”
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