Gurner sells all $60m worth of luxury apartments at 74 Eastern Road in just 3 days

Luxury property developer, GURNER™ has announced the sell-out success of its latest super high-end development, 74 Eastern Road, after just three days on the market totaling over $60million of sales, indicating the strength of the local market for the right project in the right location.

The development, a collaboration with revered interior designer, David Hicks, architect, Elenberg Fraser and landscape architect, Jack Merlo, featured 71 luxury apartments in one of Melbourne’s most sought-after pockets of suburban South Melbourne, abutting Albert Park and the Albert Park Lake.

GURNER™ first launched registrations of interest to its VIP database in December, releasing publicly to the market shortly afterwards where purchasers snapped up all 71 apartments over just three days on the market, including 15 stand-alone sales each reaching upwards of $1.5m – $3.5m.

The project’s coveted Black Penthouse Collection achieved over $10.5m in sales in just under an hour from owner occupiers either downsizing from a luxury home or ‘upsizing’ from an existing apartment.

Contrary to recent reports suggesting Melbourne’s property market had started to cool off, GURNER™ founder and director, Tim Gurner said the success of 74 Eastern Road reflected shifting market demands towards high-end apartments as owner occupiers become increasingly willing to explore luxury apartment living over the high-maintenance lifestyle of a traditional family home.

“ We have witnessed a profound changing sentiment towards luxury apartment living over the past 12 months, and we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of satisfying that demand.

“ Our research indicates a surging demand for ultimate luxury apartment living and in the case of 74 Eastern Road, our instincts were right, with over 50 percent of our purchasers classed as downsizers or empty nesters.

“ Was it a risk for us to skew a project so heavily towards one end of the market? Absolutely. But our previous luxury projects in Brisbane and Collingwood had tested the market for us and we felt confident there was enough demand in this higher end of the luxury owner occupier market to warrant a project of this calibre.

“ There is talk at the moment of oversupply and that the local market has cooled. In certain locations in Melbourne with smaller investment stock that might be the case but I believe the luxury owner-occupier end of the market has only just started to heat up.

“ If our previous projects and the swift sell out success of Eastern Road are anything to go by we will be focusing our Melbourne efforts on this luxury, large apartment market for the short to medium term to come,” he said.

So strong was the demand from this luxury owner-occupier market at its previous three projects, GURNER™ reconfigured Eastern Road’s floorplates prior to releasing it to market, to create a product mix where over 65 percent of apartments were two and three bedroom homes.

“ We originally had planned to deliver 85 apartments however we looked at the market and reconfigured the floorplates to combine the layouts into much larger apartments, reducing the number to 71 residences.

“ As developers we need to be flexible to respond to market demands, so in the case of 74 Eastern Road we dedicated almost half of the floor plates above level four to three bedroom homes and created a collection of penthouses that included two very large penthouses that both sold for over $3.5million and another eight that sold between $1.6million and $2.2million.

“ 18 months ago there’s absolutely no way we would have designed floor plates so heavily weighted towards three bedroom homes and at such a high level of finish, however the market is changing so rapidly and we need to keep up with these changing demands,” he said.

“ This project is the absolute pinnacle for us as a business in terms of luxury and design and every intimate detail has been designed by David Hicks personally to ensure this development is one we all can be incredibly proud of.

“ Every time we launch a project we are always striving to lift the quality of luxury and amenity, and each time we are blown away by the uptake of sophisticated buyers that are in the market looking for that level of quality and craftsmanship,” he said.

74 Eastern Road is the first of three new projects GURNER™ will bring to the market in the next 18 months in South Melbourne alone.