Blink and you missed it: $3.2m Fitzroy property sells within three hours

A dearth of potential development sites in inner-city Fitzroy saw one property sold less than three hours after being put on the market.

The site at 44-46 Greeves St was put up for sale at 11.45am on Monday and was sold around 2.30pm the same day, agents say, with a developer wasting no time in stumping up the $3.2 million asking price.

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The former factory and warehouse, which sits on a 450sqm block near busy Brunswick St, was passed in at auction last year but had no trouble finding a buyer this time around, Savills state director Clinton Baxter says.

“We put it on the market at roughly 11.45 in the morning, and the vendor executed the contract at about 2.30 in the afternoon,” Baxter says.

It’s such a tightly-held market, it’s an absolutely hotspot for residential development but (there are) on opportunities

“It had been auctioned by another agent last year and passed in at $2.9 million, so I gather that the purchaser had a level of familiarity with the property.”

“It’s the fastest transaction I’ve been involved with in 20-odd years. I’ve sold other properties in the one day, but this was by far the quickest. This buyer was immediately at the door, ready to buy the property.”

The Fitzroy site sold for $3.2 million, less than three hours after it hit the market.

The site is zoned for general residential, which allows for a three-storey development of around 20 to 25  apartments.

Baxter, who sold the property with Jesse Radisich, says development sites are increasingly hard to come by in Fitzroy, less than 2km north of Melbourne’s CBD, which contributed to the urgency surrounding the latest sale.

It’s the fastest transaction I’ve been involved with in 20-odd years

“They’ve bought it for a boutique residential development. They’d recently missed out on another site we’d sold in Fitzroy, around the corner on Argyle St a month or so ago,” he says.

“There are no other properties on the market in Fitzroy. It’s such a tightly-held market, it’s an absolutely hotspot for residential development but (there are) on opportunities.

“He didn’t want to risk it, and said, ‘I’ll pay the full asking price if the vendor will sign on the spot’.”