Seaview Road Booming

MEASURING UP: One of the many building sites on Seaview Rd.

FEW Adelaide roads could boast more than $22 million in property sales in 12 months and more than $15 million worth of housing developments in just two years.

Seaview Rd can. Old houses on large blocks have been making way for sub-divisions with new townhouses and apartments - figures from Charles Sturt Council show there have been 39 approvals in the past two years to demolish residential buildings and 52 new building approvals.

At present there at least eight houses under construction on Seaview Rd and six cleared blocks waiting to be developed.

Real Estate Institute of SA past president Robin Turner said Seaview Rd had been "a bit of an unloved duckling for many years" but that had changed. "People just did not seem to have it on their radar but probably 15 years ago people seemed to wake up to the fact it was a unique spot," he said.

"Many older homes, a lot of which were built in the 1920s, are being demolished because of the extreme value of the location.

"People are seeking a much denser development at these types of sites."

Mr Turner said properties on the western side of Seaview Rd, at Tennyson, regularly fetched more than . $1 million because they had direct beach access.

"It's a unique area and people are waking up to that fact," he said.

Charles Sturt planning and development manager Adam Mrotek said Seaview Rd was being developed with a variety of housing types, ranging from two-storey houses to two or three storey townhouses.

"The trend for redevelopment of the coastal strip has now been proceeding for some 10 years but has increased in the current housing boom," he said.

"Most of the new development is of contemporary architecture ... with full width windows and balconies taking advantage of coastal views.

"Some undercroft carparking is occurring on sites with a wider frontage and where the Development Plan envisages undercroft carparking.

"Most of the dwellings are square by design due to the current trend in this form of architecture." According to REISA figures, five of 14 houses sold along Seaview Rd this year have fetched more than $1 million each, with one at West Beach selling for $1.9 million.

Property sales on Seaview Rd in the past 12 months have totalled more than $22 million. Twenty-three sales set a new median sale price of $800,000.

Phil McMahon senior salesman Andrew Harvey said properties along Seaview Rd were snapped up when they went to market, especially those large enough to be sub-divided.

"You're looking at anything up to $2500 per square metre for a block with beach frontage," he said.

"It's still about $1000 per square metre for undeveloped land which is not beach frontage."