Victoria’s most unusual sales highlighted in Valuer General’s 2022 real estate report card

Glenn Calvert sold the Bairnsdale theme park he and his family built up over 30 years in one of 2022’s more unique property sales. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Unusual property sales had a bumper run in 2022.

Among those scoring sales were a Willung South castle, a Yackandandah house made to look like a barn, a fantasy reception and accommodation centre in Crossover and a very artistic David Bromley residence.

And Valuer-General records indicate dozens of 2022’s commercial sales were for brothels, cinemas, crematoriums and nightclubs.

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A police facility, an ambulance station, a fire station, three private hospitals and 32 places of worship also changed hands.

But one of the more unusual deals emerged when Glenn Calvert sold the Bairnsdale theme park he established 32 years ago.

The $1.8m deal turned the home of Adventure Fun Park Gippsland over to developers with plans to add a petrol station and fast food outlet to it.

Bairnsdale’s Adventure Fun Park Gippsland has everything from go karts to combat archery, laser tag to bungee trampolines and even a spinning ride they’ve dubbed ‘the vomitron’. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Mirabilia Castle, Willung South, was also on the list of properties sold in 2022.

Mr Calvert said there had been tears when they finally sold after the pandemic paused earlier plans.

“We do miss the park, we go past it and think 32 years ago we started that,” he said.

“I’m proud to have kept it going and to have negotiated with the developers who bought it that they would keep it going.”

Ray White head of commercial research Vanessa Rader said Australia had developed a penchant for more unusual commercial properties during the pandemic, especially in Victoria where a rental moratorium drove heightened commercial property investment and rapidly raised prices for offices and warehouses.

11 Bells Flat Road, Yackandandah, was built to look like a barn – but sold like a house with a $525,000 result notched last year.

A Hepburn Springs home owned by artist David Bromley sold with significant artistic license.

“So, where there was a good return, something like a brothel or a church could get attention in the Covid period,” Ms Rader said.

Demand peaked in the 2021-2022 financial year, but “if the price is right, people will still buy them”.

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