Victoria’s Record-Breaking Month Boosts Confidence
Clearance rates for February were at an all-time high.
By Terry Christodoulou
Tue, Mar 16, 2021 9:37am
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Last month, Victoria saw the highest ever monthly auction clearance rate for February.
Data from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria shows that February 2021 recorded an 84.8% clearance rate from more than 3000 auctions, beating out an 11-year record of 84.0%
17 suburbs were highly sought after having cleared 100% of listings. Those suburbs included: Hawthorn East, Fitzroy North, Ferntree Gully, Rowville, Brunswick East, Sandringham, Seaford, Collingwood, Ashburton, Blackburn South, Fawkner, Wantirna, Boronia, Fairfield, Hillside, Seddon, and St Kilda West.
Beyond suburbs at the top of the class, the best improvements on last year were in Sunshine North, Dingley Village, Gladstone Park, Ashwood, Albert Park, Fitzroy North, Doncaster, St Kilda West, Montmorency, Hoppers Crossing, and Templestowe.
Performance has been supported by incentives for First Home Buyers, mortgage repayment holidays and low interest rates.
While the market is steaming ahead, changes to the Residential Tenancy Act – which come into effect at the end of this month – are sure to disrupt the market, bringing more red-tape and increased ownership costs to investors.
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The imposing stone structures, with towers, turrets and a hot tub room, lord over the landscape near the mountain resort town of Sandpoint.
By Liz Lucking
Mon, Jul 13, 2026 2 min
2 min
Idaho is not a place that’s often associated with Medieval castles, but a pair have just hit the market for $6.25 million.
The imposing stone structures have towers, turrets, ramparts, arrow-slit windows and even a drawbridge, and might just be the most authentic-looking castles this side of the Atlantic.
“Who expects to see a castle like this in Idaho?” said listing agent Brenda Burk of Coldwell Banker Schneidmiller Realty, who brought the property to the market last week. They are, she said, “extremely unusual.”
Schweitzer Castle and Château de Melusine, as they’re known, stand within Schweitzer Mountain Resort in the Selkirk Mountains and overlook the nearby mountain resort town of Sandpoint. They take in panoramic views of Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho’s largest lake.
The pair of ski-in/ski-out homes each have three bedrooms, two bathrooms and three stories, Burk explained. They are “so authentic,” she said. “Every single stone was handlaid.”
Schweitzer Castle, she said, wasn’t built for “functionality,” but has been modernized and adapted and now has everything a 21st-century residence requires, along with a dungeon, which for some buyers may also be a requisite.
The chateau, meanwhile, has a hot tub room with mountain views, as well as a garage.
The property is being sold furnished, and will come complete with the hand-carved statues, armor, mounted swords, stained-glass windows and a host of antiques dating to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The owner, an antique collector who couldn’t be reached for comment, “is always looking for that hidden jewel and he found that here,” Burk said.
The next custodian is likely to stem from a varied pool of buyers, Burk said, that would include “the trophy-home buyer, someone who can say ‘I own a castle.’”
The property could also appeal to someone looking for a vacation home, or a multi-generational estate, and beyond that “there’s the dreamers,” she said. “We definitely try to market to people who like Medieval history or maybe do Renaissance fairs.”
The seller “really wants it to go to someone with the same passion.”
