Welcome, it’s Adrian Bo from Ray White Park Coast Eastern Suburbs. And today I’m opposite 8-10 and number 12 Coogee Bay Road in Randwick to talk about two significant local properties, an apartment building known as “Gower Galtees Apartments” as well as the house at number 12 known as “Gower”. Gower is a significant example of a Federation Queen Anne style and was built between 1912 and 1915 by A. McDermott and designed by Hennessy & Hennessy. The Rowan family, owners of the Royal Hotel on Perouse Road in Randwick, lived here for several years until 1931 when Stephen Rowan passed away. The house was then bought by Harold Taylor and remained in the Taylor family for generations after. Taylor developed a strong reputation as a local builder which led to his company being appointed on the Brigidine Convent build as well as a major construction of Coogee Bay Road. The magnificent gardens at Gower were designed by Peter Fudge in recent years. Gower Galtees, a very well known building, as you can see opposite me, is a four storey apartment block and numbers 8-10 on Coogee Bay Road is said to be built at around 1940 and is considered a classic Art Deco design. Having been put together by architects Hennessy & Hennessy again and built by that Harold Taylor for Ettie Rowan whilst Taylor lived at Gower House next door.

The build costs of the four storey building were around 18,000 pounds at the time. The original build included a lift, penthouse, and was said to include a rooftop tennis court, would you believe? However it seems the flat rooftop was used to build an aviary instead. The word Galtees refers to the highest mountain range in Ireland, stretching from Tipperary to Limerick, suggesting that the Rowans had Irish origins. In fact, an article in the Catholic Freeman’s Journal in 1940 refers to Miss Ellie Rowan entertaining 60 guests in the Penthouse at Gower Galtees in honour of the marriage of Harold Taylor and Nancy Fitzsimmons. So it seems Taylor had sold the Penthouse to the Rowan family from who he had bought Gower next door. It’s a very small world. Now, Taylor passed away 10 years later in 1950 in the house at number 12. Gower last changed hands in 2013 for $2.4 million. Now Randwick Council have just announced that there will be a Coogee Bay Road Street Fiesta on the 4th of June further up the road in Coogee between Brook and Arden Streets. Live entertainment on stage includes a DJ, cover bands, Brazilian performers, a Reggae band, and a six-piece Latin band. There will be an area for kids activities, all of it will be funded by Investment NSW street party initiative. Sounds like good fun and let’s hope the weather cheers up by then.

The Randwick real estate market continues to show strong gains over the last 12 months. The median price for three-bedroom houses has increased by 30.7% up to $3,050,000. The median price for four-bedroom houses has increased by 28.3% to $3,625,000. The median price for five-bedroom houses has increased by 31.5% to $4.7 million. While meanwhile apartments in Randwick have also seen strong increases, being the one-bedroom median up by 17.4% to $810,000. The median for two-bedroom Randwick apartments is up by 16% to $1,172,000. And the median for three-bedrooms is up by 23.3% to $1.88 million. Now I’ve sold thousands of apartments in Randwick over the years. However, over the last few weeks, I did sell number 3B at 94 Alison Road, a two-bedroom there, which was a deceased estate needing quite a lot of work. But great opportunity for $980,000, I sold that one. I also sold 2 at 30 Cowper Street, a 60-square-metre for $935,000 at auction. Very well contested. I sold 6 at 74 Coogee Bay Road, a beautiful, two-bedroom Art Deco there, which we had multiple registered parties and sold for a terrific price of $1,440,000 and also, just sold 1 at 3 George Street in Randwick pre-auction, for a premium price of over $1.1 million. The election is now behind us, so there seems to be less uncertainty, which is great. If you’d like to consider a valuation, please don’t hesitate to call me, 0418 278 316 or email me at adrian.bo@raywhite.com. Keep smiling and always remember your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.