French Island: Remote estate with glamping a pandemic paradise
Has there ever been a better time to move to a remote island?
Buyers searching for another level of isolation, inspired by COVID-19, could get a deal done for one of Victoria’s rarest offerings.
Western Port Bay’s French Island is only accessible by ferry, with no made roads, and the remote 40ha property at 59 Barge Access Road has been available since the end of 2017.
But a fresh agency and campaign is fielding interest from a new wave of buyers keen to live the luxurious island life at the sprawling off-the-grid site with charming heritage-style home.
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Eleanor Estate was built in 2012-13 using some 100-year-old materials.
Country charm.
Good for the soul.
“It’s mostly that kind of lifestyle buyer at the moment that’s looking, much like the buyers on Phillip Island as well,” OBrien agent Jaime Morris said.
“Just given COVID, everyone wants that lifestyle retreat; something a little bit more tucked away or that family holiday place. As much as that is Phillip Island, French Island is that next level over in privacy and really off the grid … plenty of people have said ‘look, we need to get out of Melbourne, we’ll have a small apartment there but don’t need the big house’, that’s where they can afford to have that second home somewhere coastal like this.”
Most buyers would use it as a second home, spending about 50 per cent of their time there.
There are no power bills to worry about at Eleanor Estate, which was used as a glamping business prior to COVID, and no council or water rates either on French Island either.
Lifestyle buyers are emerging for the rare site.
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Socially distanced.
One of three bedrooms.
“The glamping is still there, the facilities are there if someone wanted to pick that back up to utilise, because the bookings would go through the roof, again because of COVID, so there’s plenty of potential for farming or business or as a lifestyle property,” Ms Morris said.
Vendor Mim told the Herald Sun last year creating the home was “a labour of love” for herself and Peter, who spent up to two years building the three-bedroom house in the style of a 1900s farmhouse from about 2012-13
She said they sourced historic materials — including “all the beautiful floorboards, Oregon beams and leadlight windows” — from gutted century-old mansions in Toorak, South Yarra and Malvern to create the “new build using 100-year-old materials”.
Expressions of interest close February 1, 5pm.
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