It's Thursday, which means it's time for the latest edition of Australian Community Media's free weekly real estate newsletter, Hot Property Illawarra.
It's your weekly look at the always exciting world of property in the Illawarra and South Coast.
Making headlines this week has been the news that WIN boss Bruce Gordon is selling the historic Scarborough Hotel.
The hotel is for sale for the first time in 40 years.
Situated on the Illawarra escarpment, just south of the Sea Cliff Bridge, the heritage-listed building with more than 3904 square metres of prime oceanfront land operates as a licenced venue under a lease agreement.
The hotel boasts eye-catching views, cliff top beer garden and nearly 140 years of history.
Also catching readers' attention was the news that the City Beach Motel in Wollongong has changed hands for the first time in several decades.
The budget motel has been bought by a Wollongong family who have reportedly searched for a local motel for many years.
The new owners plan to renovate and re-open using the original motel name, 'Surfside 22'.
Meanwhile, the amount of homes going to auction and clearance rates in the Illawarra are currently down from the same time last year, new figures show.
However, as the autumn selling season gets under way, it seems the right property is still able to be sold at auction.
Find out more here.
Still on auctions, it was a case of the luck of the Irish as a Mount Ousley home sold under the hammer on St Patrick's Day.
The home sold for $100,000 above the reserve price.
"It was St Patrick's Day, and the seller is Irish," the selling agent said.
"She was wearing a green dress on auction day, and firmly believed it was the luck of the Irish on St Patrick's Day."
Finally, new figures have revealed the level of growth throughout the Illawarra property market since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago.
CoreLogic has released a new report unpacking how the housing market has evolved since March 2020.
This includes a look at the change in values in a series of suburbs throughout the Illawarra between March 2020 and February 2023.
Do you have an interesting property story? Let us know at brendan.crabb@austcommunitymedia.com.au.
-Brendan Crabb, Illawarra and South Coast property reporter
