Finding Better Value Beyond Little Bay
Starting with One Specific Property
This client originally came to me with their eye firmly on one specific property in Little Bay.
It was a one-bedroom plus study apartment, and while they were really keen on trying to secure it, they also wanted to explore the option of kicking off my full-service search in the background if it didn’t work out.
That’s actually something I do quite a bit with buyers.
If someone already has a property they want to pursue, I’m very happy to structure things so that:
if we buy that property, they only pay an evaluation and negotiation fee,
but we also quietly get the full-service search moving behind the scenes so no time gets wasted if it falls over.
In this case, that flexibility turned out to be really important.
The Reality of the Little Bay Market
Little Bay was absolutely where this client wanted to buy.
The issue was that one-bedroom apartments with a study in Little Bay have become incredibly competitive because they effectively creep into two-bedroom buyer territory. People see the study as flexible additional space for working from home, guests, storage — whatever they need.
As a result, prices had really started to push beyond where my client felt comfortable.
We tried to negotiate on the original apartment, but ultimately there were three buyers competing for it, and it ended up selling for more than my client was prepared to pay.
And honestly, I think that was the right decision.
Kicking Off the Full Search
Once we officially moved into the full-service search, the brief stayed very focused:
Little Bay only
One bedroom plus study
Good natural light
Strong security
Something with lifestyle appeal and long-term value
The challenge was that this is a very, very small segment of the market. There simply aren’t that many one-bedroom-plus-study apartments in Little Bay.
We seriously considered another property during the search, but it was ground floor with direct street-level access. Some buyers specifically love that type of apartment, but for this client it just didn’t feel secure or private enough.
At that point, we knew this search might take a little bit of time.
The Property That Changed the Search
Then my client sent me a listing in Botany that had already been sitting on the market for around four or five weeks.
It was completely different to what we’d originally been searching for:
Two bedrooms
Two bathrooms
Two levels
North facing outdoor spaces & living
Double secure parking
Her message to me was basically:
“I think I’ve realised my money can go a lot further just outside Little Bay… and this property ticks every box.”
And honestly, she was right.
I remember saying to her:
“Well… we weren’t even looking in Botany.”
But the more I looked at it, the more I thought this could actually be an exceptional buying opportunity.
Reading the Situation
The first thing I did was call the agent to work out exactly where things were sitting.
The property had already had its auction cancelled, which usually tells you one of two things:
the market hasn’t responded the way the owner hoped,
or the owner’s expectations are starting to shift.
The agent told me there was another interested buyer, but they weren’t in a position to go unconditional and didn’t yet have finance fully approved. Likely a lie, but I pretend to go along with them!
I arranged to inspect it that same day.
Walking through it, I had a pretty strong feeling my client was going to love it. The only thing I wasn’t fully sure of yet was how emotionally committed she was to the idea of Botany given it hadn’t been part of the original brief at all.
We got her through later that afternoon.
She loved it.
The Due Diligence Race
Once she decided she was serious, things moved quickly.
The strata report alone was over 1,000 pages long, so there was a huge amount to work through in a pretty compressed timeframe.
At the same time, we started analysing comparable sales in the building to really work out where we saw value.
There had been two very relevant recent sales:
A two-bed, one-bath, two-car, single-level apartment sold for $1.07M
Another smaller south facing two-bed, one-bath, two-car apartment sold for $960,000
What we were buying was, in my opinion, significantly better:
Two bathrooms instead of one
Much larger layout
Two-level floorplan
Huge north-facing outdoor spaces
Better functionality overall
Even so, we stayed disciplined on price.
I was very clear that even though I thought this apartment was superior, I would never have wanted my client paying above that $1.07M comparable.
The Negotiation Strategy
Because the "competing buyer" offer wasn't unconditional, we knew we didn’t need to chase the absolute highest number.
Instead, we used our strengths:
fully organised due diligence,
readiness to exchange quickly,
shorter settlement terms,
and the fact the apartment had been vacant for some time.
That combination gave us real leverage.
We came in pretty bullish on price and negotiated strongly from the lower end of where we saw value.
The result?
We secured the apartment for $990,000.
For a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, double parking apartment with oversized outdoor space, we felt it represented seriously good buying.
Why This Purchase Worked
I think this purchase is a really good example of why flexibility matters when buying property.
If my client had stayed completely locked into Little Bay, she probably would have continued competing aggressively for smaller apartments at the absolute top of her budget.
Instead, by opening up the search just slightly, she secured:
significantly more space,
much better functionality,
stronger long-term flexibility,
and overall far better value for money.
Sometimes the best purchase isn’t actually the property you originally set out to buy.
It’s the one that ultimately gives you more than you realised was possible.
