Business
2 October, 2026
Back in the market
BRUCE McIlvride had been out of real estate for more than two years, but apparently nobody had told his old clients. Every few months, the phone would still ring. Could he come and appraise a property? Would he consider listing one?
After two decades selling homes, farms and lifestyle properties across Stawell and the surrounding district, Mr McIlvride stepped away from the industry in January 2024.
He had no particular plan to return.
But when the team at Ray White Ararat approached him a couple of months ago, the conversations began – and at home, his wife offered a fairly straightforward assessment.
“She said, ‘Well, you may as well just get back into that and do this for the next four or five years until we want to both stop working,’” Mr McIlvride said.
So one of Stawell’s most familiar real estate faces is back in the market.
Mr McIlvride spent much of his time away helping on family farms and lending a hand in the building industry, meaning he never strayed particularly far from property.
Nor, it seems, did property stray far from him.
“Even over the two-and-a-half years I’ve been out of the industry, I’ve been getting regular calls from past clients,” he said.
“Can you list our property or come and appraise our property?”
He jokes that he mustn’t have left too bad a reputation behind after all.
His return adds another chapter to a working life which began a long way from property listings and auctions.
A chef by trade, Mr McIlvride taught hospitality through the University of Ballarat and ran its Jacaranda training restaurant in Stawell for six years.
A friend suggested over coffee one day that he might be suited to real estate.
He began studying, eventually completing the qualifications for his full licence, and made the career change.
Over the following two decades, residential sales expanded into rural property, auctions and clearing sales, including farms running to more than 3000 acres.
“I’ve always recognised that the one thing that’s important when you do real estate is to remember it is your client’s property and you are acting in their best interest,” he said.
“You need to be able to engage with them about the best process to get the best outcome for them, and then ultimately they make the final decisions.”
Coming back after two-and-a-half years has also given Mr McIlvride a fresh look at a Stawell property market that changed considerably while he was away.
He believes the number of properties available for sale is relatively low, while appropriately priced homes are still moving.
But some of the larger pressures facing Stawell are familiar.
Continued investment by major employers brings more workers to town, he said, increasing demand for accommodation and creating flow-on difficulties for other employers trying to recruit.
“It forces pressure and puts a false floor, in one sense of the word, into the rental market because there’s so many workers that are there,” he said.
“That then puts pressure on other industries, from your hospitals, from your education, schools, your ambulance, your police, where you’ve got to be bringing people in.”
Mr McIlvride believes that demand also presents an opportunity for further residential development.
He pointed to units constructed in Stawell and leased long-term to the hospital as an example of private investment responding to a local need.
Now back with Ray White Ararat, he expects to work across the same broad patch he knows well rather than restricting himself to one type of property or postcode.
“I’m not limited just to residential. I’ll do lifestyle, farmland, whatever it is, whatever form we need to look at,” he said.
Twenty years in the business, two-and-a-half years away – and plenty of old clients apparently unwilling to accept his retirement.
Mr McIlvride’s message now is considerably simpler.
“I’m here ready,” he said.
“I’m back working.”
Read More: Stawell