They may be falling but it will take some time before Sydney property prices represent good for money value again, judging from some of the past year’s most outlandish sales.
Research shows Sydney’s median home price fell 8.9 per cent over 2018, but buyers still spent millions on surprising properties — some uninhabitable.
They included homes with dangerous defects, others left vacant and abandoned for years and partially completed residences that required hundreds of thousands of dollars to get finished.
One of the most rundown properties to sell in recent months was a three-bedroom house on Juliet St in Enmore, described by the selling agent as the “Angkor Wat home”.
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The home had been repeatedly vandalised. Photo / Newscorp
Trees were growing through much of the home. Photo / Newscorp
It was given that title due to the trees growing across the collapsing structure of the home, which were similar to the tapestry of roots growing through the ruins of Cambodia’s famous Angkor temple complex.
McGrath selling agent Damien West said shortly after the property was listed that it was the most derelict property he had ever seen.
“I don’t think you can get much worse than this,” he said.
This home sold for A$1.41 million. Photo / Newscorp
The property was listed while strewn with junk. Photo / Newscorp
The Juliet St terrace went on to sell without a car space for A$1.255 million.
The sale followed even bigger results in nearby Stanmore, where uninhabitable homes on Stanmore Rd and Railway Avenue sold for A$1.46 million and A$1.41 million, respectively.
The latter property was listed packed with the previous owners’ possessions, including an old mattress and books. Walls were riddled with deep cracks and parts of the floors and ceiling had collapsed.
This Como home sold for A$980,000. Photo / Newscorp
Selling agents Chris Nunn and Nick Playfair of BresicWhitney had marketed the home as an “opportunity to start from scratch” and “ready to renovate”.
Balmain’s popularity with inner city professionals helped a rundown three-bedroom terrace at Harris St sell for A$2.045 million.
This was more than double the average price of houses across Sydney as a whole.
This Balmain home sold for A$2.04 million. Photo / Newscorp
It was also on par with the median price of houses in Balmain, despite the property requiring hundreds of thousands of dollars in restoration work.
Joining that property among recent million dollar-plus sales was a rundown two-bedroom terrace in Paddington, which sold in October for A$1 million, and a partially demolished home on Mitchell St in Alexandria that changed hands for A$1.06 million.
A two-bedroom house on Mulyan St in Como sold for A$980,000.
This home sold for A$1.46 million. Photo / Newscorp
The Como selling agent said the property was in such bad condition it made people “vomit”.
But it wasn’t just rundown properties that fetched surprising prices over the past year.
A single basement car spot on Challis Ave in Potts Point sold for A$210,000 — higher than the price of many of the homes in regional NSW.
And despite the past year of price falls, Sydney house values remain more than A$200,000 higher than those in Melbourne — even though the cities have similar average wages.
The average Sydney apartment is about A$190,000 pricier than one in Melbourne and A$320,000 more than a Brisbane unit.
- news.com.au
