No one has lived in this three-bedroom terrace house in Redfern for the last 30 years and it has recently been put up in the market, commanding a price of over $1 million.
The house on 31 George Street sits on a 164 square metre block. It has peeling paint, rotting wood, rusting metal and some dusty old furniture and appliances.
It’s been described as a general mess and could be “completely unliveable” but the realtors said it is a house filled with “extraordinary prospects” once it undergoes a major transformation. The new owner may also acquire the old furniture to do as they please.
The owner of the house has been living in aged care since 1989 when his wife passed away. The terrace home has been with his family for 80 years and was originally bought at the value of $109,000 in the 1920s.
Today, the value of the land itself is about a million as it is in a sought-after Sydney location. Domain.com.au estimates the whole property’s median price at $1.48 million. In 2019, a small terrace on the same street sold for $2.5 million though it wasn’t as broken-down as this house.
Belle Property Surry Hill principal Mark Foy said that there has been a lot of interest in the abandoned home as soon as it went up the market because the new owners could rebuild from the ground. It went into the auction on 20 Feb and the family has been waiting on a four-week settlement period.
Enthusiasm for old and dilapidated terraces in Sydney remains in vogue. In 2020, a terrace house without a bathroom and a missing ceiling sold for $1.01 million in Waterloo whilst a grand but deteriorating Darlinghurst terrace fetched $4.6 million.