Family renovators: upgrading to forever home with upside potential
Suburb: South Coogee
Price: $4.725m
Land: 370sqm
Brief
With two young kids, big jobs, no time and the desire for a simultaneous settlement, this search needed to be efficient. The brief was a free-standing house on a 300sqm+ block, space for a pool, liveable now but with renovation potential, as far north as Bondi, west to Randwick and south to Maroubra (but not Maroubra!).
Challenge
Budgets are all relative, and with a long list of requirements this was a challenging brief. What’s more, the frothy market in the first half of 2024 meant that certain properties we were watching, but not pursuing, soared over guide (one by 25%+)!
The client was overseas on business for much of the critical pathway, easily solved with the use of video walk-throughs and calls.
Establishing a fact base proved crucial to ensure that any renovation investment would likely provide handsome return.
Solution
While a view of the Pacific wasn’t a requirement, we knew our client would appreciate one. This pocket of South Coogee has had a significant (and continuing) renewal in the last few years. Renovated houses are soaring past $10m in a resetting of values for the area. So this ensured the investment was future proofed, evidenced by reporting we delivered showing comparable sales of renovated homes in the surrounding streets. Having (almost) approved DA plans was of benefit to see the possibilities of the site. Our due diligence was focussed on understanding those plans, likely build costs, discovering the Sydney Water sewage line buried deep in the backyard and whether it would preclude the future install of a swimming pool and any likely view impacts from known neighbouring development.
Result
Our due diligence had revealed that the vendor had purchased the property just two years prior for $4.4m and had engaged an architect to draw up plans, currently in the final stages of DA approval. With those costs plus stamp duty, we expected they would stick to their guns on price, making negotiation hard. However, the price negotiated enabled our client to invest immediately in a light renovation to make the house more comfortable in the years before the larger project gets underway.
“From assessing current and potential future value, bringing in consultants, leveraging insiders for information and, when it comes down to it, negotiating the property at an unbelievable price, the value we received far exceeded the fee and more than paid for itself many times over.”
