• Great Canterbury location;
• Single storey Edwardian Home in great condition;
• North facing rear;
• Generous allotment;
• An experienced agent;
• A price tag which is not completely ridiculous.

All of the above suggests a winner. This house should walk out the door, right?
Well 19 Selwyn Street, Canterbury failed at auction recently and remains for sale at a reduced price of $1,685,000.

What isn’t mentioned here is that the design of the recently completed renovation could have been better. In fact it could have been much better. In its current form we rated this property a lowly 649/1000. With the following suggested alterations (or if this renovation had have taken a different design path, with no increased building cost), the rating could improve to 830/1000, making it a more attractive proposition for more people (and possibly resulting in a stress-free auction campaign).

What this now offers is a better main bedroom, larger deck area and more practical open plan living area, taking best advantage of northern orientation. Utility areas are consolidated to the central part of the house, minimising pipe runs. Importantly room sizes are of a more comfortable proportion – narrow spaces have been illuminated and storage increased.

Good, functional design is so important.

In difficult market times such as now any property which suffers in a design sense will be difficult to sell for good price.