If you are up for a project and love Italianate houses, 130 Were Street Brighton might just be the property for you. This solid single-level home has great original period features such as stained glass entry door inserts, baltic pine floors and four marble-surrounded open fireplaces. Front formal rooms are of grand scale and [...]

While water flow is certainly a hot issue at the moment, this week I’d like to talk about floorplan flow. This is a topic that can be hard to describe but is very easy to understand and visualise when you walk through a house. Modern-day living demands open and flexible spaces with plenty [...]

An interesting property presently up for sale is 17 Houghton Rd Balwyn North. Among a building landscape of cream-brick 1960s houses and period reproduction mansions sits this innovative two-storey architectural jewel by renowned Australian architect Nonda Katsalidis (responsible for, among others, Eureka Tower, HM@S, St Leonards and Franklin St apartments). This [...]

Multiple living zones in the modern, average family home have many benefits, allowing families to have a formal living space away from the informal areas of kitchen, dining and outdoors. However, acoustic privacy can be an issue and it is crucial that these two living areas are well separated and can [...]

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the cost of living coming down (the price of milk and petrol are two examples that come to mind). But, while house prices have been dropping, renovation and building costs, in general, look set to go up. One reason for the price increase is that renovation [...]

People will often analyse the floor plan in great depth when they are looking to buy a house. Are the room sizes big enough?, is the flow OK? Is the bathroom in the right position? The list goes on. While this is important, ceiling heights should also be considered. Often a house with [...]

Lifts are becoming the new "must-have" accessory at the higher end of the market. Increasingly, lifts are a standard accessory (indeed, a standard request) in new, multi-level prestige homes. But lifts are not just restricted to new homes..

Even in this tough market, properties are still selling – even (although not that many) ones that need renovation, if the land content (ie size and position) is good. This property sold under the hammer on the weekend for a strong price within the quoted range. Positives Location, a leafy street with many pretty houses [...]

While in good order and well located, this property was passed in at auction in front of a good crowd. With some simple internal alterations, this cute house can easily overcome a few of it’s simple shortcomings. Rating before 674 – rating after 810. Negatives – • Lacks a bathroom; • Small open plan living area • Kitchen does not receive [...]

9 Loller Street, Brighton. Great Brighton location and north facing rear, this property offered a multitude of options (redevelop, bulldoze or renovate) and if the vendor was prepared to sell, this was always going to. I rated this property 620/1000. Every now and again you come across [...]

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 [...]

7 Peter Street, South Yarra This property had genuine WOW – designed, built and occupied by an architect. The homes of architects (in which they design) are interesting. Views are considered, natural light is captured and spaces appear larger than what they really are. Quality of [...]

Another cautious weekend for buyers – fringe suburbs with houses requiring work or having dominant negatives are finding the going tough, while good houses with little work required and ticking all (or many of) the boxes are selling. 27 Binnie Street Brighton East. A functional, pretty Californian bungalow [...]

Overall an interesting auction weekend – the shortest day of the year (in terms of daylight hours) and a typically cold and wet Melbourne one. Crowds at auction were down, and typically there were one-to-two bidders. Vendor bids and pass-in are becoming more and more the norm [...]

4 Talofa Avenue Brighton East. This newly constructed three level modern home has plenty of wow and the auction attracted an audience of around 200 people. James Paynter of Buxton’s opened with a vendor bid of $2.0m and this was [...]

With some minor tweaking, this good property can become truly great. We have rated this property 761/1000. Positives about this property – street frontage, land area, location, flow and a site topography which encourages generous distant views to the rear. The pool is fantastic, and the open plan living [...]