The two-bedroom, two-bathroom property at 2/9-19 Nickson Street has had a top-to-tail renovation, and is the latest project by The School of Renovating.
Founder Bernadette Janson, a former registered nurse and mother of four, has been renovating homes for 35 years and is at the helm of The School of Renovating , which offers training, mentoring and support to aspiring property renovators – many of whom are women making a mid-career change.
2/9-19 Nickson Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
“So many women around 50 are struggling to pay off a mortgage, or they look at their super and realise they won’t have enough to live the life they want,” she says.
“Renovating changed my life, and I wanted to show other women they could do it too, without being at the mercy of dodgy trades or spruikers.”
The project at Nickson Street was the collective effort of Janson and an all-female team of renovators and interior designers, with the syndicate of owners there every step of the way from purchase through to sale.
Each project is structured as a unit trust overseen by a lawyer and accountant. Investors contribute a minimum of $50,000, with syndicates capped at 20 participants. The Nickson Street project attracted 19 investors.
Once the property sells, the remaining profits are split among the syndicate, many of whom go on to pursue their own renovation projects.
“Theory is great, but nothing replaces doing it,” Janson says.
“Some of our women go on to run their own projects with the team behind them. That’s when you see lives change.”
The syndicate purchased 2/9-19 Nickson Street in December 2025 and was drawn to the property’s floor plan and two-bedroom, two-bathroom offering. The lock-up garage in busy Surry Hills was an added bonus.
The team have since transformed the property, installing a new kitchen, overhauling both bathrooms, and adding new flooring, window furnishings and lighting.
The property heads to auction on October 31 with a $1.25 million price guide and is being sold by Con Fotaras of Ray White Touma Taylor .
This is the 13th property Fotaras will be selling on behalf of Janson. He also sold Janson and her team the Nickson Street property.
“Bernadette knows exactly what buyers want, and this is just blocks away from the heart of Crown Street, the tram line, ” he says.
Fotaras says stock has been low in Surry Hills, especially for properties priced below$1.5 million, which is why this property has likely drawn strong interest so far, mainly among first-home buyers and young professional couples. The agent is hoping for a strong result come auction day.
“There hasn’t been a lot of Surry Hills sales for the last three or four months. We normally have triple the amount of sales in previous years,” he says.
“We’ve had a mixture of a few younger sort of buyers, and there’s one or two older buyers helping out their kids and stuff as well. Not everybody’s local. S ome buyers are from out of the area and drawn to the lifestyle.”
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