Two stunning Victorian terrace houses close to the Sydney city centre, with matching front gables, intricate heritage detailing and art nouveau motifs, have just had a whopping $2 million lopped off their sale price.
Offered together as two separate homes, one magnificent estate, a hotel or community housing, the pair is now available for just over $10 million or close to it.
“They could be renovated beautifully and, individually, they’d be worth a great deal more than that,” Sydney City & Country Realty sales agent Brian McMillan says.
225a & 225b Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037
“While they’re in original condition, they’re in an excellent state for their age. They’ve been very well looked after.”
The two houses, built in 1875 at 225a and 225b Bridge Road, have operated together for more than 70 years as a modern 26-room boarding house or student accommodation.
The current owner, however, who bought it in the 1980s from the previous proprietor who purchased it in the 1950s, now wants to hand it over to a new generation of caretakers.
The owner has had a number of offers from buyers who want to do a deal on terms, for instance pending DA approvals, but he would rather drop the price from its earlier $12 million in order to sell it as is, with the minimum of fuss and bother.
At the same time, the heritage-listed houses come with a major corporation attached who is ready to lease the two buildings, if renovated to an acceptable level, for a minimum period of 20 years.
The would-be leaseholder is thought to be planning to run the houses as co-living, community housing or a new-generation boarding house.
“They’re willing to take it on and manage it themselves,” McMillan says.
“It’s such a rare inner-city property, conveniently located in Glebe with dual street access on Bridge Road and York Street, and in close proximity to Sydney University and the new Sydney Fish Market.
“It’s an unbelievable price for this kind of property on such a large footprint in such a suburb. When you look at nearby Redfern, it’s been absolutely booming, and Glebe is, in many ways, a sleeping giant that will take off in the same way.”
The houses date back to a fascinating period of Sydney’s history, a time when Sydney Town Hall was under construction and Customs House at Circular Quay was being completed. Back then, the city’s population was exploding, rising from 60,000 in 1850 to over 400,000 in 1890.
That expansion was further fuelled by the extension of steam trains, buses and early ferry networks.
But now the houses are set to bear witness to a new phase in their history, with new owners perhaps renting to the institution that’s expressed interest, which could give them a valuable investment, with income and long-term capital growth assured.
Alternatively, an incoming buyer could upgrade and develop the rest of the block, keeping many of the magnificent Victorian features and the later-introduced 1913 Edwardian detailing, as well as the soaring 3.6-metre-high ceilings.
The pair could be redivided, too, into the original two houses, each on 500 square metres, in order to go back to the past to embrace a new, stylish future.
Sue Williams Sue Williams is an award‑winning journalist with a long career in news reporting, having worked across newspapers and magazines in Australia and the UK and covered everything from courts and politics to international conflict and major breaking news stories.
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