Melb couple’s Fitzroy brothel reno scores multimillion-dollar sale

182 Rose St, Fitzroy, was converted from a brothel to a house – but there’s still a few hints of its past, like the ‘exquisite ladies’ neon sign in the courtyard.

A Melbourne couple who converted a former Fitzroy brothel into their dream home, with plenty of tongue in cheek references to its history, have likely doubled what they paid for it.

And in a bizarre twist, the agent handling the sale has revealed the converted brothel was probably less of a concern for homebuyers than if it had been a converted church.

The extraordinary renovation by architectural firm Fieldworks at 182 Rose St left a range of nods to the property’s past in place, including pink bedrooms and bathrooms and a giant neon sign reading “exquisite ladies” in the backyard.

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After more than a decade of owning it, and almost seven years after moving into it, Paul Ghaie and wife Lucy Wallace listed their unusual residence for sale in June with a $2.9m-$3.1m asking price that was later updated to $3.05m.

Nelson Alexander listing agent Peter Stephens would not confirm the final result, but said the vendors were happy and that it had gone to a family from Melbourne’s northern suburbs who had “loved the vibe” and that it had been renovated with an architectural eye.

Mr Stephens said while their main attraction had been an inner-city location, the former brothel’s VIP room turned into a studio or guesthouse at the rear had appealed as a breakout space for their teenage kids.

The home when Mr Ghaie and Ms Wallace bought it.

The home has had a significant overhaul since its time as a brothel — and won over a family looking for their next chapter.

Paul Ghaie is a co-founder of the Blackhearts and Sparrows wine store. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian.

“And there was one other party that was very close, but the timing was not right,” he said. “They were a couple who were Sydney-based but relocating to Melbourne.”

And in a bizarre twist he said all of the prospective buyers across the almost 75-day sales effort hadn’t been bothered by the home’s history.

“No one thought it was a bad thing, I think you would have a harder time selling a converted church than a converted brothel,” Mr Stephens said.

“People just thought that it was funny and they liked the way that it played on the brothel aspect in the renovation and kept an homage to what it was. Whereas there’d be a bit more baggage on a church.”

The home’s rear building used to host a VIP room.

Today the VIP stands for very impressively pink.

But there was a delay in striking a deal, with a planned auction for June 28 abandoned due to concerns about a lack of buyers, and the sale finalised earlier this week.

It’s likely Mr Ghaie and Ms Wallace has doubled the $1,292,500 they paid in 2014, when the home was still littered with used mattresses, unsanitised couches and even what appeared to be bottles of lotion on tables.

Speaking with the Herald Sun shortly after listing the home Mr Ghaie, who co-founded boutique bottle shop group Blackhearts and Sparrows, said it was “a bit of an eye-opener” when they took it on.

The bedroom in the rear building is colored the same pink as the brothel’s original entry hall.

The hallway that greeted guests looks a little familiar.

“Walking in and seeing what it was would have scared a lot of people, but you have to see it as a blank canvas,” Mr Ghaie said.

The former tenants, the Club Rose brothel, had “fled in the middle of the night” — leaving some concerning wares of their trade behind, not to mention a unique property including a main residence on one side of a courtyard and a double-storey studio that had been the VIP room.

Along with the more routine renovation efforts needed to turn it into a home, the exhaustive overhaul also sampled the “deep crimson” of the old brothel’s entry hall, and reused it in several of the bedrooms.

The home has an impressive indoor-outdoor flow, but still offers plenty of privacy.

Not all of the home has homages to its past, with the main bedroom striking in its own right.

The brothel’s old “exquisite ladies” sign was also repaired and reinstalled in the courtyard, where it has routinely been the backdrop for photos of party guests when the hospitality industry duo have entertained.

Beyond what can be seen with the naked eye, an old spa set between the home and the studio during its time as a brothel, but paved over before the property was sold, has now had a water tank installed in it and remains below the refurbished courtyard seen there today.

Mr Ghaie said he and Ms Wallace had decided to sell up as they weren’t making full use of the space their renovation had created the way they once used to.

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