Melbourne’s weirdest home finds: Wacky and wonderful things found inside houses that hit the market

Fancy a Hills hoist chandelier, a man-made backyard waterfall with a literal man cave inside it, or a plane wreck on the roof?

A bevy of looming interest rate cuts could soon bring the home of your wildest dreams to market, with the end of Melbourne’s market malaise tipped to spark a renaissance for the city’s most weirdly wonderful homes.

In April, almost 20 banks (including NAB) cut fixed-rate home loan costs in anticipation that the Reserve Bank would drop the nation’s cash rate this month. Economists are tipping as many as five 0.25 basis point cuts could be boosting buyers’ budgets by the end of the year.

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That would see the figure that underpins home loans fall from 4.35 per cent in January to 3.1 per cent by the end of the year.

There are already signs of a return of quirkier listings, with a Brunswick unit auctioned this weekend featuring teacup light fittings installed by owners who wanted some Alice in Wonderland whimsy in their life.

Also this week, David and Yuge Bromley sold the Old Daylesford Gaol to an alternative school after it had sat on the market since 2023.

McQueen Real Estate’s Kim McQueen handled the sale and said with the almost $2.6m result boosting confidence, and interest rate cuts expected, more unusual properties would become more popular.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said while home sellers depersonalised their properties in tough times, more oddball listings were likely to return as the market heated up, with growing expectations of multiple interest rate cuts.

“People won’t part ways with those more oddball properties until there’s a prospect that they can sell them and achieve a fantastic result,” Mr Caine said.

“But in a boom market, you have greater scope to pursue those people who are looking for something with a little more personality.”

He added that without a significant amount of buyer activity in the past couple of years, homes that were “relatively homogenous” had dominated listings.

“They are presented, styled, and photographed in similar fashions to minimise any objections that buyers might have, and so that homes appeal to the broadest segment possible of the market,” Mr Caine said.

“So those with idiosyncrasies and oddities are less likely to come to the market when there isn’t a frenzy, and there isn’t that opportunity to sell to that more niche buyer.”

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said with a smaller pool of buyers, more unusual homes were likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a rising housing market.

“They are much more likely to get a result in a rising market,” Ms Flaherty said.

“And I think we are heading towards that rising market now. We know there are a lot of buyers searching and inquiring actively.”

A range of past property sales contrasted with interest rates show these homes can achieve extraordinary sales results in the right conditions.

In late 2017, when the RBA had interest rates at 1.5 per cent, a Fitzroy home featuring the questionable convenience of a toilet in the kitchen sold $290,000 above expectations in a $1.19m result.

The house had been mid renovation as it sold, and Nelson Alexander’s Janine Ballantyne said she had “never seen anything like it”.

In 2019, with the cash rate also at 1.5 per cent, a Gowanbrae family notched a $1.02m sale for their four-bedroom house — complete with its own backyard waterfall.

The towering, man-made garden feature also concealed a man cave.

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Nelson Alexander’s David Vaughan had only expected a $900,000-$990,000 result for the property, despite the unusual inclusions.

“But it was pretty well sought, and it had multiple interest parties looking at it,” Mr Vaughan said.

While the location had been important to buyers, he said the unique nature of its backyard entertainment space “wound up being quite important” to buyers.

Meanwhile, a quirky Yarraville house featuring a Hills hoist chandelier listed for sale in 2022, just as rate hikes began, took a number of months to sell. It eventually earned $1.025m — in the middle of its asking range.

It also showcased hockey puck drawer handles and a dining table that retracted into the home’s joinery.

Village Real Estate director Huss Saad said he hadn’t seen anything like the home since. But last week, he had sold a Seddon home that blended Spanish mission aesthetics with warehouse conversion features — hinting that more unique addresses were on their way back.

Mr Saad said he found owners with “the interesting homes, and the better ones” typically held on to them when the market shrunk, but moved to “take advantage of a strong market”.

“So I think we will start to see these unique homes when we see a recovery,” he said.

One of the last quirky homes to notch a sale in Melbourne was an Ashburton address with a crashed aeroplane on the roof of its backyard studio.

The owners had also added a smoke machine to the unusual feature for parties, and the old Piper Warrior aircraft proved a bit of a hit with homebuyers.

The home went under the hammer on March 18, 2023, with hopes of a $2.1m-$2.3m sale, via Shelter Real Estate’s Zali Reynolds.

It made $2.37m under the hammer, with two bidders competing — and the keys going to a woman who was “absolutely in love with the plane wreck”. At the time, the cash rate was 3.6 per cent.

“I do think it would have had a different result if it had sold with lower interest rates,” Ms Reynolds said.

“Higher interest rates do affect the more unique properties as people are super cautious about what they are spending.”

The agent added that while she hadn’t listed anything nearly so quirky since, she expected interest rate reductions to lead to a boost in listings this spring – including for unique houses.

The trend flows on to regional Victoria, too, with a dated Dunolly home that sold for $165,000 in 2021.

Ballarat Real Estate’s Kate Ashton handled the sale and said a combination of low interest rates and Melbourne’s lockdowns had drawn buyers to the regional town near Ballarat, but said it was the bizarre outdoor loo that had sealed it for most buyers.

“The tree helped bring buyers in, as did how the home had just stopped in time,” Ms Ashton said.

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