If you’re hoping to fetch a high price on your old and daggy home in a good suburb, you might be in luck.
People are now prepared to pay millions for old houses just to have them knocked down and replaced with luxury mansions.
![BEFORE: A Turramurra property in Warragal Rd in its original condition. The home was knocked down in 2015 and sold in March 2016 for $2.65 million.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 550 350"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
BEFORE: A Turramurra property in Warragal Rd in its original condition. The home was knocked down in 2015.
AFTER: The home sold for $2.65 million in March 2016 – more than double the price paid in 2014.
Residential building figures show Sydney’s middle-ring suburbs are in a demolition frenzy as old cottages and fibro homes are knocked down to make way for modern homes.
Close to $8.5 billion in home alterations was undertaken across NSW over the past year, a more than $250 million jump on the value of projects in the previous year, Housing Industry Association figures show.
Rampant rebuilding has been concentrated in suburbs such as Manly, Pymble and Turramurra, where original properties built in the 1950s and ’60s are scarce.
One recently rebuilt property was in Station St, Pymble. After purchasing a single-level, three-bedroom home in 2013 for $1.25 million, the owners knocked it down, built a mansion and then sold that in March for $3.2 million — a $1.95 million increase.
BEFORE: 1 Challis Ave, Turramurra, before it was knocked down.
AFTER: 1 Challis Ave, Turramurra as it appears today after selling in May for $3.37 million.
A nearby house on Warragal Rd, Turramurra, was purchased for $1.1 million in 2014 but was bulldozed in 2015 to make way for a double-storey house with a swimming pool. It sold in March for $2.65 million.
The trend has also spread to the west, around the growth hub of Parramatta.
Century 21-Merrylands principal Rafi Younes says rebuilding has become so commonplace that some streets look “nothing like they used to”.
BEFORE: 81 Park Rd, Hunters Hill.
AFTER: 81 Park Rd, Hunters Hill, sold late last year for $2.72 million.
Chad Loxsom, director of builders Just Screw It, says families often decide to rebuild after weighing up the likely costs of renovating.
“There’s a type of home that just screams 1970 and it’s not attractive to some people. Very often these homes haven’t been renovated, so they require work anyway,” Loxsom says.
In such instances, rebuilding has become an appealing option for homeowners because technology advances have made it easier to erect large, modern homes cheaply, Loxsom says.
Councils further out from the CBD have also tended to be more receptive to rebuilding projects than their inner-city counterparts, granting development approvals more easily and quickly.
“Some councils are happy with McMansions being built next to homes from the 1970s. And they’re usually a little farther out,” Loxsom says.
This story was originally published on the Daily Telegraph.