Buying overlooked, then adding value — Malvern
Acquired a run-down home that had sat on the market for four months, then coordinated a $250k renovation that's expected to deliver around $400k of equity.
The brief
Our client wanted a home in Malvern — but the budget didn't stretch to a finished, ready-to-move-in property at the level they wanted to live in. The brief was specifically open to a property that needed work, on the condition that we could see the path to a finished result and they understood the cost going in.
That kind of brief is becoming rarer. With the cost of trades, materials, and building so high, most buyers now avoid homes that need work. They don't want the hassle and they don't want the unknown. That dynamic is exactly the opportunity for buyers who are willing to do the work — provided someone can manage it.
Our approach
We identified a property in Chilcote Ave, Malvern that had been on the market for four months without attracting genuine interest. The home was run-down. The asking price was $2.1M — which happened to be exactly what the vendor had paid for it ten years earlier, with another $200,000 spent renovating it at the time of her purchase. The market wasn't responding.
Before making an offer, we engaged a building inspector. He documented several issues: rusted gutters, water leaks from the bathrooms, an uneven floor. None of these are dealbreakers — they're solvable. But they're the kind of items that scare off the average buyer who isn't planning to renovate.
On the basis of the inspection and the four months of market silence, we made an offer of $1.8M.
The outcome
We acquired the property for $1.9 million — $200,000 below the asking price the vendor had been holding for four months.
Our client is now investing approximately $250,000 in a full renovation that we're coordinating on their behalf — every bit of plaster, flooring, kitchen cabinetry and bathroom is being redone. Once complete, the property is expected to sit in the $2.6M–$2.75M range. That puts our client's all-in cost at around $2.15M for a home that's effectively brand new from front to back — and roughly $400,000 of equity ahead of their position, because they were prepared to do the work and had a coordinator they trusted to manage it.
This is the case for buyers willing to take on a renovation in this market — provided the property is bought right, the scope is understood up-front, and there's someone managing the trades from purchase through completion.
Open to a home that needs work?
The properties most buyers walk past are often the ones with the most equity sitting in them — if you have someone to manage the work. Buyers advocacy and renovation coordination from Primrose can be engaged together. A free conversation with Toby is the starting point.
