When land value isn't land value — Toorak
A heritage overlay covering the entire property — house and stables — meant it sold for $13.75 million, against around $21 million for the land as a vacant block.
The brief
Our vendor was an elderly client who had lived in a Lansell Road, Toorak home since the 1950s. The block is significant — 2,200 square metres in one of Toorak's most prestigious streets. Land in Toorak in a good street is generally worth a minimum of $10,000 per square metre, so the vendor reasonably arrived at a number around $22 million for the property and expected the campaign to confirm it.
The brief was straightforward: sell the property at a fair reflection of its land value, on a timeline that suited the family.
Our approach
Before we went to market, the heritage status needed to be understood properly. The property was already known to be a "significant" listing under a heritage overlay — but the vendor's understanding was that the house could be demolished and only the facade retained. That's a meaningful distinction, because the value of a Lansell Road block to a high-end buyer often sits in the option to build a new home behind a preserved frontage.
On closer examination, the protection was much more extensive. The entire house was protected — and so were the stables at the rear of the block. A buyer couldn't knock the house down, couldn't extend it dramatically into the garden, couldn't replace the stables. They were buying the existing improvements, in their existing footprint, and would need to make peace with that for the long term.
We took that reality into the campaign and into every conversation with buyers and with the vendor. Pricing expectation had to be reset, and a different buyer profile had to be the target — one who genuinely wanted to live in the existing home, not redevelop it.
The outcome
After months on the market, the property eventually sold for $13.75 million — only around two thirds of the roughly $21 million the same land would have been worth as a vacant block.
One moment captured the dynamic perfectly. The home was right next door to a property that had set the previous Toorak house price record some years prior. The neighbour came to one of the opens. He had one question: can I knock the house down? When we advised him that he couldn't — that the protection extended to the entire house and stables — he walked away. He'd been prepared to pay around $22 million if the block could be cleared and his garden extended. With the overlay in place, he had no interest.
The lesson, especially at the top of the market, is that even a substantial solid brick home in a wonderful street can detract from the eventual sale price when the protection is full. Land value and sale value are not the same thing once the planning controls are properly understood. For a vendor, going to market with the right expectation — and the right buyer profile in mind — is what gets the campaign to a credible result.
Selling a prestige Toorak home?
The right campaign starts with an honest read on what your property actually is — planning controls included. Toby has handled significant vendor advocacy engagements across Toorak for 20+ years. A free conversation is the starting point.
