Cherie Barber secures her Leichhardt residential record

Cherie Barber secures her Leichhardt residential record
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

It took a week of negotiations but celebrity renovator Cherie Barber has secured her desired record Leichhardt residential price.

Her renovated and extended cottage was passed in on a vendor bid of $3.05 million at early September auction - and sold seven days later at $3.06 million late Saturday night.

The Cobden Hayson agency sale bettered the inner west suburb record by $10,000.

Cherie Barber, the founder of the workshop Renovating for Profit, and dubbed as Australia's renovation queen, paid $950,000 in 2008 for the unliveable, double-fronted 1890s house at 93 Hill Street.

She then converted it into a five-bedroom showpiece family home with its Victorian grandeur fused with industrial warehouse style.

Her renovation project would have reportedly secured a $1 million profit if she'd got her overly ambitious $3.2 million hopes for the sizeable 411 square metre property completed with meticulous attention to detail.

The star of Channel Ten’s show, The Living Room had flown back for the auction from filming her Five Day Flip renovation series for US television in Minnesota.

She had knocked back a pre-auction offer of $3,050,000. 

Sydney’s preliminary auction clearance rate was 75% this weekend, the 10th week in a row where Sydney has recorded a result below 80%, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

Sydney’s previous clearance rate was 77%, while one year ago around 78% of homes taken to auction were successfully sold under the hammer.

Early spring volumes are higher at 1,046 listings, up from 1,023 the previous week. One year ago 743 Sydney homes were taken to auction over the week.

The Northern Beaches sub-region had the strongest performance with 84% of the 45 reported results selling over the past week.

Cobden Hayson selling agent Ben Southwell said his Leichhardt price had been expected as it one of the largest homes in the suburb. 

A former Victorian fire station in Leichhardt on a 662 sqm had held the suburb record since sold for $3.05 million in 2014.

The four-bedroom house at 27 Marlborough St was a circa-1890 Victorian fire station that was used as an army drill hall during World War I. It was later converted into a residential home by an owner who had a business importing French furniture with enchanting parterre gardens designed by Annie Wilkes.

It also achieved the highest price for Leichhardt when it last sold for $2.45 million in 2007.

The median house price of Leichhardt is at a record $1,180,000, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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