Room with a view: History goes under the hammer

IT IS going to be a sale never seen before. $600 million in heritage, water-view property, used for public housing, is going under the hammer in Sydney.

IT is a leap into the past, a living glimpse of how things were when the nation was still laying down its roots.

Little has changed in 180 years since 35 Lower Fort St was built in 1834 by a trader who owned one of the Walsh Bay wharves in Sydney. The fireplaces, floorboards, ceilings, windows — even the stove are original.

The enormous 362sqm terrace, with the southern Harbour Bridge pylon almost on the doorstep, is one of the jewels in the crown of what will be the most lucrative property sell-off in the ­nation’s history.

The announcement last week that almost 300 public housing properties around Millers Point and Walsh Bay will go under the hammer, and the residents moved to areas like Glebe, Ultimo and Lilyfield, has sparked huge debate about moving out the poor to make way for the rich.

View 1: A stunning look at the Opera House from Argyle St, The Rocks.

View 2: Look out another window - and wake up to this.

Few of the tenants need to be in the heart of the city for work, as only one in 20 lists paid employment as their primary income.

Against a chorus of protest from the 410 tenants who will be moved, the government ­argues that maintenance costs are so high — $800,000 for some houses — that it makes more sense to relocate the tenants and spend the proceeds from the sale on new public housing.

Among the properties are 180-year-old Georgian ­houses with original fittings; four-storey, eight-bedroom Victorian Regency terraces, and 79 harbourside units with parking worth an estimated $150,000 a space.

Up for sale: Places on Argyle St, The Rocks, end up with views to live for.

But for prospective buyers, the catch is the renovation bill — and it’s a massive one.

Some of the houses are so rundown it will cost $500,000 and, in many cases, several years, just to make them liveable. There are broken bannisters, unsafe balconies, gaping holes in ceilings, outdoor toilets and other defects.

In some, dealing with the rising damp will cost hundreds of thousands more.

For example, 35 Lower Fort St is in poor condition. The tenants were moved two years ago because it had ­become uninhabitable.

On top of the predicted $3 million-plus purchase price, there will be a renovation cost of between $300,000 for a basic job and $1 million for a full restoration.

Everyone who has taken it on has found them ­extremely difficult to renovate

Perhaps that still seems cheap for a historic house on prime Sydney real estate.

Not so, said John Dunn, who bought neighbouring 37 Lower Fort St in 2009.

He warned potential buyers that renovating at Millers Point was a long, expensive and often frustrating process.

The strict requirements of the Heritage Council and City of Sydney Council were just the beginning.

“Everyone who has taken it on has found them ­extremely difficult to renovate,” he said. “There are a variety of heritage specialists you must employ, as well as an archaeologist.”

Something to look at each day: Views of the Bridge from the properties for sale.

In Argyle St almost every house on the north side is for sale. Several were built by whaling captain George Grimes in the 1840s and there is one original Georgian terrace. No 52, divided into eight one-room flats with two shared bathrooms, will be among the first to be sold.

It has been vacant since October, 2011, because the housing department balked at the $400,000 worth of ­repairs that were needed to make it safe again.

Amid the mould and collapsing ceilings, there are little gems of history, such as the wrought-iron fireplace draped with dust.

Over 20 years working in The Rocks, inner-city real ­estate agent Carlie Ziri has dealt mostly with apartments because it is so rare for houses to come on to the market.

“It’s some of the best property in Australia, it just blows my mind,” Mrs Ziri said. The most affordable end of the sale will be apartments in the Sirius building, that classic geometric ­example of brutalist architecture known to anyone who regularly crosses the Harbour Bridge.

It was built in the late-1970s to house public tenants evicted from another section of The Rocks.

One-bedroom units with a car space but without a view would cost around $600,000, but the four-bedroom flats with a view and a roof garden would begin at $2 million, Mrs Ziri said. Yet, even she has mixed feelings. “The beauty of The Rocks is the mix of characters here.”