How Selling Houses Australia team fixed ‘ugly’ home in Queensland with cheap trick

This house in a popular Queensland suburb would not sell — until owners made a quick and simple fix that boosted its value.

It was pretty much the only house in a booming Queensland suburb that wouldn’t sell.

Jamboree Heights, only 14km southwest of Brisbane, is considered a “hidden gem” among the property landscape in Qld, given its family-friendly, leafy neighbourhood feel and proximity to the city.

But a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house with an entertaining area and a pool on the market for $570,000 received no offers after 10 months despite similar surrounding homes being snapped up.

Why?

A big reason, according to property expert and Selling Houses Australia host Andrew Winter, was its street appeal.

Judge it for yourself.

Yowch.

Landscaper and co-host Charlie Albone said the maroon and white exterior was dated and needed an overhaul, but a simple paint job wouldn’t be enough to save face.

So he made a feature wall using sandstone cladding — not to be confused with the very expensive solid sandstone.

This option significantly reduces the stone weight and therefore the cost but offers the same luxury look.

See for yourself.

The sandstone feature gave the home a much more luxury look.

While the street appeal was significantly improved thanks to the sandstone cladding, the rest of the home needed some work too in last night’s episode of Foxtel’s SHA.

The “clunky” and “dysfunctional” layout needed the magic touch of interior decorator Shaynna Blaze who used focal points like statement lighting to distract from the clumsy layout.

Spending $30,000 on both indoor and outdoor renovations to improve the value of the home, which house hunters said they would pay as little as $420,000 for, the SHA team managed to get the house in fit condition for a sale.

Take a look at the impressive transformation.

From this …

To this.

From this …

To this.

From this …

To this.

From this …

To this.

From this …

To this.

From this …

To this.

Only a week after its makeover, the owners got three written offers, selling for $567,500.

Selling Houses Australia, on Foxtel’s Lifestyle Channel at 8.30pm every Wednesday, is the most successful locally produced series in subscription television history.

In the new 13-episode series of the Beyond Productions show, which is produced exclusively for Foxtel, Andrew, Shaynna and Charlie face their biggest challenges yet; working their makeover magic in a volatile Australian property market.