Olympian Mack Horton lists South Melbourne apartment for $900,000 to $990,000

Buyers are drawn to properties for all sorts of reasons. For Olympian Mack Horton, it was the possibility of a sleep-in that first drew him to his South Melbourne apartment, which is now for sale.

Elite swimmers rise before dawn to execute endless laps, but at 192a Bank Street, Horton could sneak in a few extra minutes and be up at 5.55am to hit the pool by 6am – a luxury, by professional standards.

Horton, a retired Olympic, world and Commonwealth Games freestyle champion, relished living moments from the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Albert Park, where he was training.

“Originally, for me, it was all about convenience, particularly because I purchased the property when I was swimming,” Horton tells Domain. “MSAC is 400 metres down the road. It was about three minutes door-to-door on my bike.

“I was going twice a day, so essentially, I got just over an hour back in my day. And I couldn’t believe how much extra time I had.”

He bought the three-bedroom, New York-style pad in 2018, and he and his wife, Ella, are offering it to the market through Jellis Craig’s Warwick Gardiner, with a guide of $900,000 to $990,000. The auction is scheduled for 12.30pm on December 6. 

Horton’s purchase of the property is memorable for its intersection with the build-up to a major competition. 

“It was the first property I’d ever purchased, and it settled during the staging camp before the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games,” Horton says. “I remember sitting on the bed, watching it settle. That is a fond memory.”

Horton, 29, won gold in the 400-metre freestyle at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (2022), the Gold Coast (2028), and Glasgow (2014), and retired from the sport in 2024, prior to the Paris Olympics.

He and Ella are expecting a baby, and life and its circumstances have moved on from the city-view pad they loved so much. 

It’s been a rental for the past four years, after the couple relocated temporarily to Queensland.

“We lived in it before we moved to the Gold Coast for a couple of years,” Horton says. “We were in it the other day, just tidying up a couple of things, and it brought back all the memories. Got our first dog, and there was obviously the training. We spent four years living there and have so many memories of dinners, entertaining, and having friends over. It was fantastic.”

The apartment is one of only three in a handsome Victorian building, built in 1870, in the historic Emerald Hill precinct on the corner of Bank and Clarendon Street.

A statement arched window in the kitchen frames a view of the city skyline.

The new owner can take coffee on the terrace off the dining room, via floor-to-ceiling glass doors, and retire to the long balcony, behind stately stone finials – a signature of Victorian architecture – for a glass of wine in the evening.

“What sold us was there’s no other apartment like it,” Horton says. “There’s so many apartment blocks these days where you’re buying one of 30 or 40. If we were entering the market with an apartment, we knew we wanted to buy something that was unique.”

Getting around is easy – there’s a tram line along Clarendon Street to the city, and the South Melbourne Market, Royal Botanic Gardens and Albert Park Lake are within walking distance.

The new Anzac Station is scheduled to open in December at the nearby Shrine of Remembrance.

Gardiner says the apartment is a fine example of city-edge life. “It captures everything about South Melbourne living, set high above the pace of Clarendon Street with the city skyline stretching out in front,” he says.

“The New York sentiment runs through its vaulted ceilings and outdoor terraces, yet it feels completely at home in Melbourne beyond its heritage facade.”

Auction Saturday 6 December, 12:30pm

192A Bank Street, South Melbourne VIC 3205

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Gardiner expects the buyer pool to be dominated by young professionals seeking their first home, as well as downsizers who will appreciate its sophistication and ease.

He describes the stylish property as a “refreshing alternative to the typical high-density apartment living”.