Five eye-popping fixer-uppers that sold for massive money in 2025

Local rumour has it that the last family to live in the house fled suddenly in the early 1990s and never returned. Whispers are they left a set dining table and a full pantry as a spooky reminder of their presence.

“There are still quite a lot of beautiful features,” Hadgelias told Domain during the campaign. “And by no means is it derelict – it just needs a lot of work done.”

Almost three decades after the owner died, the family finally parted with the home, having resisted many previous overtures to sell.

Terrace with al fresco bath

SOLD - $1,710,000

78 Rochford Street, Erskineville NSW 2043

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This inner-city Sydney relic had an outside bath, and sold for $1.71 million at auction in June.

The once-grand terrace at 78 Rochford Street in Erskineville had become a shadow of its former self, with crumbling walls, a bowed balcony, exposed brickwork, peeling paint, holes in the ceiling, and a metal bathing trough in the garden, exposed to all weather.

Buyers saw plenty of value and life in it. On 153 square metres, the house had two bedrooms upstairs and living and dining rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom on the ground floor. Most of the fixtures and fittings had been stripped out.

The home was sold by agents from BresicWhitney Inner East with development-approved plans for a new house.

No front door, no worries

SOLD - $3,835,000

41 Palmerston Avenue, Bronte NSW 2024

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This blighted house in Bronte, Sydney, was on its last legs, but that did not stop six bidders – all owner-occupier builders – from bidding ferociously for it at auction in November.

The property at 41 Palmerston Avenue, which had never been offered to the market before, sold for $3.835 million – $835,000 above reserve.

It didn’t have a front door, but that did not sway prospective buyers – 12 registered as bidders before the auction.

The winning bidder was a father who planned to build a new house on the site with his son.

The block of over 325 square metres is a short walk from the famous Bronte foreshore and cafes.

Buyers go wild for rusty old cottage

SOLD - $1,425,000

24 Gloucester Street, Spring Hill QLD 4000

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It doesn’t look like much, but this abandoned cottage was one of the most desirable homes to go under the hammer in the Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill this year.

The property, with a rusty tin roof, had been empty for 16 years and on the market for 18 months. Although not heritage listed, it could be demolished under council rules, and so the project called on a buyer with a lot of gumption.

Once filled with character features, a number of renovations in years gone by had stripped out much of its charm.

Original and ‘crying out’ for a reno

SOLD - $2,800,000

40 Liverpool Street, Paddington NSW 2021

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“An unrenovated shell that’s crying out for a total transformation” is how the listing, on the books of McGrath Paddington, described this once posh, now forsaken, terrace in Sydney’s Paddington.

The home sold at auction for $2.8 million in March.

Safety was a priority at 40 Liverpool Street, and buyers were advised to wear boots and a mask during inspections.

It was in such a state that a particularly bad corner of a living room was taped off.

The buyer had their work cut out dealing with problems from flaking paint to decaying brick walls and debris, but the future looks rosy for the double-storey balcony terrace, with its heritage features still in place, in a hip neighbourhood, with dual access.