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85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

A converted church property offers the opportunity to own a slice of SA history and run the business of your dreams in a truly heavenly location.

The Auburn property at 85 Skilly Rd has been renovated throughout, and offers the best of both worlds – a fantastic place to live, and the perfect opportunity to start a small business.

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Historic church’s impressive transformation

Jeff and Chiggy Schiller bought the home 12 years ago, attracted by its location and unique offering of an old-meets-new property with income potential.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“We bought it on the eighth of the eighth in 2008 – a very auspicious date,” Mr Schiller says.

“We fell in love with it as soon as we saw it and bought it.

“It was so beautiful and peaceful out here and that’s what we were looking for.

Mr Schiller was living with his Japanese wife Chiggy in Perth and, having grown up in Port Augusta, was looking to return to SA.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“I’m a geologist and came back to South Australia because it always seemed like home,” he says.

“We lived for a little while in Clare and I used to go on tours around the district looking for something a bit more rural, and as soon as I saw this place I knew it was the one.”

The property had already been partly restored and upgraded when they bought it, with the couple adding a modern upper level to make the most of the property’s stunning views.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“The property fell into ruins until the 90s when a woman, Fran Gerard, bought it, and prior to that there’d been a couple of guys who had worked on a cottage here – which was a former manse or the former schoolteacher’s accommodation – so she did some tidy-up work on that and built a function centre around it and completely refurbished the church,” Mr Schiller says.

“She ran it as a business for a while and lots of local weddings were held here, and then when she decided to sell and we bought it, we were very keen to live here.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“We were keen to take in the views of the valley, so we built up and put on some living space upstairs and completely changed the layout of it.

“We had some ideas of our own and used a local architect with some input from the heritage people and used a great local builder.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“We are proud of it – our addition is more modern but we tried to make something that showed the separate parts without copying the old style but still blending nicely together.

“In the beginning we were looking at running it as a meeting room – hosting low-key events – and we had a few functions here but in the end decided we were keen to just live here.”

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

The church was built in 1862, Mr Schiller says, with the rest of the property steeped in history too.

“It has a wonderful historic feel – there’s a cemetery nearby with some pioneers there,” Mr Schiller says.

The home sits on a 40.87ha block and features a 1000-tree olive grove, a 750-tree carob grove and two dams. Mr Schiller says it is the ideal spot for a business.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“It would be a wonderful cellar door and if people wanted to invest, I always had a dream of putting a couple of those eco pods cabins on the property – the views from the property in every direction are wonderful – you could have a BnB business, or a little olive oil business or a wine–selling business as there’s plenty of room to plant vines,” he says.

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

“I’d love someone who loves it to take it on, and it would be great for someone who wants to invest and has a project in mind – it has a beautiful basis for a project to take off and there are all kinds of possibilities, there’s no doubt you could make some money if you wanted to put some investment and energy into it.”

“It’s a beautiful place – it’s an absolute secret this place.”

85 Skilly Chapel Road, Auburn. Supplied by Harcourts Packham

The couple are now embarking on a treechange, and are heading for the Adelaide Hills.

“I’m a country boy, I need some trees around me,” Mr Schiller says.

The property will be auctioned through Bianca Browse of Harcourts Packham Property on Saturday, September 19 and has been listed without a price guide.

The post Livin’ on a prayer in stunning Auburn church restoration appeared first on realestate.com.au.

A Rye vendor briefly turned agent when she performed a virtual open for inspection at her own property.

Marion Frolik conducted one of auction streaming platform Gavl’s first open homes from an owner’s perspective, which are an effort to bring buyers into listings while adhering to stage four lockdown restrictions.

Real estate agents are unable to attend properties in person and all inspections must be conducted virtually.

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The three-bedroom house at 20 Twakurra St, Rye.

Views from the home are first class.

A window splashback in the bright and contemporary kitchen.

Ms Frolik’s online tour of 20 Twakurra St proved a hit with buyers, with the home selling a few days afterwards to one of the viewers for $1.06m.

“I did love selling my own home — you can’t get any better than the actual owner showing you through,” Ms Frolik said.

Ray White Rye listing agent Travis Doolan said he was “flooded with phone calls and emails” once the live-stream finished.

“She got smashed with questions from about four different buyers — she knew all the answers on the spot,” Mr Doolan said. “A lot of the questions I would’ve had to go back to her first (for an answer).”

“She actually said, ‘geez, Travis — I’m selling the house myself!’”

Open-plan living in the Rye house, which sold for $1.06m.

There are multiple entertaining spaces.

Did we mention the views?

Ms Frolik said she was “a bit nervous and sceptical” before conducting the tour, but it had been a fun experience.

“I was really surprised, I thought ‘who’s going to buy a house off live-streaming?’” she said. “I’m totally gobsmacked.”

Buyers had the opportunity to ask questions about the property through the app’s chat function, which Ms Frolik was best placed to answer.

“At first I didn’t know they could actually hear me and then Travis typed to ‘talk us through the property’,” she said.

Gavl co-founder Joel Smith said the vendor’s own virtual tour was a bid to keep the real estate market accessible for buyers during the stage four lockdown period.

“It’s just a new way the industry’s tackling it — we may not be able to move around but we can still view properties,” Mr Smith said.

One of the home’s three bedrooms.

The main family bathroom.

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The post Rye vendor conducts live-stream open home herself to sell well appeared first on realestate.com.au.

79 Elanora Way, Karalee, has been listed for sale via expression of interest.

An out of this world bubble house in Brisbane’s west has hit the market for the first time – and it may well be the weirdest and most wonderful home ever.

Its architect owner Graham Birchall took almost a decade to complete construction – a true labour of love that’s partly NASA space base and part Queensland engineering genius.

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The dramatic entry tunnel to the front door.

The home is like a space base on earth in its feel.

The sports bar is on level 1.

Real estate agent Helene Shephard of First National Ipswich has the home at 79 Elanora Way, Karalee, listed for expressions of interest, with interest coming in from all over the globe.

The three bedroom, two bathroom, four car space home sits on 0.51ha of riverside land and was described as ”a world first opportunity”.

Design and construction was a true labour of love.

It celebrates circles across the entire design.

This is how I imagined the Mars base would be – minus the plants.

The home, which is 20 minutes from Ipswich, was listed as one “that will change how you live in the world right now”.

“What started as a thesis idea, 36 years ago, by Mr Birchall grew into the current family home. Eleven intersecting circular domes which range from 4m to 8m in diameter are the key formations. The remote iris circular shutters provide privacy, function and form,” was how she described it.

The engineering inside it includes the use of an internal water cooling fountain as the airconditioning system.

“A traditional boat builder and carpenter crafted the kitchen complete with all the curves,” she said.

It has 11 domes, 20 rooms and 1,050sq m of floor space over three levels with an entry tunnel on the first level along with a library, media room, sports bar, and even a golf tee.

The second level has a private office, bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchenette as well as a sitting room and cathedral room, while the basement has a wine cellar, lock up garages and a workshop.

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The post Bizarre bubble house hits market for first time appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Exercise is a common activity for those home alone.

Walking around naked, eating junk food and stalking ex-partners on social media are some of the most popular activities for Aussies to do when home alone.

A study looking into the most common behaviours undertaken by Australians when no one else is at home revealed most people engage in some level of private activity.

The most common activity was enjoying a daytime nap, with nine in 10 respondents polled in a survey commissioned by Victory-Blinds.com.au claiming they did it when they had the house all to themselves.

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Others used the time to catch up on guilty pleasure reality TV shows or started talking to themselves.

Victory-Blinds spokesman Stuart Clark said spending time at the house alone was a common way for people to recharge.

“Every person, no matter how outwardly social they may seem to others, needs some time alone to themselves every now and again to partake in a little ‘me-time’,” he said.

Most Aussies will walk around naked when home alone.

“In such a confusing and often fast-paced world, some precious hours to recharge in your own home can be invaluable to emotional wellbeing and health.”

The research surveyed 2100 anonymous Aussies aged 18 and over who said they lived with at least one other adult in their home.

Of those polled, 70 per cent lived with a significant other, 20 per cent lived with friends or housemates, and 10 per cent lived with their parents.

More than half of those polled said they were home alone between one and three times a week, with 14 per cent claiming it was only once a month.

Three quarters of respondents said they walked around naked and nearly half were guilty of spying on an ex partner’s social media profiles.

Despite these activities, most Aussies admitted they didn’t like being home alone and only about a quarter of respondents said they liked it.

Most who disliked being alone thought it was unsafe, while others simply enjoyed the company of others more.

THE MOST COMMON ACTIVITIES WHILE HOME ALONE WERE:

1. Daytime nap (89%)

2. Being naked around the house (74%)

3. Eating unhealthy foods (62%)

4. Watching reality/trashy TV (54%)

5. Stalking ex-partner’s social media profile (48%)

6. Exercise/workouts (34%)

7. Cleaning/organising the home (23%)

8. Talking to themselves (15%)

9. Taking selfies (4%)

10. Online gambling (2%)

The post Getting naked, stalking ex among most popular home alone activities, study reveals appeared first on realestate.com.au.

Kris Gale and MJ Salier with their dogs, Pixie and Luma, at their home in Willoughby. They have bought off the plan at the new Surry Hills Village development. Picture: John Appleyard

Ask Mary-Jane Salier — known simply as ‘MJ’ — why she and her husband, Kris Gale, have bought a $6.4m penthouse off the plan in the Surry Hills Village development during a pandemic and she’s matter of fact.

“Yes, it’s a tricky time, but I’m an optimist at heart,” she said.

“TOGA [the developer] does have an excellent reputation for delivering a quality product and I feel as though we know what we’re getting.”

And MJ, who leads the international regulatory team for US-based communications company Verizon, and Kris, who presents Fire Up! on FBi Radio, aren’t the only “optimists”.

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An artist’s impression of a Surry Hills Village penthouse.

The developers say it’s too early to finalise retailers at Surry Hills Village, but safe to assume some well-known names will be in there.

Just three of the eight penthouses remain for sale, priced from $5.15m to $6.25m, offering luxurious 200 sqm internal spaces with city skyline views and terraces as big as 274 sqm.

As MJ says, there’s nothing else like it in their chosen inner-city patch: “The already built houses there are kind of small with lots of levels.”

And Surry Hills Village is no ordinary project. With construction expected to start late this year or early next, the grungy shopping centre often unkindly referred to as ‘Murder Mall’ on the 1.2 hectare site is set to be replaced in a residential, retail, hotel and commercial redevelopment valued at $450m.

Located on the corner of Cleveland and Baptist Streets, the SJB and BKH-designed apartments start at $875k for a 55 sqm one-bedder; $1.55m for an 81 sqm two-bedder and $2.65m for a 122 sqm three-bedder.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2023 or early 2024.

The view from Baptist Street.

The corner of Baptist and Cleveland Street.

While the cheaper apartments don’t have off-street parking, perhaps importantly in the wake of COVID-19, they all come with a balcony or terrace.

The CEO of TOGA, Fabrizio Perilli, said he was happy with the current rate of sales, which were averaging one or two a week.

“With COVID, I think everyone’s had time to reflect and they’re looking at their home in a different light,” Perilli said.

“Most of us have had to adapt to working from home, and people are thinking more about accessibility of amenities, commercial and retail, being close to the CBD, Moore Park and open spaces.

All of the apartments come with a balcony or terrace.

Great outdoors.

“People want good-sized apartments with true studies and an extra bedroom, and they want good-sized terraces and balconies.”

He said that more than 30 of the 80 apartments released to the market so far had sold.

“We’re pretty happy with that — we’re ticking them off, Perilli said.

Most of the buyers were from a 5km radius — Surry Hills itself; the CBD; Darlinghurst; Camperdown; Potts Point; Elizabeth Bay and Paddington.

But also further afield — Mosman; Seaforth; St Ives; Dural and also parts of Asia.

MJ and Kris currently live in Willoughby, but the plan was always to pack up the two-storey house in their leafy neighbourhood and move somewhere more central.

“We’ve got a lot of friends on that side of the Bridge and it’s really close to our gym — Hiscoes [in Crown Street],” MJ said.

Stylish kitchens.

Beautiful living spaces.

One of the deciding factors was that their cavoodles — Luma and Pixie — would be welcome. “If it was no pets, it would be no us, basically,” she said.

The outside area, plus the dog-friendly park on the edge of the development helped win them over.

TOGA’S street cred was important. It’s famous for mixed-use developments such as Boheme in Bondi Beach, which has among its retail offerings Messina, China Doll, A Tavolla and Ciccia Bella Italian Osteria owned by Icebergs restaurateur, Maurice Terzini.

And there’s also a Harris Farm.

Perilli said it was too early to finalise retailers at Surry Hills Village, but safe to assume some well-known names will be in there.

Views and fine dining.

Great cafes and restaurants.

“We’ve got quality operators at Boheme and that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing at Surry Hills,” he said.

“I’m very passionate about that retail precinct.

“We’ve obviously got Coles, and they’re really starting to evolve now.

“And we‘re going to have lots of restaurants and cafes.

“It’s going to be a fantastic precinct, with everything you need in one spot … we want people to treat it as a meeting spot.

“It’s going to be quite an amazing development.”

And construction data out this week showed that there’s little prospect of a surge of new apartment development in such areas because of falling building activity during COVID-19.

Charter Hall Group’s Chris Freeman said a housing shortage was looming, particularly in Sydney’s east and on the northern beaches.

Development approvals for new housing this year sank to their lowest level in close to a decade, analysis of ABS data showed.

The post Surry Hills Village: ‘Why I bought a $6.4m penthouse off the plan during a pandemic’ appeared first on realestate.com.au.

This extraordinary suburban estate offers, set over three blocks, offers all of the luxury features you’d expect to find in a first-class resort.

Lush tropical gardens surround the sprawling 2372 sqm Sorrento site, which was inspired by Caribbean island living.

Plenty of space to play at 13-17 Binda Place, Sorrento.

That holiday vibe kicks off with not one, but two pools — an 18m heated lap pool for exercise and a large leisure pool just for fun.

The floodlit tennis court is of championship proportions while dual boat ramps, two boat sheds and a serviced pontoon capitalise on 57m water frontage.

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Relax post-match in the alfresco area.

“It’s a great house for entertaining,” said Ray White’s Sam Guo. “You can jump in the pool after a game of tennis.”

Previous owners renovated the grounds and residence, which has five generous bedrooms and nine bathrooms, including an outdoor shower and toilet.

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Take your tastebuds on tour with international wines and champagne.

Leaving home may not even be necessary with an office, library, media room, wine cellar, fireplace and gym.

“You can actually walk into the wine cellar and enjoy a drink,” Mr Guo.

No longer able to use the residence, Mr Guo said the Chinese owners had priced the property to sell at $4.75 million.

“It is very good value, especially being three blocks and in such a central location,” he said. “It’s a very rare property.”

The post Holiday at home in your very own suburban resort appeared first on realestate.com.au.