Property valuations in South Yarra

South Yarra splits into two quite separate markets: substantial period houses in the streets toward the Domain and the river, and a large volume of apartment stock around Toorak Road and Chapel Street. The house market is driven by land, heritage controls and position; the apartment market by building, floor, aspect and owners corporation position.

Inner Melbourne is the hardest part of the city to value from a spreadsheet. Two Victorian terraces on the same street can differ by hundreds of thousands on frontage, orientation, rear access and whether the rear extension was done well. Add heritage overlays, small and irregular lots, and an apartment market that ranges from converted warehouses to new towers, and automated estimates lose their footing quickly.

The gap between the Domain-end houses and the Toorak Road apartment stock is the defining feature of South Yarra work. Apartment valuations here turn on building age, owners corporation position and outlook; house valuations turn on land and heritage controls.

What we weigh here

• Heritage overlays and what they permit at the rear of a period home
• Frontage, lot shape and rear laneway access, which vary enormously street to street
• Owner-occupier versus investment-grade apartment stock, which behave as separate markets
• The quality and compliance of extensions, common in period housing here

Automated online estimates can't assess any of these. That's the gap a valuation fills.