Add CategoryA heavily cluttered house in need of a complete overhaul has attracted dozens of brave buyers seeking an affordable entry point into one of Australia’s hottest property markets.
The four-bedroom brick house in Kelmscott in Perth’s south east is advertised for offers above $489,000, and the eventual buyer will get plenty for their money, with the entire contents of the home included with the sale.
They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and the owner of the 691sqm property will be hoping that’s the case, offering the home to the market in “as is” condition with all their abandoned possessions thrown in.
![19 Ryland Road, Kelmscott, WA 6111](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 800 450"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The junk-filled property is described in the listing as "less of a fixer-upper and more of an extreme makeover waiting to happen." Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
“The current owner just upped and left,” selling agent Ash Swarts explained in a video in the listing.
“Everything you see here is included in the sale, so you better be prepared to get your hands dirty because you’re definitely going to be getting them dirty here.”
Every room in the house is littered with the owner's abandoned possessions. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
Mr Swarts described the property as “pretty horrible” and said it was the worst-presented home he had put on the market in the past 12 months, even going so far as to question why it was listed for sale.
“Does it get any crazier?” he said in the video. “I mean, why is this even on the market?”
The living room is currently set up as a recreation area, featuring a pool table, dart board and a stack of encyclopedias for some light reading. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
The motley assortment of items thrown in with the sale include a pool table, home gym, several bicycles, a set of encyclopedias, as well as plenty of furniture and appliances.
“The living room is a treasure trove of the old owner's furniture, offering instant decor inspiration or kindling for your first fireplace,” the listing states.
The owner of the home simply "upped and left" according to the agent, leaving everything behind. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
The buyer will also get everything that’s strewn across the backyard, including a barbecue, box trailer, wheelbarrow, chicken coops, and two sheds, one of which contains “a whole stack of tools” according to Mr Swarts.
The home could be almost be considered fully furnished, should the eventual buyer decide to keep all the existing furniture and homewares. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
While there’s “plenty of skip bins full of stuff” that need to be removed from the property to make it habitable once again, Mr Swarts said the home was in better shape than it appeared.
He described the home as “partially renovated”, with some major work already undertaken.
Some renovation works have been undertaken, although it appears progress has stalled. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
“They had a roof leak in one of the back bedrooms, which is why the ceiling there is starting to fall out,” he told realestate.com.au. “But they paid and got the whole roof redone, repointed and repainted.”
“My gut feeling is it's not a bad house once you take that stuff out of it. A lick of paint and it's pretty good to go.”
The home includes plenty of exercise equipment, but clearing out the property would be a workout in itself. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
Mr Swarts said the property had already received a huge response, with several interested buyers offering to purchase the home sight unseen.
“It's been crazy,” he said. “We’ve had six offers already, and the first viewing is today.”
“I reckon I'll have 30 or 40 groups coming through today and we’re closing offers on Saturday.”
The backyard is serving double duty as an entertaining area and worksite. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
He said most of the enquiries so far had been from first-home buyers looking to secure a property in the booming suburb at an affordable price point, even if it meant putting in the hard work to fix it up.
Mr Swarts said the home could be worth close to $650,000 with an estimated rental return of $600 to $630 per week, once it was refurbished and all the clutter was cleared.
Despite its cluttered state, plenty of buyers have seen value in the 691sqm property, according to the agent. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy
Kelmscott has had among the highest price growth of all Australian suburbs over the past year, with affordable property prices and strong rental yields creating competition between first-home buyers and investors.
The suburb has a median house value of about $564,000 according to PropTrack.
But a year ago, a typical Kelmscott house was worth just under $400,000, with median values rising a whopping 42% since then – twice as fast as Perth’s already impressive 21% annual price growth.