43 Stuart Street ARMADALE

Comments on 43 Stuart Street ARMADALE

43 Stuart is AAA on location, AAA on price below $3m and A on the property itself.

The fundamentals impress me at 43 Stuart. It has issues but none for me are dealbreakers. The only dealbreaker would be you – the potential purchaser – do you like it?

The location for couples would be Melbourne AAA and Stonnington AAA and Armadale AAA. Train, park, coffee, shops, supermarket, tram, restaurants – everything on an auctioneer’s list on a Saturday, only this time it’s real. And on resale – schools, atmosphere, drinks – this appeals to almost all buyer profiles in the circa $3m zone including, small family (with or without boomerang kids) divorced people downsizing with or without kids, professional couples and those wanting a city pad.
 
But even though there’s some issues – this home is the icing on the location cake – as I really like the feel of this home and in single-fronted homes that is as rare – diamond rare. Usually, instead of diamonds, single fronted homes are dimes for me – dimes a dozen.
 
Why might you agree with me on a special feel – it starts with the width of block (this is a huge deal and often underrated) this is supersized at over 7m and the depth is also supersized for this type of home. Also, the architect did know what he/she was doing – they have got the spaces, the proportions, some lovely nuances absolutely right.

Upstairs main bedroom area is first class – led by the roof and space architecture and the panoroma is nice to wake up to – yes, going to sleep needs some thought to reduce summer heat - but its manageable on all but a few nights in 365.

The studio is not as good as the rest of the home but it’s still good. I also really like the garden between the main home and studio. There are four separate living areas in a single fronter - diamond rare – front room – living – studio and upstairs main.

So by now you’re probably asking, What are the issues? The centre step-up does not work for me; it breaks the flow. It’s not a dealbreaker and yes, I can see the argument as a focal landing point – but day in day out I would find it slightly off-putting – may be that is just me and more than likely there is a solution or it doesn’t annoy you if you’re the buyer  The rear laneway could be used as entrance to a garage (yes) – but it’s not an often-driven laneway due to its tightness. I feel the studio option currently is a better use – unless you absolutely need a garage.  

The natural light is weak(er) due to it abutting its northerly neighbour but it is largely (not all) mitigated by the window design.

What would make this perfection – a sub $3m price result – but even if that doesn’t happen – it would have to get past a 10% mark above $3 for me, before I said well we’ve hit some sort of thinking barrier.

Sometimes less than perfection is still perfection if it feels so – and 43 may for you, it does for me.