47 Bay Street BRIGHTON

Comments on 47 Bay Street BRIGHTON

I've run past this home almost every day for the last 20 years, and from the street it has always intrigued me with its mysterious look and feel. It's on huge land, around ¾ of an acre in the old money. The big questions are: 1) Is it a development site? 2) a bulldoze for a grand new home site? or 3) do you keep the old girl and go through a major refurb? On first impressions through the home I am leaning towards the latter. Maybe it's the romantic in me, but it doesn't take a lot to imagine this in an old black and white movie with the owners entertaining their friends in grand style, children laughing and the clinking of glasses everywhere. The home has really grand, well-proportioned front rooms. The whole home is also set back considerably from the street - which negates any serious issue with traffic noise, which, in any case, is not that serious an issue in this part of Bay St. But against those two big pluses of feel and proportions, is the fact that this represents a serious project - also of the grandest proportions. You could spend more fixing up each room than some would do fixing up their whole home. Upstairs, the rooms are set into the ceiling so the space isn't quite as special as downstairs. The back-half also doesn't really work for modern day family living, so you'd probably want to start again there with a wrecking ball. Which comes back to the question of whether you just start again from scratch (STCA). The backyard is enormous - there's room for whatever you like and it is north-facing and there's the side street with access to the existing garage. You also have a large street frontage if a townhouse development were possible (STCA). But I really loved my visit to this home so I kind of hope the new owner keeps it. Price is another big question. The market hasn't exactly been buzzing in Brighton for $5 million plus homes this year. But given you are a couple of hundred of metres from the water and a bit more from the shops and rail, and you are looking at a package the size of a small farm in prime Brighton - well, these sorts of homes don't come up all that often. Any interested party will need to deal with the emotion of trying to buy versus the risk of missing out - an interesting combination at any time, but especially so when there are big gaps between the buyer and seller as there are this season. Rated as needing a Serious Renovation.