23 Hannan St, Williamstown, sold for $2.815m in a major win for retro 1980s homes.
When Claudia and Ted bought their Williamstown home in 1978 it was a run down Victorian residence.
Records show they paid $39,000 for it before replacing it with a forward-thinking mixture of Alistair Knox inspiration, clever solar use and plenty of 80s retro charm.
Yesterday they sold it for $2.815m, more than $500,000 above the $2.3m they set as the top of their price guide.
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Since then, the home has housed generations of their family from their kids to Claudia’s parents, and their daughter again.
Aside from a semi-recent adaptation to better suit multigenerational living, the home has had little done to it since the 1980s — but its exposed brickwork, sunken lounges and raked ceiling line are all back on vogue today.
“It’s nice to see it’s all coming back again, but the new homes aren’t built like this any more,” Claudia said.
![23 Hannan St, Williamstowne - for herald sun real estate](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
A retro sunken lounge and exposed brickwork beneath raked timber ceilings were a bit part of what attracted the family who bought the home.
The home came with two sunken lounge spaces.
Ted, a civil engineer before he retired, said they’d designed their forever home — and gotten a lot of enjoyment out of its forward thinking design that retained and excluded heat as needed in winter and summer, and even featured in-floor heating.
For Claudia, the sale marked a “bittersweet” end to a lifetime connection to the street — having grown up at a home down the street at No. 7.
“But we’re hoping to help our children with their lives now, rather than later – so we can see them enjoying it,” she said.
But they’re still planning one final family send off for the house before the new owners collect the keys.
Williams Real Estate’s Katie Smith conducted the auction and said five bidders drove the massive result.
The solid home’s walls, including its interior ones, are all made of brick.
The retro kitchen is still charming buyers today, decades after it was built.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had one like that,” Ms Smith said.
The buyers, a local family with three kids, fell for the home’s single-level design and retro charm that is now very much back in vogue.
“They don’t want to do anything with it, they just want it for what it is,” she said.
But with limited signs of future listings, Ms Smith said buyers would be waiting some time for anything similar — and the suburb’s lack of supply would push prices even higher.
Ms Smith noted another sale for a nearby single-level, brick home at 10 Kingshott Close, Williamstown, for $1.6m had soared about $250,000 past expectations yesterday, as well.
With both homes well kept, but still featuring a range of their original features, she said the need for a reno was fading.
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