One of Australia’s most viewed real estate listings of 2023 was for a dilapidated regional Victorian home complete with penis graffiti and a pentagram.
Real estate agents described the five-bedroom home at 70 Henty Highway, Beulah as “what you see is what you get”.
Photos of the home showed a ransacked living room with the former occupants’ belongings strewn across the floor.
The tub had been ripped out of the bathroom, leaving behind a pile of debris and a hole to the outside world.
A brick wall had fallen in while, in the kitchen, the sink and countertops were littered with dishes.
Termites had been seen at the home and it was no longer connected to the power grid, marketing materials from North West Real Estate revealed.
But the pièce de résistance was the art. A penis, a smiley face and the word “GAY” were graffitied on the living room walls, and a pentagram hung over the fireplace.
“Is this the cheapest house in Victoria?” a frank description of the property read.
“This project is for the serious renovators and once you have filled numerous skips bins to get it back to a blank canvas you can see what you have to deal with.
“The water is connected, the power has been connected but not now and Beulah is on septic.
“The bungalow is probably the best spot to start before you tackle the house. Yes, there have been white ants and no we haven’t had any quotes to have it cleaned up and I have no idea what it will rent for once it has been renovated.
“All potential purchasers should do their own due diligence because you’ll need to watch more than a couple of episodes of the Block before you tackle this one.”
But none of those factors stopped the listing from being popular.
Some 29,000 prospective buyers clicked on the online ad over the course of 2023.
The home, set on 1229 square metres in the heart of Beulah, sold for $55,000 in June, making it one of the cheapest Victorian properties to hit the market last year.
It was significantly less than the average price of a family home in Victoria, at $1.24 million — though you mightn’t want your family to live in it.