Last St Kilda Road mansion to be occupied as a home sells for $8.25 million
Historic Melbourne mansion Landene at 490 St Kilda Road has sold after nine months.
Landene is believed to be the last standalone home in the tree-lined street to be occupied as a residence.
Engineer Graeme Davies listed it last November with price hopes of between $7.4 million and $8.1 million.
Harcourts Melbourne City’s Dionne Wilson sealed a deal this month worth $8.25 million.
The heritage protected property was offered to prestige home buyers, as well as investors who might reconfigure the space into offices, retail, or both.
It is selling to a local buyer for personal use, Ms Wilson said
The double-storey Queen Anne style home was built in 1887 for the McHenry family: at the time St Kilda Road was full of stately mansions owned by some of the city’s wealthiest identities.
By the 1940s, Landene was occupied as a boarding house, prior to being picked up by the Postmaster General’s Department in 1949, and occupied as the St Kilda Road Post Office from 1962.
A dentist rented the property’s upper level in the late 1980s.
This pocket of St Kilda Road, about five kilometres south of the CBD, is zoned Melbourne, though the precinct’s postcode (3004) is different to the city.
Many grand historic mansions like Landene have been razed since the 1950s to make way for offices and apartment buildings.
Mr Davies paid Australia Post $800,000 for 490 St Kilda Road in 1992 without his wife, Shirley’s knowledge.
The pair then undertook a two year renovation said in this realestate.com.au item to have cost as much as the property.
“When I went and had a look at it, squatters had already been out of it a couple of years, and the place had deteriorated very badly,” Mr Davies said upon listing Landene.
“All the fireplaces except for one had been taken out and I assume sold off,” he said. “There were water leaks everywhere, and it was in very run-down condition”.
The Davies’ employed interior designer Tony Cardamone for the project which included restoring hand-painted ceiling architraves.
The residence has a building area of 642 sqm and sits on a 1054 sqm plot.
