Property valuations in Richmond

Richmond combines tightly held single and double-fronted Victorian terraces with warehouse conversions, walk-up flats and newer apartment stock. Heritage controls apply across large parts of the suburb, and the extent and quality of any rear addition is frequently the single largest difference between two otherwise comparable cottages on the same street.

Inner Melbourne is the hardest part of the city to value from a spreadsheet. Two Victorian terraces on the same street can differ by hundreds of thousands on frontage, orientation, rear access and whether the rear extension was done well. Add heritage overlays, small and irregular lots, and an apartment market that ranges from converted warehouses to new towers, and automated estimates lose their footing quickly.

Richmond instructions frequently involve family law settlements over a single-fronted cottage where one party has funded renovations. Establishing the value at two dates, and what the works contributed, is a common requirement and needs a full inspection.

What we weigh here

• Heritage overlays and what they permit at the rear of a period home
• Frontage, lot shape and rear laneway access, which vary enormously street to street
• Owner-occupier versus investment-grade apartment stock, which behave as separate markets
• The quality and compliance of extensions, common in period housing here

Automated online estimates can't assess any of these. That's the gap a valuation fills.