Millers Point homestead to fetch $4 million

Grimes Cottage at 50 Argyle Place is a Colonial Georgian freestanding home with six bedrooms, north-facing gardens, a self-contained studio flat and views of the Harbour Bridge and The Rocks from a sprawling verandah at the rear. 

Located less than 10 minutes walk to the CBD and set across 416 square metres, the 1830s home is regarded as a jewel within a portfolio of social housing in the area now being offloaded for private ownership.

The controversial sales campaign, which is expected to generate more than $500 million for new housing projects outside the city, has been criticised as a backflip on goals of social integration and for uprooting elderly residents and families who have been in the area for decades.

Despite a fiercely fought campaign by residents and high profile supporters including Lord Mayor Clover Moore, activist Jack Mundey and artist Dare Jennings, the sell-off has progressed and raised more than $27 million to date from the sale of 12 homes - averaging $2.2 million each.  

Grimes Cottage is one in a slab of four terraces that are the latest to come to market this month, and one of just two freestanding homes within the Government's Millers Point portfolio.

McGrath agent Richard Shalhoub holds the listing. 

"It offers scope to restore a charming cottage into a substantial six bedroom family home in a historic Harbour front precinct," the agent said.

in early April that some of the proceeds from Millers Point sales will go to building 10 public housing units at Lurnea, in Sydney's south-west.

Units in the $2.8 million complex are among about 1500 new public housing dwellings built from the proceeds of the controversial sale, which is expected to reap upwards of $500 million.

According to the Government, every Millers Point property sold can fund the construction of five properties elsewhere.

 

RESOURCED: RESOURCED: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/millers-point-homestead-to-fetch-4-million-20150421-1mp8eh