One of Australia’s most opulent heritage homes just listed

Held by one family for nearly 50 years, a mansion by celebrated inter-war architect Marcus Martin in one of Melbourne’s most sought-after blue-chip areas has been extensively remodelled and is finally back on the market.

Since the two-year renovation and extension program, the house is now considered one of Australia’s most opulent heritage homes, with a past as glamorous as its future is likely to be.

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216 Domain Road, South Yarra VIC 3141

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“It’s absolutely unique,” says agent Sean Cussell of Prestige Homes of Victoria. “Essentially, it’s a brand-new home, and it’s getting so much attention. It’s wonderfully decorated and furnished and provides the ultimate in contemporary living while it has all the style and substance of its history.”

The vast five-bedroom, five-bathroom Martin House in South Yarra, close to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Fawkner Park and the Yarra River, has just been put up for sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign with expectations of $21 million to $23 million.

With its art deco origins carefully nurtured and heritage features highlighted, the three-storey home now also offers every contemporary luxury. The 695 square metres of internal space contains no fewer than six living spaces, with a gym, cinema room, private retreat, guest suites, a large 55-square-metre terrace and an internal lift between floors.

The dramatic decor creates a sense of space and contrasts the classic modernist lines with elements of French industrial design. There’s even a garden room, stunningly clad in green, designed to bring nature inside, and fitted with special lighting that encourages indoor plants.

The house then sweeps out into a Jack Merlo-designed garden with a swimming pool.

With so many buyers now seeking out homes that have already been renovated and are completely ready to move into because of the soaring cost of construction, shortages of skilled workers and material supply chain disruptions, the mansion has become a market lightning rod.

“I hate to think how much it would cost to carry out this kind of renovation today,” says Cussell. “But having a home so beautifully fitted and finished is priceless.

“Most people today don’t want to go through a costly renovation process with all the delays in seeking approvals and having to live somewhere else while all the work is being done, and then facing more delays and difficulties. So, we think there’ll be a lot of interest in this, especially from downsizing families with maybe a country or beachside property, too.”

The 680-square-metre site, with a primary frontage onto Domain Road to the south, originally contained two three-storey townhouses of rendered brick, designed by Marcus Martin for well-known barrister and writer Tristan Buesst in 1936.

The buildings were arranged in an L-shaped configuration and had been owned by Marion Page, daughter of Melbourne businessman Sir Clive McPherson.

In 2016, the 1147-square-metre site on which it sat, along with other buildings, was bought by the founder of retail surfwear chain Surf Dive ‘n’ Ski, Fadil ‘Butch’ Sadikay, for $33 million in what was described at the time by its agents as “the most hotly contested campaign of the past decade”.

He originally contracted Melbourne architects Powell & Glenn to create four large apartments out of the Martin buildings but then changed the brief to redesign the heritage buildings and create one vast house instead.

The exterior look of the house remains a homage to Martin, the most popular architect among the wealthy Melbourne establishment, who designed a number of other buildings on Domain Road. His style was revered for its restrained modernism, which he developed after being spellbound by the achievements of the modernist movement during an 11-month stay in Europe in 1931.

The interiors retain the clean lines of the original architecture, with a marble-floored lobby entrance and a marble bar, and French oak floorboards elsewhere. Yet, there’s now a contemporary free-flowing floor plan, and every modern luxury has been introduced, from the state-of-the-art Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances in the gourmet stainless steel kitchen to the fingerprint technology and “panic” security features, the solar and gas-heated pool and the C-Bus system.