Historic St Kilda building near ‘The Block’ up for sale

It could be a case of back to the future for a historic St Kilda building that began life as a lodging house. 

The 1883 three-storey building on the prominent corner of Fitzroy St and Grey St, opposite the George Hotel, has been marketed as potential student or backpacker accommodation.

Morleys director Matthew Morley says there is a call for that type of accommodation, after Channel 9 renovation show The Block shutdown the area’s notorious rooming house, The Gatwick, and backpackers’ the Oslo Hotel.

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“There is a shortage of that type of housing with the esplanade being refurbished,” Morley says.

“St Kilda is on the move and improve and there is potential for someone to buy this and bring it back to its former glory.”

The 1883 building was originally a hairdressers, perfumers, private residence and 11-room lodging house.

The site at 123 Fitzroy St and 7-9 and 11 Grey St will go under the hammer on October 11 and interest is expected to be above $3.3 million.

The Milton House building is occupied by a pharmacy and phone shop, both with leases that end in 2022. A car rental shop has a month-to-month lease for part of the ground floor.

“Four years isn’t that long so we might get some interest from owner-occupiers, investors and developers — local, interstate and overseas,” Morley says.

“On the first floor half the building is occupied by the pharmacy for storage but the back half and third floor is total empty and has been unoccupied for many years.”

The property’s top two floors are almost in original condition. It returns $148,440 per annum.

The top two floors need “quite a bit of work” but offer plenty of development potential.

“There is opportunity for a developer to look at renovating and upgrading to facilitate another floor,” Mr Morley said.

“You will find the property itself needs quite a bit of work.”

Morley says a local family has owned the site for a “very long time” and its pending sale has already attracted a lot of local interest.

The property was built for just $7690 according to a local paper at the time.

An article printed in the Telegraph and St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian on December 15, 1883, details the building’s erection which cost a mere £4,300 ($7690).

A perfumers and hairdressers occupied the ground floor, with a private residence on the second floor and 11 bedrooms, which were leased out, on the third.

The article read: “Amongst the large number of public and private buildings lately erected in the Borough of St Kilda, none is more conspicuous than the large three storied (sic) building recently completed on corner of Fitzroy and Grey streets”.

This article from Leader Newspapers originally appeared as “Historic St Kilda building could go back to humble beginnings as lodging house”.