Notorious Darwin flats finally moved on

The notorious Malabar Lodge on Smith St is up for sale.

For years the property has made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Almost daily, police attend the residence to deal with the anti-social behaviour the residence seems to attract.

The eyesore has undergone renovations in the past because of its dilapidated state.

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It is now up for sale with an auction expected as early as next month.

Knight Frank Darwin senior real estate consultant Rick Trippe is managing the property and says they are expecting upwards of $800,000 for the prime real estate.

He says it would be a developer’s dream.

“The condition of the property is its very old is what I call a ‘holding bank’,” Trippe says. “Buyers might want to develop it or do it up a bit and rent it and then sell it.”

A snapshot of the the mess of Malabar Lodge.

Trippe, seeing the humorous side of the sale, says the neighbours will be ecstatic that the property is on the market.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of sticky beaks because of the past history it had, which will be good. The police will be happy too,” he says.

Owner George Calvi, 73, says he decided to sell the property as he is too old to manage it nowadays.

The property was built by Calvi’s father in 1956. Back then it was a set of flats and occupied mainly by migrant workers who were constructing various buildings around Darwin.

Calvi says the 20-bedroom building will need at least $100,000 to get it looking nice again.

Exposed wires in a light socket are one of the many threats that Malabar Lodge residents on Smith street were facing day-to-day. Picture: Supplied.

“If somebody spends at least $100,000 they can do it up really nice, upstairs is all timber and jarrah wood,” he says.

“I thought long and hard about fixing it up and doing it up and putting different type of people in there but it’s too much for me now.”

The last of the occupants moved out on Monday.

He says he understands the neighbouring residents’ frustrations about the anti-social behaviour.

“The neighbours don’t like it and I don’t blame them,” he says.

“When I had a different type of people it was nice.”

This article from the NT News originally appeared as “Notorious Malabar Lodge on Smith St is up for sale”.