Nunawading 50-home investment of Tony Defelice tipped for $12.5m

The 50 homes spread across 38-40 and 42-54 Burnt St, Nunawading, are for sale in one package.

A 50-home Nunawading investment property built and owned by one of Melbourne’s most revered builders has been listed for sale, with early interest at the $12.5m mark.

The eight villa units and 42 two-bedroom flats at 38-40 and 48-54 Burnt St were established by Tony Defelice Homes in the late 1960s, and the builder has hung onto them ever since.

The late Mr Defelice had a reputation for quality construction, building large chunks of Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs. He even hired Frank and Nunzio Pellicano, who went on to establish the Pellicano Group, as brickies.

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CVA director Ian Angelico is selling the 8000sq m property and said early interest had set eight-figure expectations for the property, and confirmed the broad appreciation for Mr Defelice’s work.

“He’s a bit of a legend as a home builder … and he was an absolute gentleman,” Mr Angelico said.

Mr Defelice continued building homes up until about six years ago when he was well into his 80s, and passed recently in his 90s.

The sprawling allotment is in three separate titles.

It includes seven two-level buildings of flats.

His works included estates and hundreds of homes around Mooroolbark, Nunawading and Wantirna.

The Nunawading units were built in the late 1960s in the early days of Mr Defelice’s work, but have been refurbished and several have long-term tenants that have lived there for more than five years.

At present it is earning $525,000 a year in rent, but it is estimated this could be upped to $678,000 a year if the site were fully leased.

“It’s fully-paved and landscaped, and it’s quite well maintained,” Mr Angelico added.

The quality of the buildings and the capacity for significant rental returns might be enough to keep them in place for some time, though Mr Angelico isn’t ruling out a developer looking to establish a new set of townhouses or apartments — or even aged care.

The homes were built to a high standard in the late 1960s and still in good condition today.

A refurbishment of the premises has updated the homes with modern necessities.

“And there are three titles as well, so you could part develop it, or stage it,” he said.

Before the end of its first week on the market the property had 25 parties registered and Mr Angelico had hosted three inspections. Most of them were local families and private investors, with a few institutional investors also assessing it.

Expressions of interest are due by December 8.

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