The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
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The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties
EP. 1390 BUYING BACK CHILDHOOD MEMORIES THROUGH PROPERTY... IT HAPPENS!
What happens when nostalgia meets the property market? Our fascinating journey into the emotional world of real estate reveals how sometimes buyers aren't just purchasing a home—they're reclaiming a piece of their past.
We share the remarkable story of Damien, who recently purchased the exact two-bedroom apartment in DY's distinctive Longview building where he lived with his parents 30 years ago. The moment of recognition, walking through that front door and realizing this wasn't just any apartment in the building but their specific former home, created an extraordinary full-circle moment. The family even recreated a past photo in the same spot, with Damien trading his childhood white shirt for a green Guinness one—a visual testament to how life changes while spaces can remain familiar.
The financial side of this nostalgic journey tells an equally compelling story. Tracking the apartment's value from its first recorded sale at $81,000 in 1987 through to the current $920,000 purchase price demonstrates the remarkable growth trajectory of Sydney's Northern Beaches property market. While Damien plans to rent the apartment rather than live in it, the emotional value transcends the investment aspects. His parents immediately recognized unchanged features while noting updates like floorboards replacing the green carpet they remembered. The dual balconies and practical floor plan make this not just a sentimental purchase but a sound investment.
This rare occurrence—buying back a family home—raises important questions about balancing emotional connections with financial considerations. Does the property represent good investment value, or is the purchase primarily driven by nostalgia? For Damien's family, this property offered both. Have you ever considered buying back a childhood home? What memories would draw you back, and would you make the purchase if the opportunity arose?
Have you ever thought about buying the family home back after it's been sold? Does it happen in real estate? We're going to talk about it this morning. Oh, what a cool concept buying the family home back after the family sold it.
Speaker 2:When you get older it's like 30 years apart um a walk down memory lane. This is probably the most incredible tale of the sale I've had the pleasure of of sharing um for a two-bedroom apartment in dy so the emotion is real billy.
Speaker 1:Like it does happen. People do reminisce about the family home people do talk about when it comes up for sale. People do talk about, oh guess what, your house, your family home's for sale. Or you have an alert set up on the old family home and you think, oh my god, I'm gonna go and have a look and see what it's like. Do people actually buy them back?
Speaker 2:yeah, it really, really does happen. And when you think about um, the time of 30 years in between moving out and moving back um or buying it as an investment, like there's some considerable market growth as well, you know, like prices have rapidly changed. So what you, what you remember it as is, is very different to what it's in its current state. But we've got a story to share this morning for a sale that happened last week in DY. This photo was taken over the weekend. I was so, so happy to meet the buyers on site. These are going to be the new owners and, believe it or not, damien in the green Guinness shirt lived in this apartment with mum and dad standing next to him on the left Five years ago, and here is the photo that they, that we, sort of recreated.
Speaker 1:That's Damien in the white Unbelievable. That is so cool. That is so cool so he's not going to live in it, he's going to rent it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So investment property for them and they wanted to do that. They. They saw it come on the market and it was more the, it was more the. It's quite a um quite recognizable building, this one it's in dy called the long view building and it consists of um three entrances. So you've got a front facing building, one in the middle and then one right at the back, and it consists of three entrances. So you've got a front-facing building, one in the middle and then one right at the back, down a nice long driveway. It's about a 1,400-square-metre block. For reference, it's a big, big parcel of land and there's 16 apartments in there total. So when they saw the building image they were like you know, that's where we used to live, but they didn't quite realize it was that apartment until they got to the front door because of the three entrances.
Speaker 1:That is so cool. That is so cool. What is it with that emotion of like, because I know when we sold the family house, I was. When we sold that family house, I was pretty, pretty sad. I was like man, can we buy it? Can we hold it as an investment? How can we do this? You sort of financially think, no, we're better off doing other things instead of buying that. What is it with that emotion? What is it with that nostalgia? That, um, what is it with that emotion? What is it with that nostalgia?
Speaker 2:it's, it's a beautiful part of your life and you want to bring it back, or you want to hold on to it, I guess, yeah, I mean, it's like particularly when you've, you know, been there as as a child, there's core memories there. Or I think if you've raised family and in-house, there's core memories, um, but holding on to it ultimately, I think, um, even with someone else living there, it's going to be different for you, you know, if you're going to try and hold on to it as an investment. It's like it's a bit of a new chapter moment. We see it day in, day out with people you know, buying and selling those. Those new chapters are. They're're big moments. I think it just resonates with people as just a core memory that is so cool.
Speaker 1:That is cool. I guess you know what, if money wasn't a problem and you could hold on to the family home with good memories providing it's good memories I think everyone would probably hold on to the asset, wouldn't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, memories. I think everyone would probably hold on to the asset, wouldn't they? Yeah, I mean, time changes things. Um, they're, they're, you know, they're. Their requirement for a two-bedroom apartment isn't, isn't that there's a purpose to live there?
Speaker 1:but I think it's an amazing story and to, um, you know, then being it, be able to bring it back into the family, is just amazing and I guess over 30 year period like for people who don't know northern beaches and I think most parts of new south of sydney metro have doubled, probably three times. So do they remember what they sold it?
Speaker 2:for. Well, they never owned it, they rented it. But the property was built in 1970. It sold for the first time in May 1987 for $81,000. Yeah, it then traded again in October 1995 for $166,000. Then again in 2000. And that's a little bit of a data entry incorrect, gone wrong, but it does sell. There was a sale there. I just imagined the price was wrong 2009, $402,000. 2013, $450,000. And then today $920,000.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's double, double, double there you go and that's real estate for you. So, um. So, guys and girls, that is the tale of the sale. It does happen. People do buy back the um or buy the. The childhood memory, and I've often thought about it. You know we grew up in a house in Collaroy. It almost ran like a duplex, so it was a fair bit of property and at the time in my early 30s, you know when you're bringing up the family and strapped down with doing stuff like that, we couldn't quite do it. But I would have loved to have bought that family home. But sometimes it's not particularly a good investment. So be careful, because sometimes you could be buying an investment that's you know it was a good home but it wasn't a good investment rental property. So sort of be careful of that nostalgia. You don't want it to bite you in the bum. There could be other investments that perform better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, but for $920,000,. This is, as I said, a two-bedroom apartment in DY, fairly original to its character. Mum and Dad walked in and said back in the day they used to be green carpet. Where those floorboards are, there used to be a really old wooden kitchen, whereas it's been updated now. But they remember the laundry being exactly the same, a little bit of extra storage around the place. They're really impressed by the virtual furniture because the property is actually empty. So this has been styled digitally to give people just the impression of what it could look like. They remember the old curtains. The two balconies is pretty cool, like it's quite a unique feature to have two balconies in this price point. So you've got front and back and um lock up garage downstairs.
Speaker 1:Just a really, really good floor plan, but an amazing story so, ladies and gentlemen, it does happen where people are buying back childhood memories. You can do it, we do witness it. It is rare, I've got to say we wouldn't tell this story much in the course of a year or or even five. You don't hear about it a lot, um, but it happens. So, billy, thank you very much. The title of the title all right, take care, all right. Cheers, bye-bye. Have a great day.