Property Advisors Across South Yarra

It begins with your brief: what you are buying, where, and what the property has to do for you. From there we agree terms in writing before any searching starts, so the scope and the cost are clear from the outset.

For buyers, we charge a fee agreed with you up front, based on the work involved rather than what you spend. For vendors, our advocacy is generally drawn from the selling agent's commission, so engaging us to manage a sale usually costs you nothing on top.

Much of the Domain precinct and South Yarra Hill, including streets like Walsh Street, Marne Street, Millswyn Street, Caroline Street, Murphy Street, Avoca Street and Domain Road, sits under a heritage overlay.

That shapes what you can alter, extend or demolish, so a renovation you have in mind may need a planning permit or may not be possible at all. We establish those limits before you bid, along with what the work would genuinely cost.

It depends entirely on the building. There is a high density of residential towers in certain parts of South Yarra around the corner of Chapel and Toorak Roads, Claremont and Yarra Streets, some of it now competing with big build-to-rent towers for the same tenants, and those buildings don't all hold their worth equally. I tend to give these properties a swerve, simply because they don't have a very good history of capital growth.

We assess the specific block, its outlook and its owners corporation before you commit, rather than treating the precinct as one market. If I am buying an apartment, I look very closely at size, density, floorplan, orientation and past performance

That depends on the tenant and the trade. Toorak Road suits established, refined retail and services, Chapel Street draws heavier foot traffic and turns over faster, and Forrest Hill's activity centre zone has lost office floors to residential towers, which affects both supply and price.

We weigh position, zoning and real demand for each option, not the strip's name.

Quite different. The grand end sits west, in the Domain precinct and on South Yarra Hill, while the flatter part running south of Toorak Road toward Commercial Road holds former workers' cottages and infill.

Between them are Howard Lawson's 1930s apartment blocks around Darling Street and Alexandra Avenue, which carry their own heritage and owners corporation considerations, so where you buy changes what you take on.

Then we keep looking, and we tell you plainly when the market is not offering what you want. We would rather wait than steer you into a compromise, and our advice never shifts because a deal might close sooner.