Budget Breakdown: They Turned a Narrow Sydney Terrace House Into an Inner-City Oasis for $397k

Noho Architecture maximizes space and natural light to revamp a cramped dwelling on a 14-foot-wide lot.

Jun 3, 2024 - 19:51

Budget Breakdown: They Turned a Narrow Sydney Terrace House Into an Inner-City Oasis for $397k

Noho Architecture maximizes space and natural light to revamp a cramped dwelling on a 14-foot-wide lot.

When Chester and Chloe found an inner-city terrace home that fit their budget in Sydney, Australia, they knew they had to snap it up.

"If you were to go back to 2017 and try to buy a terrace for under a million dollars, it just wouldn’t happen," Chester says. "We came across this one and it was $850,000 [$564,000 USD] and we stretched ourselves to afford it. It was a one-bedroom, one-bathroom piece of sh*t, to put it nicely."

With white polyurethane joinery and polished concrete floors, light bounces around the small space. — Thanks to sparkling white polyurethane joinery, polished concrete floors, and an internal courtyard, light bounces around the small space, which measures just 23.6 feet in length.
Photo: Ben Guthrie

It might have been a bomb, but the location was perfect: Camperdown is a trendy suburb about two miles from the CBD where Chester works in finance and Chloe in law.

It was a typical Victorian-era worker’s cottage, with an ’80s terrace extension that did little to improve its dark and dingy vibe. But that was the appeal, Chester explains: "The fact that it was a blank canvas."

Sticking to a simple linear staircase allowed architect Justine Money to pack storage into the narrow space and create a dining nook. — Sticking to a simple, linear staircase allowed architect Justine Money to pack storage into the narrow space and create a dining nook. The slim bank of cupboards on the left also hides the services, removing the need for bulkheads.
Photo: Ben Guthrie

The couple initially planned to spend $300,000 Australian dollars (about $193,000 USD) on a modest revamp that would add a second story, and save the major makeover for later. "What we found was that whether we did a minor renovation or a significant one, there would be substantial costs," Chester explains. "If we were to go the whole hog and do it properly, it would only cost a hundred grand or so more than we had planned."

$850,000 Existing House	$492,000 Site Work & Builder Fees	$17,000 Foundation
$3,000 Flooring	$13,000 Landscaping	$68,000 Joinery
$7,000 Countertops
Grand Total: $1,450,000 AUD (about $966,135 USD)