IT WAS the scene of a horrific crime, but that hasn’t driven property-seekers from the site where Brisbane chef Marcus Volke murdered, dismembered and “cooked” his trans girlfriend.
In news stories at the time of the double death (the killer took his own life after fleeing the Tenerriffe apartment) neighbours described a putrid smell coming from the first floor dwelling.
A tradesman who entered the unit days before the grisly discovery said the carpet “squelched” under foot, and complaints were made to police after the “eye-watering” stench seeped through the building’s halls.
Months after the remains were mopped up and the crime scene dissolved, the apartment was advertised at around $500 a week.
While the time taken to rent out and status of the property is not known, news.com.au understands what happened in DoubleOne3 apartments has had no effect on demand for rental or sale properties in the building or in the area.
It’s a slightly different story to what many real estate agents face handling properties in which a serious crime has been committed in the past 12 months, but it’s not an uncommon scenario for a realtor to have to face.
The penthouse home of Brisbane socialite Maureen Boyce was on the market for $3.7 million when she was found stabbed to death in the Kangaroo Point apartment last month. Her former lover has been charged with her alleged murder.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland CEO Antonia Mercorella told news.com.au the discussion of “stigmatised properties” was one that came up regularly with agents.
“Most agents will have a story about something that they’ve encountered and how they’ve gone about delivering what can be sensitive information. It’s a topic that comes up on a fairly regular basis,” she said.
“It helps to discuss it with other people in the industry because it always reveals cases where people have different perspectives. We all have different thresholds and different views and not everyone would find that very disturbing.”
While standards vary state to state as to what agents are required to reveal when selling a property, stigmatised properties may often fall under the requirements of Australian consumer law in place to prevent misleading conduct.
Ms Mercorella said while market forces were always more of a factor, a characteristic that could make a property “undesirable” like a murder or suicide at the property, would always be factored in by potential buyers or tenants.
She said highly publicised murders at known addresses were a particular turn-off for some.
“Realistically it could have an impact on the price,” she said.
“It will come down to how recent the murder was, it comes down to what kind of a murder it was as well, whether it’s something that’s particularly gruesome or involved potentially multiple people. It absolutely could have an impact.”
The time frame of the murder, or whatever horrifying act left a property stigmatised, probably had the greatest effect on the saleability, or rent-ability of a property, she said.
A study from the University of Sydney on the effects of nearby murder on housing prices and rents in Sydney found housing prices fell by 3.9 per cent for homes within around 300m of a murder in the year following the murder, and weaker results in the second year after the murder.
Interestingly, the study’s authors did not find any effects of murder on rental prices, and higher media coverage or being closer to a murder location had no additional effect.
In the case of the highly publicised murder of Sydney woman Lisa Harnum by her partner Simon Gittany, the murder clearly had an effect.
The luxury city apartment where Gittany threw his fiancee to her death was passed in at auction when it first went up for sale in March of this year.
The property contract said a criminal homicide had occurred in the property. It failed to sell at a time when Sydney’s property market was experiencing a close to record-breaking clearance rate.
Though owners missed out on an estimated $2 million sale at that auction, their bad luck didn’t last long with the property selling for $2.25 million in May.
The sale of another notorious and gruesome murder suffered in 2012 when the Lin family home, which featured on news bulletins and newspaper pages in coverage of the murders of five members of the family in 2009.
The four-bedroom home in North Epping was slated to fetch more than $900,000.
It attracted the attention of several serious interested parties with more than 21 potential buyers viewing the home, but sold for less than expected at $766,000.
The location of the infamous 2009 Frisoli brothers’ murder in Sydney’s Rozelle became hot property last year.
The pair of brothers, Albert and Mario Frisoli, were found repeatedly stabbed and beaten to death after Giuseppe di Cianna, who is currently serving 30 years for the crime, crept into the house dressed as an old woman.
Meanwhile, in 2014, the home sold more than $200,000 over reserve for $2.26m.
Also in Sydney, the Surry Hills terrace where Natalie Jean Wood lay dead for eight years is expected to hit the market after it was inherited by the last family member to see her alive, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Ms Wood’s body was discovered in 2011, years after her 2004 death at the age of 87.
The NSW Supreme Court earlier this year decided the widow of Natalie’s late brother, Enid Davis, would inherit her estate.
Prospective buyers will be told Ms Wood’s skeletal remains were found on the floor next to her bed, the Telegraph reports.
ncG1vNJzZmimlazAb6%2FOpmWarV%2Bbtq%2BtzZycaKqVlrlusdKtmK2dX5fCurXNoGatoJViuqK%2Byp6rZp6fp3quwdGdnKtlmKTCtLHSZp%2Bor12nsqK4jJ6qrZmkmnqis8Snq6xllJqurXnWoquhZaOptqi5wK2grJ2UYr2zu8%2Beqa2hlah8r7HWrGSsrJ%2BnxnCAj2xucJqVaIB1fo9rZ55wlph%2Bd4GPb2ienWFsg6eEmA%3D%3D