{"id":852628,"date":"2026-08-12T13:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852628\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T13:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:54:12","slug":"sydney-owner-lists-4m-waterfront-home-for-less-than-1m-in-brutal-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852628\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney owner lists $4m waterfront home for less than $1m in brutal ad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris isn\u2019t leaving any skeletons in his closet\u00a0after posting his three-bedroom waterfront\u00a0townhouse for sale.<\/p>\n

The home is located along Sydney\u2019s Blackwattle Bay, where townhouses are worth upwards of $4 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve decided, let\u2019s just throw the baby out with the bathwater, let\u2019s just get rid of it,\u201d Chris told A Current Affair.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

Chris has listed his home for $999,999.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve decided, let\u2019s just throw the baby out with the bathwater, let\u2019s just get rid of it,\u201d Chris told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n

It only takes reading the sarcastic property description\u00a0in the listing to understand why.<\/p>\n

\u201cBUY THE DREAM … INHERIT THE NIGHTMARE,\u201d\u00a0Chris wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a home. It\u2019s an experience. For nearly $4 million, we thought we\u2019d purchased our forever home. Turns out we\u2019d actually enrolled in an unlimited subscription to … Strata – The Never Ending Story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chris bought his dream home two years ago, but an ongoing dispute with the building\u2019s Owners Corporation led him to list it for sale.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

Chris bought his dream home two years ago, but an ongoing dispute with the building\u2019s owners corporation led him to list it for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur advice: forget checking the dishwasher, forget checking the paint, forget checking the roof,\u201d\u00a0Chris goes on to write.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk for the meeting minutes, read them, every single one, because the biggest surprise in strata usually isn\u2019t hidden behind the walls, it\u2019s hidden in the paperwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris says more than 6000 people have emailed or messaged him since the ad was posted, many offering more than $1 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they don\u2019t understand and what I\u2019ve tried to explain is: it\u2019s not $1 million you\u2019re paying,\u201d Chris said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re paying that, and then there are all these levies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris claims a couple of his neighbours undertook unauthorised works on the property in 2017, but things went pear-shaped and now Chris and the other owners also have to foot the bill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sydney owner lists $4m home for under $1m amid strata agony.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

A letter sent from City of Sydney Council to one of Chris\u2019 neighbours detailed how allegedly unauthorised works on one of the properties \u2013 converting a courtyard into a room \u2013 were deemed \u201ca breach of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act\u201d. But the council determined \u201cit would not be taking further action at present\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil needs to have a mandate to actively be able to come and say, here\u2019s the demolition order,\u201d Chris said.<\/p>\n

Statement from City of Sydney building surveyor:<\/p>\n

I refer to an investigation currently being carried out by the City of Sydney in relation to unauthorised development at the subject property.<\/p>\n

An inspection carried out on 20 December 2024 has confirmed that the matter (being unauthorised building works by enclosing the ground floor rear courtyard partially and converting that into a room) is a breach of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (The Act), insofar that, the development was carried out without a Development Consent (DA).<\/p>\n

Council has determined that although it considered that works have been undertaken without any consent, Council will not be taking any further action in this matter at present.<\/p>\n

This does not prohibit Council from taking any future action should further information be bought to our attention relating to this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris isn\u2019t leaving any skeletons in his closet\u00a0after posting his three-bedroom waterfront\u00a0townhouse for sale. The home is located…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-852628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}