10 Busch Street
LIVE | First listed 5 October | Auction 31 October
SUNSHINE NORTH, VIC
A low-entry renovator where the purchase price is only half the equation
At $600k–$660k, 10 Busch Street is cheap enough to make a renovation feel possible. The question is whether it stays cheap once the work begins.
The original two-bedroom house sits on 524m² with a 15.9m frontage, leaving plenty of backyard and more than one way to think about the site. Inside, the timber floors and decorative ceilings give you something to work with, but the kitchen, bathroom and general condition point to a proper renovation rather than a light refresh.
The opportunity here is not simply to buy the cheapest house and spend freely. It is to work out how much of the existing house is worth keeping, how far the renovation should go and whether renovating the existing house or starting again actually makes financial sense
2 bed · 1 bath · 1 car · 524m²
1950s post-war weatherboard bungalow
Sale method: Auction (estimate $600k–$660k)
RenoScouter Snapshot
View original property listing →Why it made the cut
The $600k–$660k guide, simple two-bedroom house and 524m² block create a genuine lower entry point into Sunshine North. There is enough existing house here to make renovation worth testing against the cost of starting again.
The opportunity
Work with the existing bones and turn a very simple house into a solid small home, or test whether the block justifies starting again. Either path begins with a relatively low purchase price.
The catch
This is not a cheap cosmetic project. The kitchen, bathroom, services, floors and exterior all need attention, so the advantage of the entry price can quickly disappear.
Is it worth buying?
At a $600k–$660k guide, the appeal is obvious: 10 Busch Street is one of the cheaper ways into a detached house on 524m² in Sunshine North. The question is how much of that advantage survives once the renovation or rebuild is added.
Just before this house went to market:
49 Sandford Avenue sold for $740k in September. It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms and three car spaces on 604m², including a self-contained bungalow.
10 Talbot Street sold for $773k in August. It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms and 578m², with much less work required.
51 Meadowbank Drive sold for $882k in September. It offered four bedrooms, two bathrooms and 560m² with modern updates and established outdoor entertaining.
Renovation path 1:
use the bones
The existing house is small and straightforward, which works in its favour.
Restore the timber floors if their condition allows it, keep the decorative ceilings, replace the kitchen and bathroom and deal properly with the lighting, services, laundry and weatherboard exterior. If two bedrooms suit the buyer, there is no need to make the house larger simply because there is backyard available.
A kitchen can easily sit around $30k–$50k, while a standard bathroom renovation can range from roughly $15k–$35k before flooring, painting, electrical, plumbing, exterior repairs and contingency are added. Source: hipages
For 10 Busch Street, I would work with a rough $140k–$200k+ renovation allowance.
Using the midpoint of the guide at $630k, Victorian transfer duty is roughly $33k before any individual concessions. Victoria’s general duty rate at this price is $2,870 plus 6% of the amount above $130,000. That puts a rough purchase + duty + renovation total at around $803k–$863k+, before finance, conveyancing and dealing with any significant defects uncovered during inspection.
That range overlaps with what larger Sunshine North homes were already selling for, so the renovation needs to stay disciplined. The value is in saving and improving the existing house without spending beyond what the local market is likely to recognise.
Renovation path 2:
knock it down and rebuild
The 524m² block and 15.9m frontage make starting again easy to imagine.
Current Melbourne cost guides put a standard knockdown-rebuild broadly around $450k–$900k all-in, including demolition, site works, approvals and construction. Source: Senka Homes
Using the same $630k midpoint purchase price and roughly $33k duty, even the lower end of that rebuild range takes the total to around $1.11m.
That is difficult to ignore when four-bedroom Sunshine North houses on similar or larger blocks, with far less work required, were selling for $740k–$882k just before this house went to market.
For a buyer set on this exact street and planning a very specific long-term home, the block could still work. But once demolition and a new build are added, the total spend starts competing with a very different part of the local market.
So, is it worth buying?
Yes, if the existing house is worth saving. Much harder to justify if the plan is to knock it down.
Path 1 works for a buyer who can keep the renovation controlled and is happy with a smaller home while keeping a good-sized backyard.
Path 2 is where the maths becomes difficult. Once the house is removed, the low entry price that made 10 Busch Street interesting largely disappears.
The building inspection is the deciding factor here. If the structure, floors, services and weatherboards are fundamentally sound, there is a credible renovation case. If they are not, we would be much less interested in the property.
What needs checking?
If using the bones
Subfloor and stumps. This is a small 1950s weatherboard house, so confirm whether the floor structure is level, dry and sound before assuming the existing shell is worth saving.
Timber floors. Check how complete the boards are, their condition under any remaining coverings and whether they can genuinely be sanded and restored.
Decorative ceilings. Confirm the ceiling detail is sound and worth retaining rather than hiding cracking, movement or previous repair work.
Bathroom condition. The bathroom is incomplete and visibly needs major work. Establish whether the problem is limited to finishes or extends to waterproofing, plumbing or underlying damage.
Weatherboards and exterior timber. Check for rot, moisture damage and the amount of replacement needed before treating the exterior as a simple repaint.
Kitchen and services. The kitchen is a full replacement, so confirm the condition of the electrical, plumbing and hot-water systems before setting the renovation budget.
If knocking down and rebuilding
Demolition cost. Get an address-specific quote, including any asbestos removal if present.
What the 15.9m frontage actually allows. Before valuing the block as a rebuild opportunity, test the likely new-house layout, setbacks, driveway access and how much backyard would remain once a new house is built.
Build cost against local end value. This is the key 10 Busch Street question: what would the specific house you want to build here cost, and what are comparable finished homes in Sunshine North actually selling for?
The house itself
10 Busch Street was built in 1952, which places it squarely in Melbourne’s post-war housing period. The house is small, single-storey and weatherboard, with a tiled roof, timber floors and restrained decorative detail rather than the stronger architectural identity you might expect from an earlier bungalow.
That simplicity matters. Post-war houses were generally built around practical family living, with modest footprints and straightforward room arrangements. In Melbourne’s west, this period also coincided with rapid suburban growth and a major wave of post-war migration, which shaped much of the housing built across the wider Sunshine area. Source: Heritage Council Victoria
Inside, the solid timber floors and decorative ceilings are the clearest period features worth retaining. They are not rare, but they give an otherwise plain house some age and texture. If the original fireplace opening remains behind the heater, there may be an opportunity to restore or reinterpret it as part of the renovation.
The weatherboard exterior tells us this is a lightweight timber-framed house. That can make alterations easier, but the boards, framing and subfloor need to be in good condition for the renovation case to stack up.
10 Busch Street is a simple 1950s shell with a few original details and a very uncomplicated floor plan. That is exactly why the renovation question is so binary here: if the structure is sound, there is something straightforward to work with. If it is not, there is very little architectural value forcing the buyer to keep it.
Sunshine North at a glance
10 Busch Street sits in a part of Sunshine North where children can walk to school and local parks, while bigger shopping, dining and train connections are a short drive or bus trip away. That makes this particular pocket especially well suited to young families who want everyday independence for their children while still having larger shops, restaurants and transport connections within easy reach.
For families who want children to build some independence as they get older, the school location is a real advantage. There are three primary schools within roughly a 2–7-min walk: Sunshine Christian School, St Bernadette’s Primary School and Sunshine North Primary School. Sunshine College’s North Sunshine Campus is also around a 10-min walk. Australian research on children’s independent mobility suggests the benefit goes beyond exercise. Moving around without an adult gives children regular opportunities to navigate their neighbourhood, make small decisions, manage everyday risks and interact with other people on their own. Studies have linked that independence with stronger spatial knowledge, sociability and perceived competence, as well as a stronger sense of community and lower fear and loneliness as children get older. Source: ScienceDirect
The parks are close enough to become part of the weekly routine. Northumberland Park is about a 10-min walk and has a playground, picnic area, BBQ, shelter and outdoor exercise facilities. Dempster Park is about the same distance, with sporting facilities and a new children’s and community centre under construction. Planned facilities include kindergarten rooms, maternal and child health consulting rooms, a family space, community hall, outdoor play areas and a new public playground.
For bigger shops, Sunshine Marketplace is around a 5–10-min drive, with Woolworths, Big W, Village Cinemas, pharmacies, banks and places to eat. For something more distinctive, central Sunshine around Hampshire Road has Vietnamese bakeries, Asian supermarkets, Afghan and Ethiopian restaurants, halal grocers and other independent businesses that reflect the area’s multicultural community.
Public transport relies more on buses. Nearby services connect Sunshine North with Sunshine Station, where metropolitan and regional rail services provide the bigger connection across Melbourne and Victoria.
Resale and rental appeal
Sunshine North has steady demand for detached houses, but the bedroom count matters. In the 12 months to September 2026, the suburb recorded 177 house sales, with a median house price of $765,000 and a median 40 days on market. Two-bedroom houses sat lower at around $630,000, while three-bedroom houses were around $752,500 and four-bedroom houses around $870,000. Source: Realestate.com.au
That matters for 10 Busch Street. A well-renovated two-bedroom house can still appeal to couples, smaller households and buyers who value backyard space, but the resale pool is narrower than for a three- or four-bedroom family home. The renovation therefore needs to be good enough to lift the house without pushing the total spend into territory buyers would normally reserve for a larger home.
On the rental side, Sunshine North houses were renting for a median of around $560 a week, with two-bedroom houses around $525 a week, three-bedroom houses around $573 and four-bedroom houses around $698.
The rental case therefore improves if the house can eventually function as more than a basic two-bedroom, but we would still see 10 Busch Street primarily as an owner-occupier renovation rather than a yield-led purchase.
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