When Dylan and his partner first turned on the dishwasher in their newly purchased Bardon home back in 2019, water poured through the light fittings downstairs. It was the kind of welcome that might make any buyer question everything. Yet that gut-punch of a first night would eventually give way to one of the suburb’s most remarkable renovation stories — and a property now poised to chase a Bardon suburb record.
The home in question is 22–24 Sixth Avenue, Bardon, a five-bedroom, four-bathroom, seven-car residence that is hitting the market in March 2026. When Dylan — who has asked that his surname not be published — and his partner bought the property in 2019, they paid $1.1 million for what he freely describes as the worst house on the best street. Sitting on a 964-square-metre block, it was a 1920s worker’s cottage that had endured decades of neglect and, worse, decades of well-intentioned but poorly executed alterations.
The couple had been living just around the corner and had long admired Sixth Avenue for its generous land parcels, elevated positioning and district views. When No. 22–24 came up, they pushed well beyond their comfort zone financially — paying roughly 40 per cent more than their previous home — and almost immediately had doubts. The dishwasher incident on night one was just the beginning. The house had been raised and built-in underneath during the 1980s, and much of its original character had been lost in the process. Pulling back the layers of the original timber deck revealed lino, then bedding, and even chicken mesh beneath.
What followed was a meticulous, three-stage restoration and expansion that would consume years of the couple’s lives. Stage one alone took 12 months and was largely spent undoing the damage of past renovations — ripping out the entire lower level, lowering it, and replacing all windows with custom-made timber joinery. Later phases delivered the home’s showpiece elements: a heated pool, an outdoor fire pit, multiple living zones, and extensive landscaping that transformed the backyard into a flat, useable lawn of near-tennis-court proportions. In hilly Bardon, where level land is genuinely scarce, that alone is a serious selling point. Smart technology has been threaded throughout, sitting comfortably alongside restored Queenslander detailing, three separate kitchen spaces, and an elevated outlook that takes in district and city views.
The decision to sell has not come easily, Dylan says, with shifting work circumstances making the sprawling family layout less suitable than it once was. But the financial story is hard to argue with. Bardon’s median house price sat at $1,115,900 when they bought in 2019, according to Domain’s House Price Report. It has since climbed to $1,908,250 — a rise of around 71 per cent over five years. More recent data from realestate.com.au’s Image Property suburb profile puts the current median even higher, at approximately $2,040,000 for the 12 months to February 2026.
The home will be listed without a price guide, but selling agent Tom Murphy of Vivid Property Group says the scale of the renovation places it firmly at the top end of what Bardon has to offer. Murphy notes that only a handful of homes across the suburb have ever sold above $6 million, with most of those transactions occurring within the past couple of years. He points to the firm’s own sale of 21 Tristania Drive, which changed hands last year for $7.5 million on a 2,342-square-metre block, and says the current Bardon record sits at $7.8 million for a landmark home on an acre-plus site. Murphy says demand at all price points in the suburb has been strong, with even homes in the $3 million range now attracting multiple offers within days of listing.
For their part, Dylan and his partner feel the timing — buying just months before Brisbane’s property market surged — has been a rare stroke of luck. Whether 22–24 Sixth Avenue ultimately takes the suburb’s top price remains to be seen, but few homes hitting the Bardon market this year will carry a story quite like this one.
22–24 Sixth Avenue, Bardon is listed with Vivid Property Group.
Published 10-March-2026
