St Kilda Townhouses Seek Up to $1.8m on Blanche Street

A contemporary townhouse at 34 Blanche St (left) contrasts with an older St Kilda residence (right), highlighting the changing streetscape in an area with a colourful past. Copy

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A townhouse address on Blanche St

Four townhouses now occupy the 420sq m site at 34 Blanche St, St Kilda, where two residences are being marketed at price guides ranging from $1.05m to $1.8m. The redevelopment captures a shift in the area’s housing mix, while the street’s past still features in conversations with prospective buyers. The change is visible at the scale of a single block: a former duplex has become a small group of separately configured homes, each with its own price point and features.

That makes the property story about more than a new façade. It reflects the way a site can be remade to offer several homes where there were once two dwellings, while the character and history of the surrounding street remain part of the address buyers are asked to assess.

Two homes, two price points

Three-bedroom townhouse 2/34 Blanche St is guided at $1.65m-$1.8m. Set across three levels, it has a large stone kitchen island and an entertaining area that opens onto a private balcony. The layout puts living and entertaining space at the centre of the sales pitch, while the three-bedroom configuration gives it a different profile from its two-bedroom neighbour.

The two-bedroom 4/34 Blanche St is expected to attract $1.05m-$1.15m and is scheduled for auction on October 31. Its secure garage has direct internal access, with a vehicle turntable helping drivers manoeuvre into the space. That feature is unusual enough to stand out in the property description, but the practical appeal is straightforward: it addresses the challenge of getting a vehicle into and out of a confined garage.

The private courtyard at 4/34 Blanche St is part of a two-bedroom townhouse headed to auction on October 31, with $1.05m-$1.15m price hopes.

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The new home at 4/34 Blanche St includes a garage vehicle turntable, a feature Mr Jones said he had never encountered in another property he had sold.

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Whitefox Stonnington associate director Jesse Jones said the turntable was a first in his property sales career, which began in 2016. “You just don’t come across something like that very often,” he said. His comment gives the feature some perspective: it may catch attention, but it’s also a response to the physical constraints of the garage. A striking detail can help a home stand apart, though buyers will still weigh it alongside the everyday fundamentals of layout, access and price.

A street with a changing story

Blanche St was gated at both ends from 6pm to 6am in the early 2000s after residents raised concerns about traffic and noise linked to street-based sex work. Former Port Phillip councillor Liz Johnstone recorded the area’s traffic changes in a 2002 paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. Speed humps and one-way restrictions on Robe and Acland streets had redirected some traffic towards Greeves St, and complaints later reached nearby streets.

The history matters because it shows how street conditions can be shaped by decisions made beyond one property boundary. Traffic controls intended to address problems on particular roads can shift pressure elsewhere, with residents on neighbouring streets then experiencing the effects. That account offers context for the access restrictions, while also explaining why Blanche St’s past remains part of local discussion.

The 34 Blanche St site was once marketed with conceptual plans for seven apartments, but developers ultimately built four townhouses instead.

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Jones said he encountered the street’s access restrictions on his first visit, eventually reaching the property via Market St. He sees the area’s history as part of its appeal and says buyers across price ranges are showing interest. “St Kilda has changed enormously over that time. You only have to look at buildings like the Gatwick and what’s happened in the surrounding area,” he said.

That observation points to a broader tension in the sales story. A changing neighbourhood can attract buyers looking for newer housing, while its layered history remains a defining part of its identity. The Gatwick reference is Jones’s illustration of that change; it doesn’t erase the earlier conditions or mean every buyer will view the past in the same way.

The original address was a two-storey duplex, with one dwelling upstairs and another downstairs. It sold for $1.22m in November 2015. Marketing at the time described the neighbourhood as “edgy, urban and cool” and promoted conceptual plans for seven apartments; the eventual project delivered four townhouses.

The gap between the plans and the completed project is telling. Seven proposed apartments would have represented a different kind of density and housing offer, while four townhouses deliver a smaller group of homes with the features described in the current listings. Plans can frame a site’s potential, but the finished project is what now shapes the block’s built form.

The former two-dwelling property at 34 Blanche St sold for $1.22m in November 2015, before being replaced by the four-townhouse development.

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Whitefox’s Jesse Jones said Blanche St’s colourful past still came up with prospective buyers, despite the arrival of new million-dollar townhouses.

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Jones said Blanche St’s past still comes up during buyer discussions, even as new homes reshape the block. “It’s part of St Kilda’s past, and I think it’s interesting when you look at how much the area has changed,” he said. The history is neither a footnote nor the whole story: it sits alongside the homes’ present-day design and the price expectations attached to them.

If you're working in this space, the property is a reminder that location carries more than its current appearance. Buyers may ask how a street has changed, what its reputation means to them, and whether the new housing fits the area they want to live in. That said, a past association doesn’t tell us how any individual will respond.

4/34 Blanche St, St Kilda, former hooker site, hires – for herald sun real estate

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What the sale may signal

Jones described buyers as increasingly selective, while expecting sales activity to continue into the Christmas period. He said his team was prepared to work through December 22. His comments offer a snapshot of the agent’s expectations, rather than a market-wide measure; the article provides no broader sales data to establish how widespread that selectiveness is.

For Blanche St, the forthcoming auction will put a clear price marker on a site that has moved from duplex living to a four-home townhouse address. The guide for 4/34 Blanche St sets an expectation, but the auction result will show what buyers are prepared to pay for this particular home, with its two-bedroom layout, courtyard and unusual garage arrangement. The numbers here are underwhelming as a market forecast: one sale can tell us about one property, not settle the question of demand across St Kilda.

And yet, that single result will still matter to the story of this block. It will add a current transaction point to the site’s documented history, while the higher guide for the three-bedroom townhouse offers a separate indication of how the development’s homes are being positioned. A useful marker. The contrast between the old duplex, the unrealised apartment plans and the completed townhouses gives buyers a tangible account of change, even if it can’t predict what comes next.