Ex-brothel to sell for almost $3million in Melbourne after wild transformation from used mattresses to modern design

An ex-brothel in one of Melbourne 's trendiest suburbs is set to go under the hammer after being renovated into a stylish family home.
Previously known as the Club Rose bordello, the venue-turned-home 182 Rose Street in Fitzroy was purchased by Paul Ghaie and partner Lucy Wallace in 2014.
At the time, the property came complete with used mattresses, spa baths and a glowing neon sign that once lured punters in with the promise of 'exquisite ladies.'
'We were living in an apartment two doors up when it was still a working brothel,' said Mr Ghaie to RealEstate.com on Thursday.
'But the tenants fled in the middle of the night… then it went up for sale.'
The abrupt exit of its former occupants meant the brothel was still fully set up when they got the keys.
Following a transformation, it has been listed with a price guide of $2.9million to $3.1million.
But while the home has been completely transformed, some cheeky hints of its past remain.
'We didn't want to erase the history,' Mr Ghaie explained.
'It was part of the charm, so instead, we worked with it.'
The couple brought in acclaimed Fieldwork Architects for a 'sympathetic renovation,' creating two separate buildings connected by a courtyard garden.
The result was a beautifully crafted residence with four bedrooms, multiple living areas with room to both work and relax.
'With a humble façade and a colourful past this property has been transformed... to provide beautiful spaces for a diversity of uses,' the listing said.
The home also offers a distinct layout, which the listing says allows for versatility.
'Live in one, work in one, rent one, or use it all, the choice is yours,' the advert said.
While a lot of the former brothel's features were stripped out, including the aforementioned mattresses and plumbing, some remnants were retained.
The couple kept the VIP area's Roman columns and restored a pink neon sign, which still lights up the courtyard today.
The property owners didn't want to lose some of the history of the home, including pink paint and a sign referencing the 'exquisite ladies' who were advertised when it was a brothel
'The pink paint, the sign, they're little nods to what it was,' Ms Wallace said.
'We didn't want it to feel sterile. It's a home with personality.'
The home is set to go up for auction next Saturday, on June 28.
Paul Gahie and Lucy Wallace were approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Wales Online

4 hours ago

• Wales Online

How much do British Lions players get paid?

How much do British Lions players get paid? The Lions begin their summer tour preparations with a match against Argentina in Dublin on Friday night Maro Itoje and his Lions team-mates are set to make a lot of money this summer (Image: 2025 Getty Images ) The British & Irish Lions kick off their summer tour this evening with a warm-up game against Argentina in Dublin. It is the first time in their history that the touring side have played a match in Ireland and head coach Andy Farrell is certainly taking the curtain-raiser seriously. ‌ The Lions boss has named a strong XV to face the Pumas at the Aviva Stadium, with Wales skipper Jac Morgan starting and Welsh scrum-half Tomos Williams being selected on the bench. ‌ Both will have an opportunity to lay down a marker for the upcoming Test series against Australia, with excitement now building for the trip Down Under. Being selected for the Lions is widely regarded as the ultimate honour for players in the northern hemisphere. Former skipper Sam Warburton said during his playing days: 'To finally get that Test jersey playing the first match against Australia, which we managed to win, that is the only jersey that I have hanging up in my house – that's how proud I am of that one. 'For me that was the biggest and single most important game I have ever played in. Article continues below 'When you are playing club rugby, yes you want to play for Wales and I wanted to play for Cardiff but in the back of my mind I always set my sights really high on playing for the Lions. 'There was pressure on the players and as captain I felt a lot of responsibility. That was why it was such a relief to get the Test series win against Australia – an amazing feeling but we also knew that people would be optimistic about the Lions moving forward to the next series.' Along with the honour of representing the Lions, players also get rewarded financially - and quite handsomely too. ‌ According to the Telegraph, this summer's tour is set to be a record-breaker, with a £10million profit expected. A new profit-sharing agreement will see selected players pocket £100,000 each for their contributions in Australia. That is a 25 per cent increase on the tour to New Zealand in 2017, which saw players pocket £80,000 for their efforts. The trip to South Africa in 2021 was played behind closed doors due to Covid. "We know that players love playing for the Lions, and it is the pinnacle of their professional careers, and this landmark agreement highlights how they are at the centre of our thinking," said Lions chief executive Ben Calveley. Article continues below Simon Keogh, Rugby Players Ireland chief executive, added: "Players are central to the ongoing success of the British and Irish Lions Tours and we are delighted that their views – including those of Lions heroes of the past – have been heard throughout this process. "I'd like to thank the British and Irish Lions for their honesty, transparency, and genuine consideration of the players' voice. "As a result, I believe that we have reached an agreement that is both fair and reflective of the strong collaboration between all stakeholders in rugby."

The Guardian

6 hours ago

• The Guardian

Labor eyes ambitious tax reform but it must be ready for vicious backlash from vested interests

There was a hint of frustration in Anthony Albanese's voice when he spoke to the Canberra press gallery for the first time after Labor's thumping election victory on 3 May. In the prime minister's courtyard at Parliament House, he was asked if he planned to use his soaring political capital for major reforms of the tax or superannuation systems. Badly needed, and often talked about in the abstract, this kind of action had waited for a long time for the necessary political ambition. Albanese said he wouldn't get ahead of himself in the opening weeks of his second term in power. He insisted Labor had already been bold, delivering on its promises in the first three years. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Fast forward to Wednesday, while the PM was pressing the diplomatic flesh at the G7 summit in Canada, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, showed the first signs of that reform ambition. In a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Chalmers signalled Labor was willing to consider changes to the tax system at the looming productivity summit in August, recognition that fixing longstanding problems was needed to right the budget's structural deficit. The speech was an implicit recognition that Labor's tax changes in the first term barely touched the edges of deeper structural problems in Australia's tax system. Chalmers, a student of economic reformer Paul Keating, said any progress on productivity or budget sustainability would be impossible without proper consideration of tax reform, a challenge he conceded would be 'hard and contested' with benefits that were not always immediate. Even someone with a passing interest in federal politics should know the scale of the problem is vast: some $1tn in government debt and soaring spending, held up by a system overly reliant on income tax from an ageing population – a problem that will only get worse due to the ageing population. For years Chalmers has been eager to point out the five main pressures on the budget are not going to get any easier without proper attention. Spending on health, aged care, the national disability insurance scheme, defence and interest from government debt will keep treasurers and finance ministers up at night for years to come. The government's revenue base is being eroded from declining fuel and tobacco excises, and in the long term will take a hit from lower tax receipts from fossil fuel extraction. The early stages of Labor's plans seem to include lower income taxes, but no changes to the 25-year-old GST. Chalmers is upfront, saying tax overall needs to rise. Whether it is indeed possible to meaningfully lower income taxes without broadening or raising the GST is unclear. Economists argue taxing consumption through mechanisms such as the GST is efficient, while taxing incomes isn't. Parliamentary Budget Office figures show the GST causes about 8 cents in economic loss for each dollar gained, compared with 24 cents for income tax or 40 cents for corporate tax. Two major pieces of work should be the starting point, acknowledging that any change which makes it into law will inevitably create some winners and some losers. Chalmers was working for then treasurer Wayne Swan when Ken Henry handed his landmark tax review to the Rudd government in late 2009. Both men marked up copies of the document over the course of the summer, leaving them to 'disgorge' sand from the beach by the time they made it back to Canberra. Many of the review's 138 recommendations never saw the light of day. Today, the former Treasury secretary says, the system is in even worse shape. Henry has called for wholesale reform, including increasing the GST to pay for company and personal income tax cuts, as well as comprehensive road user charging, replacing stamp duties, increasing taxes on super profits from the mining sector, an economy-wide price on carbon and changes to fringe benefits and superannuation taxes. Henry's review is best remembered for recommending the mining tax, an idea which prompted a furious campaign of resistance against the government. Chalmers has acknowledged the politics of the review were mishandled, that it was kept secret too long before ultimately crashing into Labor's leadership wars. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The second substantive report with proposals ready to go is the white paper released by teal independent Allegra Spender in the last term of parliament. In a different political reality, Spender would be part of the Liberal party's economic team, and her significant work comes with buy-in from Henry and other leading tax voices including Robert Breunig from the Australian National University's Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, and Robert Carling from the Centre for Independent Studies. Chalmers assigned a staffer to monitor the white paper process, at a time when Spender was one of the few MPs actually prepared to talk about meaningful tax reform. The Wentworth MP wants the coming reform push to look at business investment and corporate taxes, the under-performing petroleum resource rent tax, road user charging, indexation of income brackets, unhelpful state taxes and the GST. Spender has more guts than either of the major parties in one specific area as well. She has called for a review of Western Australia's insanely generous GST deal, which respected economist Saul Eslake calls the worst public policy decision of the 21st century. WA's state Labor government handed down a budget with a $2.5bn surplus this week, but taxpayers from every other state are paying $54bn to the state due to perceived unfairness in the grants commission process. This special treatment agreed by then treasurer Scott Morrison and locked in by Anthony Albanese to maintain Labor's political stocks in the West will see the nation's richest state receive an extra $21.1bn from federal taxpayers over the next four years alone. Family trusts, the legal tax structures used by millions of Australians to lower their tax liabilities, also look likely to come under increased scrutiny as part of the latest reform push. Chalmers and Albanese will convene their productivity summit in the cabinet room on 19 August. If they want their record to be considered alongside the Hawke-Keating and Howard-Costello governments, the political conditions could hardly be better. Labor must prepare itself for the predictable backlash from vested interests unwilling to countenance changes to cushy arrangements and handy loopholes. Only a serious government prepared to expend political capital will be able to make the system fairer and fit for a 21st century country facing major demographic and economic challenges. If Labor really has the ambition Anthony Albanese insists it does, meaningful tax reform might become the make-or-break test of the government's second term.

The Guardian

6 hours ago

• The Guardian

Australians losing billions in savings due to poor management of appliance efficiency scheme, audit finds

Australian households and businesses are missing out on billions of dollars of power bill savings, an expert has warned, after a scathing audit found the department in charge of the efficiency scheme for appliances has failed to properly administer it. The poor administration of the program has left consumers worse off, said Alan Pears, a senior fellow at RMIT and Melbourne University, who helped develop appliance energy standards in Victoria. Pears warned the program needs a wider rethink, including strengthening 'weak' minimum standards which are preventing people getting access to or buying the most efficient appliances, leading to higher energy bills. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Gems) Act ensures products meet minimum energy performance standards and energy rating label requirements. The labelling requirement includes the energy efficiency star-rating stickers often seen on refrigerators or dishwashers. But the National Audit Office (ANAO) report found the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is not measuring the program's impact on reducing emissions. The report said the department 'is not measuring the program's impact on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions and so cannot demonstrate whether the program is achieving its intended purpose'. Issues flagged in the ANAO report and could negatively impact its credibility, Pears said. Pears said the energy rating stickers 'have a lot of credibility with people' and is 'relied upon' by consumers. 'The issue we face now is, if the program is not being properly administered – and clearly it hasn't been – then the government and the energy sector too are at risk of … losing credibility with consumers.' The department has said the scheme has saved households and businesses between $12bn and $18bn in energy costs since the Act was legislated in 2012. Between 2021 and 2022, it said consumers saved between $1.3bn to $2bn, and greenhouse gas emissions were reduced between 4.1m and 6.3m tonnes. But Pears said the broad gap in estimated figures suggests the scheme isn't working as intended. 'The fact that there's such a wide band reflects the fact that they have some idea but not a very precise idea of what the benefits are,' he said. Pears said that beyond the administrative gaps, the current minimum standards are 'weak' compared to best-practice regions like the European Union or China. For example, the EU began enforcing a new rule this year for the energy consumption of electrical appliances in standby or off-mode, which it says will save consumers up to $950m between now and 2030. If Australia were to raise its standards, Pears said every household or business could save 'thousands' of dollars over the lifetime of each appliance. 'Because our standards are quite weak, we don't necessarily get the most efficient products,' Pears said. Under the legislation, companies test their appliances in approved laboratories according to the minimum standards. Thedata is sent to the climate change department for review. If compliant, the appliance is approved for sale in Australia. The department can perform a 'check test' on products to independently to ensure they are compliant. The audit said the number of check tests has been decreasing over recent years, and haven't targeted areas with the 'greatest risk of non-compliance'. In the financial year 2013-2014 the department conducted 188 check tests, according to the ANAO, but in 2021-22 just 61 models were checked. The department told the ANAO it aims to test between 60 and 70 products annually. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Pears said this can allow some bad actors to get away with subpar testing. Pears said an effective testing program is similar to speed cameras on the road. 'If you think you might get caught for speeding, you'll obey the speed limit. With any regulatory system like appliance efficiency, if you think you might be caught, you're much more likely to do things properly.' Since the program was established in 2012, the department has issued just four infringement notices, none which were paid or enforced. The audit office report said this could 'limit the department's ability to effectively encourage compliance and deter non-compliance'. ANAO's report also found that, in many cases, the same person within the climate change department was in charge of assessing and approving or rejecting a product. 'Without effective segregation of duties, there is risk that products that do not meet the requirements of the relevant Gems determination may be approved for registration. This also increases the risk of human error or corruption,' the report said. Pears also believed information on appliance efficiency stickers should be improved. He wants the government to spend more money to improve consumers' understanding of the rating system, and ensure the system is fit for purpose. 'You have to be careful because the star rating is based on the size of the appliance, not necessarily on its actual energy use. So if you've got a seven-star enormous television, that can still be using a lot more energy than a much smaller TV that's got a low star rating.' The department responded to the audit, accepting all of its nine recommendations, and said work is already under way to improve the program. ANAO recommended check testing be targeted to areas with the greatest risk of non-compliance. It also recommended the department develop performance measures to assess the effectiveness of the program in achieving its outcomes. In a statement, the department confirmed it has established a taskforce to improve the program, and has begun 'expanding the availability of check facilities' to encourage better compliance.