449 Dryburgh Street, North Melbourne.

A Hotham Hill original ready for reinvention. This is renovation potential in its purest form, in a brilliant Hotham Hill position with city views. Behind the classical Victorian terrace façade with ornate cast-iron lacework to the front and balcony, the proportions and original detailing are all here. What comes next is where imagination takes over. Uninhabitable in its current condition and ready for a complete transformation, the home invites builders, renovators and design-led buyers to bring a serious vision to one of North Melbourne's most exclusive pockets. The existing layout includes a ground-floor bedroom, living room, kitchen/meals area and bathroom, all ready to be stripped, reshaped and reimagined. Upstairs, two further bedrooms include one opening to a balcony with the CBD skyline in the distance. The scale is generous, the structure is full of character and the interior is yours to reconfigure entirely to suit the way you want to live. Original leadlight windows and doors, along with a timber staircase with turned newel posts, give the reinvention something authentic to work with. Restore the period soul, open up the rear, add contemporary function, bring in light, frame the view, and take it in a bold new direction, subject to council approval. This is the kind of project where the right hands could deliver something remarkable. The location makes the effort worth it. Set in this much-admired precinct on a wide, double-width street, the address is zoned for North Melbourne Primary School and sought-after University High School, with St Michael's Primary and St Aloysius College also nearby. Walk to Errol Street cafés, Royal Park, the hospital precinct, Queen Victoria Market and Arden Gardens Shopping Centre, with Macaulay Station, 57 and 59 trams, CityLink and the CBD all within easy reach. A city-fringe renovator with history, height, views and a lifestyle locale that gives the finished result every chance to shine.