01-07-2025
Footscray home sets record Franco Cozzo would be proud of
A landmark Footscray home has just smashed the suburb's house price record with a $2.665m sale that will see it's new owners picking up heritage, history and their own ballroom.
The 26 Nicholson St property changed hands last week for the hefty sum, 18 years after it last set the local benchmark with a $1.25m sale, according to CoreLogic records.
One of the suburb's most illustrious addresses, dating back some 120 years, and formerly used as a ballroom, the property has gained more than doubled in price since its last transaction in 2007.
Hocking Stuart Yarraville director Leo Dardha said it was the kind of grand sale local furniture-store icon Franco Cozzo would have been proud of.
'I think Franco Cozzo would have had this in his play book, he could see the potential of this working class, inner suburb of Melbourne that is 2km to the Melbourne CBD,' Mr Dardha said.
'He saw its value back then — and we are realising it right now.'
'It was built by a renowned family who ran the local quarry, and 120 years on it's still one of the grandest homes locally.'
Mr Cozzo became famous for his furniture adds, and his tireless promotion of 'Foot-a-scray' where one of his stores was based. The Sicilian-born business man even had a biopic made about his life in 2021. He passed away in 2023.
The agent said the buyer was a local family that had appreciated the long history of the home named Heaton.
'It was a ballroom in the '70s and people were coming through who had their children's christenings there,' he added.
In what he believed to be Footscray's best pocket, Mr Dardha said it was the homes current owners that had returned it to its original use as a house.
Despite this, the home did initially pass in at auction, selling a few days afterwards for the record-setting sum — though below its initial $2.8m-$2.9m price guide.
The inner-city suburb's last house price record was set at $2.2m by a four-bedroom house at 63 Ballarat Rd in 2022.
Mr Dardha said he believed the next owners were considering using the home's ballroom space as a music room, in keeping with its past.
The four-bedroom house on a 1300sq m allotment is also one of the larger properties in the suburb, with multiple living spaces and home offices around its expansive floorplan.
