Melbourne 'bathing box' which is over 100 years old and has no electricity or running water sells for a RECORD $307,000

  • A small bathing box on Melbourne's foreshore has sold for $307,000
  • Bathing Box 44 in Brighton sold for a record price on Saturday
  • The rainbow-coloured box has no electricity or water and only one room
  • Brighton's bathing boxes were built more than a century ago

By Harry Pearl For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

A family have paid a record price for a tiny rainbow-coloured bathing box with no water or electricity on Melbourne's foreshore.

Bathing Box 44 in Brighton, a beach-side suburb of Victoria's capital, went under the hammer today, selling for $307,000.

The sale set a new record for Brighton's iconic garage-sized buildings - beating bathing box 62B at Dendy St Beach, which fetched $295,000 in February.

Bathing Box 44 in Brighton, a beach-side suburb of Melbourne, sold for $307,000 at auction on Friday

Bathing Box 44 in Brighton, a beach-side suburb of Melbourne, sold for $307,000 at auction on Friday

 The garage-sized building has no electricity or water - but boasts great views

 The garage-sized building has no electricity or water - but boasts great views

The sale set a new record for Brighton's iconic bathing boxes, beating the previous record of $295,000

The sale set a new record for Brighton's iconic bathing boxes, beating the previous record of $295,000

Selling agent Tamara Whelan, from Hocking Stuart Brighton, said the bathing box was bought by a a local Bayside family that grew up in the area.

'It was really a tribute to their mum, who used to take them down to the beach,' she said.

She said about 50 people attended the auction and there were two serious bidders. 

Ms Whelan told the Herald Sun the vendor, a man in his 80s, put Bathing Box 44 on the market because his extended family no longer used it as much as they once did. The box had been in the family for more than 40 years.

'Usually they're fairly tightly held. But because they've been achieving the prices they have been, families whose kids have grown up are selling them,' she told the paper.

Brighton's brightly coloured bathing boxes were built more than a century ago

Brighton's brightly coloured bathing boxes were built more than a century ago

The bathing boxes line the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay and are usually tightly held by families

The bathing boxes line the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay and are usually tightly held by families

Brighton's brightly coloured bathing boxes were built more than a century ago.

The one-room buildings, which usually feature a timber frame, weather boards and corrugated iron roof, line the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay.

These two Brighton beach boxes, just 12 metres square in size, were sold for a combined total of $565,000 in January

These two Brighton beach boxes, just 12 metres square in size, were sold for a combined total of $565,000 in January

The boxes were expected to fetch about $200,000-plus, but both received a final bid that was well over

The boxes were expected to fetch about $200,000-plus, but both received a final bid that was well over

 

Melbourne

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