Snappy sale for Adelaide villa Conway

Conway, a sandstone villa in the Adelaide suburb of Malvern has been snappily sold for more than its price guide of $2.9 million.

The four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a tower was listed for a short 20 days before beating price expectations.

David Cocks from Cocks Auld Real Estate Unley  closed the sale.

The  circa 1890 house sits on 1,923 square metres of land at 50 Austral Terrace, Malvern.

The property last sold in 1997 for $680,500.

The property has a tennis court, an in-ground pool, a home theatre, gym and two large cellar rooms.

The 1890s was a period of rapid expansion in South Australia, according to the Unley heritage research study (2006). 

In 1890 buildings were being erected at a rate of 146 per year.

The initial Malvern estate was in 1881, a large subdivision of 633 allotments extended from the south side of Wattle Street to include allotments on the south side of Winchester Street.

The Malvern extension, the 1884 subdivision, was undertaken by William Shierlaw and Thomas Matters and approved by the mortgagee Freak Trimmer with 231 allotments.

"During this period, solid masonry houses of a range of forms and scale were constructed in large numbers with substantial villas built of bluestone or sandstone dominating many streetscapes," notes the research study.

"The detail on these houses is specifically derived from 'classical' Italianate sources, but the forms were varied, and included single fronted, symmetrically fronted, and asymmetrically fronted houses, some with bay fronted projections," it noted.

The district was characterised by substantial mansions set in well landscaped, expansive grounds, demonstrating the transformation of former farm land into a notable residential area, it noted.