Picture Saturday mornings that start with a coffee from Volare, five minutes down the road. Evenings at Wayward Pigeon when you cannot be bothered cooking. This is the lifestyle 3 Cowen Place buys into: a quiet cul-de-sac in Chartwell, close enough to Greenhill's growing strip of shops and cafes that it becomes part of your week, not just a place you visit. Insoll Avenue School is a five-minute walk and Fairfield Intermediate is close behind. Ten minutes north puts you at the library and the heart of the city's northern hub. Fifteen minutes south and you are in the CBD.

The home itself is a classic 1970s weatherboard on a freehold section, with three bedrooms, a heat pump and a gas heater in the living room to see you through winter. New carpet runs through the main living areas and into the bedrooms. It is a home that has been lived in and loved. It carries that history honestly rather than pretending otherwise. Move in, enjoy, and set up for your next chapter. Or, if you’ve got some get-up-and-go, this is the kind of place that rewards someone willing to make it their own, rather than a home already finished for you.

Outside, the section is elevated, sitting above the surrounding suburb and catching the view along with the sun. North-facing and framed by a white picket fence, the garden has not been fussed over, but the space and opportunity are there: room to plant, room to tidy, room to build the outdoor life you have been picturing. For a first-home buyer, that is not something to overlook. That is where the story starts.