The “house of horrors” where Luke Davies and Jesse Baird supposedly met their tragic end has been transformed into a makeshift memorial with hundreds of floral tributes hanging on its cast iron doors.
Unsurprisingly, the former Channel Ten reporter’s housemates decided to move out of the $2.5 million Paddington home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in the wake of the alleged murders.
But once the flowers fade and the intense public scrutiny fades, what will be the fate of the three-bedroom property?
Experts agree that it will be extremely difficult to rent or sell in the near future, as potential tenants and buyers are put off by the stigma surrounding alleged crimes committed within its walls.
It has now become what is known as a “stigmatized property,” a property that buyers or renters may reject for reasons unrelated to potential physical defects.
And the impact is already being felt in surrounding areas.
The Paddington terrace where Jesse Baird, 26 (left) and Luke Davies, 29 (right) were allegedly murdered, has been adorned with hundreds of floral tributes.
Mr Baird’s roommates have decided to move out of their rental apartment in Paddington in Sydney’s east.
Dan Sofo, of Unicorn Buyers Agents, based in Paddington, just a 15-minute walk from Mr Baird’s former home, said potential buyers were already being put off by the area.
“I actually had buyers on a property nearby and that certainly affected that particular buyer’s perception of the property they were considering and was a factor in them deciding it wasn’t for them,” Mr Sofo told the Daily Mail Australia.
He added: ‘There is definitely a stain on the surrounding areas around the stigma associated with the (alleged) crime. “I couldn’t quantify it as a percentage, but there is an effect.”
Sofo said that from experience he thought owners would wait “quite a while” before even thinking about getting rid of the property.
“My personal perspective would be that stigma decreases as time goes by and in the future it will no longer matter and in the distant future it will be a topic of conversation,” Mr Sofo said.
If the owners wanted to sell within the next five years, then they would not be allowed to keep the alleged double murder a secret if they sold through an agent.
Christopher Pearce, professor of private law, wealth and property at UNSW, told this publication that amendments made to the Property and Securities Agents Act in 2020 mean the law would require the owner to declare “material factors”, such as a alleged crime. .
Garth Brown, of Brown and Brown Conveyancers, said solicitors and conveyancers representing the buyer had a duty to ask the owner if anything untoward had happened.
Beau Lamarre-Condon (pictured) has been charged with two counts of murder
Mourners are seen spending time by the front door of Mr Baird’s home, where he and his partner Luke Davies were allegedly murdered on February 19.
‘That’s one of the questions you ask: is there something that has happened that needs to be revealed? What is stigmatized?
‘Because there is a risk that the contract will be annulled (nullified), if people have the time and money to carry it out.
“And Paddington is an expensive area, so people have the money, time and connections to do it too.”
Brown pointed to the infamous Gonzales case in 2001, where Sef Gonzales murdered his parents and sister at his family home in North Ryde, in Sydney’s north.
In 2004, the house went on the market and a devout Buddhist family, unaware of the property’s gruesome history, put down an $80,000 non-refundable deposit.
After discovering the truth of what happened, they backed out for religious reasons and fought to get their deposit back.
The notoriety of the case eventually led the New South Wales government to make it illegal not to disclose information relating to the history of a property.
A mourner is seen leaving a bouquet of flowers outside Paddington’s $2.5 million terrace.
However, Tim McKibbin, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales, said only the estate agent had to reveal whether a property was stigmatized and the owner could eventually sell it without disclosing what happened.
“I would have thought the entire country would probably be aware of that property by now,” he said.
“But if over time people move away and forget what (allegedly) happened at that property and if the seller decides to sell the property themselves, then the population wouldn’t really be alert.”
‘The events that have taken place on that property would not be brought to light. attention to possible purchases.
‘The question the seller then asks himself is: “Will I be better off selling the property myself and not disclosing it, or will I be better off if the agent sells the property and discloses it?”
McKibbin said he had long been “concerned” about that apparent loophole and had campaigned for legislation to disclose stigmatized properties to cover a seller who decided to sell privately.
Baird’s roommates have decided to move out of the Paddington terrace where he and Davies (pictured) were allegedly shot dead on February 19.
“We have said repeatedly that there needs to be some consistency here,” he added.
‘If the government’s intention is that the buyer be informed of the property he will purchase, the incidents that have occurred at that property – the stigma, So it seems very strange to us that you impose that burden only on the agent and not on the seller.’
However, McKibbin acknowledged that the area was notoriously difficult to navigate.
‘We have some guiding principles, so to speak, about what is a material factor – a stigma – we have some guiding principles. But it becomes very difficult.
‘Suicide, for example, is something we are still dealing with.
‘There are those who think that if the seller committed suicide or a tenant committed suicide in the property, is it necessary to disclose anything?
‘There are people who have very strong opinions one way or another on the matter. ‘
He added: ‘Other people don’t want to buy a house where there has been domestic violence and that has led to divorce and that sort of thing, they are very personal decisions.
“We live in a society of diverse cultures, religions and superstitions, so it is not easy.”