For buyers planning a major renovation or a new build in inner and bayside Melbourne. Buyer's advocacy and architectural feasibility, delivered together as one engagement.
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Most buyers commit to a site before knowing what it can become, or what it'll cost to get there. By the time the architect sees it, the price is paid.
The block looks right, but overlays, orientation or setbacks quietly limit what the design can do with it.
Costs and constraints that should've shaped the offer only surface once it's too late to walk away.
One brief covering both the purchase and the build.
The property search and design feasibility run in parallel, not in sequence.
Each shortlisted site is scored against what the design needs from it.
Negotiated privately or secured at auction, at a price the numbers support.
No handover gap. The architect who assessed the site designs the build.
Sven Fischer is the licensed buyer's advocate behind Cottage & Castle, an independent practice serving inner and bayside Melbourne, from Port Phillip and Bayside through Glen Eira, Stonnington and Yarra. He works only for buyers. No developer stock, no vendor kickbacks, and no pressure to transact when the numbers don't hold up. Sven came to advocacy through economics rather than sales. He holds a Bachelor of Economics and has spent around fifteen years in the property industry, and that background shapes how he buys. Behavioural finance sits at the centre of his method: understanding how auction pressure, anchoring and sunk cost push buyers into paying too much, and building a process that keeps those forces out of the decision. Clients get a clear brief, a defined walk-away price and a negotiator who isn't emotionally attached to the outcome. His assessment framework scores every shortlisted property across position, land use, fixtures and, unusually for a Melbourne buyer's advocate, energy efficiency and running cost. For a renovation or new build purchase that last measure matters twice over. It reveals what the existing dwelling will cost to hold while plans and permits progress, and it establishes the baseline the finished home should beat. In a joint engagement, Sven runs the acquisition side end to end. He sources on and off market opportunities, coordinates due diligence, structures the offer and negotiates the purchase, or bids at auction on the client's behalf. Along the way he tests each candidate site against the design brief, so money is only committed to a property that can actually become the home the client is planning. Buyers work directly with Sven from the first conversation to settlement. There's no handover to a junior and no call centre, just one advocate who's accountable for the result.
Steffen Welsch leads Steffen Welsch Architects, a Melbourne studio recognised for environmentally responsible residential architecture. The practice describes its foundations as community, sustainability and affordability, and its portfolio backs that up: renovations, compact homes and new builds that improve how families live without wasting money or materials. The studio's approach is grounded in passive design. Projects are planned around solar orientation, natural ventilation and thermal mass, and often use recycled or low-impact materials, with rammed earth and hemp among the practice's signatures. The aim is a home that stays comfortable through Melbourne's seasons while costing less to run, with operational and embodied carbon reduced by design rather than by bolted-on technology. That rigour is measurable. The practice runs carbon and life cycle assessments on its projects to benchmark performance against the average Australian home, and its work has been published widely, including Cloud Street in Northcote, the Life Cycle extension in Coburg, and Subtle Shift, a family renovation delivered entirely within the existing footprint and opened to the public for Sustainable House Day. For buyers, Steffen's value starts well before design. He reads a site the way Sven reads a market: assessing orientation, overlays, existing fabric and what can realistically be achieved within budget, before a single dollar is committed. Many of the studio's best projects are modest interventions that prove a well-planned renovation can outperform a knockdown rebuild on cost, comfort and carbon alike. In a joint engagement, Steffen provides feasibility advice during the search, then carries the design forward once the purchase settles. The architect who assessed the site is the architect who shapes the home, so nothing learned during the hunt is lost in a handover. His sustainability focus pairs naturally with Cottage & Castle's energy scoring; the two disciplines pull in the same direction.
No juggling two firms and no gaps between them. One document, one point of contact, both specialists working from the same brief.
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We'll talk through what you're planning, whether the joint engagement fits, and how the fee works for your project.