PLENTY has changed in Brisbane real estate since named cows were included chattel, stamp duty required an actual stamp and agents doubled as inspection chauffeurs but Matthews Real Estate was there for it all.
The Annerley family business is celebrating its 80th year in the industry and co-principal Trevor Matthews, who runs it with his brother Ken, said Brisbane had changed dramatically since he first took the helm 51 years ago.
"There was an old saying that City Hall was the tallest (building). It was, there was basically nothing else around it," he said.
He said highset timber houses had been replaced over time with units or lowest brick houses and the property features attracting buyers had changed too.
"In the old days, if it had sewage it was a winner," Mr Matthews said.
"(As were) double-bowled stainless steel sinks. There used to only be one sink and it wasn't even stainless steel."
In the 1930s, when Trevor and Ken's grandfather Robert and father Leslie ran the business, Brisbane had farming land.
One old document in the archives is a contract including Daisy, Buttercups, Spider and 24 other named and unnamed cows in the sale of McGrath Farm, Tennyson.
Another is a form stipulating "when sheep are included, date of last shearing must be given".
More urban-related clippings show a Coorparoo house that last sold in 1998 for $320,000 had fetched Pound730 ($1460) at auction in 1941. Tenants in 1962 could have lived in a five-bedroom Norman Park rental property for just Pound10 ($20) a week.
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