Roslyn, a grand Coogee mansion built in 1886, with views of the coastal walk and ocean, has been left virtually untouched in 130 years.

Charles and Emma Saxton built the home at the peak of a post gold-rush construction boom, after the timber merchant and his family settled from Britain.

There are few signs of the several families who have since lived at 29 Arcadia Street, save for a retro kitchen installed by the Burak family, who moved in with their children in 1955.

After patriarch Bail Burak passed away in November, at 99-years-old, his four sons put their family home on the market in March - with the hope another big family would soon call it their own.

Alex Burak described Roslyn with much fondness, and admitted his feelings about his home had changed since the 67-year-old first arrived as a little boy.

"I was holding Grandad's hand and I saw this big old place and when he said we were moving in, I held it really tight.

"Back then, it seemed like the Addams family mansion to me, and we all slept together in a big brass bed those first few months."

There are eight bedrooms now – two with balconies upstairs and views of the ocean – however the rooftop "widow's walk", which offered panoramic views of the seascape has since disintegrated.

Long ago, the gardens stretched to the Coogee Pavilion but it has since been subdivided to a little over 460 square metres – a major deterrent to buyers, according to sales agent Ian Webster.

"At this price point, people are really looking for extensive land and it is a shame the block is small relative to the home, but there is still room for a lap pool and other things," he said.

The house is already liveable, however Mr Webster estimated at least $500,000 would need to be spent to restore it, with some prospective buyers ear-marking a renovation up to $2 million.

"It is listed under the most strict code, heritage A, which limits the work that can be done.

"To my knowledge, the original fireplaces, pressed-metal ceilings and timber-work have to be retained, but there is scope to open some rooms up."

Mr Webster is also a member of the Randwick and district historical society – he described the home's condition as extraordinary.

"There would be very few homes from this period left in this way ... there would be some who would say it is priceless, because you certainly can't build something like this again."

A sepia-tone snapshot offered a strange sense of deja vu; an unchanged Coogee coastline, the famous Pavilion, and four palms, still swaying for more than a century.

However, the similarities aren't restricted to the terrain – academics described the 1880s as among the city's great property booms – and not dissimiliar to 2015.

Dr Nigel Stapledon, the author of 2012 paper Trends and Cycles in Sydney and Melbourne House Prices from 1880 to 2011, said overseas investors were "a story back then, too".

'There was a lot of foreign capital floating around, and you could compare the British and American investors then to the Chinese market now," he said.