Top end on the march
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday March 12, 2011
A record price at Manly. Two harbour-front house sales at Vaucluse on the same day through LJ Hooker agent Bill Malouf. A $10 million-plus sale on the beachfront at Point Piper. A bullish $6.5 million Woollahra sale. Too soon for too much champers but maybe March will see the clearing of prestige bottlenecks. Vendors typically have to trim ambitious expectations but there's a backlog of buyers, some of whom want to sell first. The fresh turnover means agents have no excuses about offering wayward price estimates.Potts of goldJorge and Monica Fernandez have listed Bomera, the Italianate sandstone mansion at Potts Point, with $25 million-plus hopes. The 1858 house, designed by architect J.F. Hilly, is on 2000 sq m on the tip of the peninsula overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay. The meticulous 2003 restoration of the estate was overseen by heritage architects Graham Brooks & Associates after the property was deemed surplus to Royal Australian Navy requirements. It comes with a five-bedroom house with regal formal rooms, a provincial-style kitchen and a grand ballroom. There is also a three-bedroom cottage in the gardens, which have a pool and a spa, and a six-car garage. Bill Bridges from Ballard Property has the Wylde Street listing. Bomera, built for the colonial merchant William McQuade, was originally on land that stretched from Wylde Street to Victoria Street along the harbour foreshore.Feel like dancingEntrepreneur Drew Muirhead has listed his four-bedroom Richard Cole-designed Cottage Point retreat. Recently featured in Grand Designs Australia, the pavilion-style riverfront house is on a 1300 sq m holding with a jetty. Plenty of sandstone and merbau wood have been used in its construction. Its two main suites have en suites. The property also comes with a media room that converts to a nightclub. It's been listed through Glenn Lee at Raine & Horne Palm Beach in conjunction with Jillian McGrath at McGrath Estate Agents for an April 3 auction with $6.5 million-plus hopes. Cottage Point's record has stood at $6.45 million since 2008.Money in the bankA former assistant governor of the Reserve Bank, Geoffrey Hodgkinson, and his wife, Tina, have sold their Woollahra terrace for its steadfast $6.5 million asking price through McGrath agent Ben Collier.Manly recordHaircare industry entrepreneur Susan Starling has sold her four-bedroom Manly residence for about $9,975,000. It was listed initially in 2008 with $12 million expectations. The three-storey house on Addison Road was built in 2003 by architect Vince Squillace. Set into its sandstone cliff base, the house is encircled by a koi-filled, indoor-outdoor moat on the 1049 sq m block. It has a curved, double-height copper vestibule. Walls of glass provide views across to Balmoral. Starling paid $2.3 million in 1999 to descendants of the shipping magnate Sir Walter Carpenter. Manly's previous record was the Belle Epoque-style mansion, Fairy Bower, which fetched about $9.5 million when sold by the Potts Point-bound former car dealer Terry Mullens and his wife, Wendy. The 1920s heritage-listed leasehold house had similar initial $12 million hopes during its early 2010 listing.Buyers revealedThe general manager of Servcorp Asia, Marcus Moufarrige, and his wife, Fern Bonython, have emerged as the buyers of the record-setting Bronte residence, Ellsmore. They bought it from merchant banker Mark Carnegie and his former wife, Tanya Nelson. Milliner Isabella Klompe and her late husband, Lend Lease co-founder, Jack, had previously sold the Evans Street house in 1996 for $3.3 million after they had paid $1.6 million in 1990. Ellsmore's selling agents, Bethwyn Richards at McGrath and Michael Finger of Ray White Double Bay, expected about $12 million but the price was apparently closer to $13 million. Moufarrige and Bonython recently sold their Tamarama house for more than $5 million.Under pressureThe seventh-floor Kincoppal, Elizabeth Bay, apartment once owned by singer David Bowie was passed in at a $3.05 million vendor bid at its midweek Colliers International auction. The Elizabeth Bay Road unit was listed by estate agent Maureen Yee at $3.1 million. The 271 sq m apartment was bought by the Poon family for $2.45 million in 2002. Bowie had it decorated in wall-to-wall black slate after he paid $700,000 for the unit in 1983 in the name of David Robert Jones. It was sold in 1992 for $1.25 million.Reversal of fortunes after battle for BennelongThe former Rudd government parliamentary secretary, Maxine McKew, and her partner, political strategist Bob Hogg, sold their historic Epping farmhouse, St Elmo, for $1,065,000 ahead of this weekend's scheduled auction. It had been listed with $950,000-plus hopes through McGrath Epping agents Wayne and Teena Vaughan. The 1902 three-bedroom house, which had an extension in 2003, dates back to Epping's orchard days. It was bought for $860,000 when the couple moved into the Bennelong electorate from Mosman seven months before McKew's 2007 election victory.Tennis great turned politician John Alexander, who's moving to Putney to reside in his Bennelong electorate, has yet to sell his Lindfield residence, Lancaster House. It was withdrawn from its auction last weekend. The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with study was initially expected to fetch more than $2 million. It now comes with a $2.05 million asking price through Century 21 Cordeau Marshall agent Hilary Lazarus. Alexander paid $1.7 million in 2007 for the single-level Federation house that sits on a 1001 sq m holding.YOU KNOW WHO YOU AREWhich Minerals Council of Australia bigwig has spent $2 million on his four-hectare Glenquarry retreat in the southern highlands? Which former Wallabies captain has spent $4.5 million at Clifton Gardens, having sold his Mosman house for $4.09 million?
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