MAFS groom Cam cops a loss on Kirribilli unit sale
It took 70 minutes of arduous post-auction negotiations yesterday for MAFS groom Cameron Merchant — with TV bride and now real-life pregnant wife Jules Robinson by his side — to secure the sale of his redundant Kirribilli apartment.
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It took 70 minutes of arduous post-auction negotiations yesterday for MAFS groom Cameron Merchant to secure the sale of his redundant Kirribilli apartment.
The one-bedroom unit attracted an $865,000 opening bid, before being passed in at $875,000 at its lacklustre onsite auction. It then sold at an undisclosed price but a likely loss.
Merchant and Jules Robinson, his now-pregnant wife who is 25 weeks along, watched on as just two bidders made offers.
The former professional cricketer bought the apartment for $941,000 in boomtime 2017, when it was marketed with $800,000 hopes.
He was probably always expecting there could be a loss on the ground-floor Fitzroy St unit, given the pre-auction price guidance from its Di Jones listing agent Jordan Black was $900,000.
The apartment has timber floors, high ornate ceilings, leadlight windows, sunroom and modern bathroom.
The last sale in the art deco Nottingham block of 14 was the neighbouring rear one-bedroom unit last December at $900,000.
There is a $922,500 median price for Kirribilli’s one-bedroom units, according to realestate.com.au. They typically lease at a $505 a week, which reflects a 2.85 per cent rental yield.
Kirribilli’s key attraction is that, based on five years of sales, the lower north shore suburb has seen a 9 per cent compound growth rate for units, although Merchant’s timing and purchase price was skew-whiff.
The pair, who are reported to be looking to upsize together, announced they were expecting their first child in April through a cover story with The Sunday Telegraph’s Stellar Magazine.
GRA GRA’S CANYONLEIGH RETREAT RESOLD
Lydesdale, the picturesque Canyonleigh property once owned by late king of television Graham Kennedy, has been sold for $1.73 million. The Southern Highlands property was sold by Ray White agents Gene Fairbanks and Michael Maloney who were expecting around $1.5 million. There was keen interest in the Tugalong Rd chalet-style home that sits on a 50ha mostly rugged bushland holding.
Paddocks now produce Chardonnay, Shiraz and Rose in small vineyards located adjacent to an olive grove. Kennedy, the six-time Gold Logie winner who died in 2005, had sold the retreat in 2001 for $625,000. Located 15 minutes from the Hume Highway, near the Belanglo State Forest, Kennedy bought his hideaway in 1991 for $379,500 with the help of actor mates, Tony Sattler and Noeline Brown.
It was named after the big horses Kennedy kept as pets.
“I intend to buy a Clydesdale and pat it,’’ Kennedy once advised — probably by facsimile which was his preferred median for contact — after his relocation from the Kirrbilli harbourfront.
“Perhaps even two, a lady and a gentleman, and let them do things.’’
The comedian lived in seclusion, choosing the company of his two pet horses and his labrador dog Henry over stardom with his last television series being Australia’s Funniest Home Videos in 1990.
The boy from Balaclava began on the breakfast program at Melbourne radio station 3UZ in the late 1950s, then in 1957 Kennedy began hosting Channel 9’s In Melbourne Tonight, which ran for 13 years.
$900,000 LOSS ON PRIME VAUCLUSE CUL-DE-SAC
THERE has been a $900,000 loss taken on a non-harbourfront Vaucluse listing.
The knockdown home on the high side of prestigious Carrara Rd fetched $10.9 million midweek via private treaty, having sold a year ago at $11.8 million to the Grunberg family from North Bondi.
The single level home, on its 728sqm cul-de-sac block, had previously been the abode of Michael Caredes and his wife Fylia for 44 years.
The resale price, after 50 days on the market, reflects a 7.5 per cent price drop, at the lower end of the worse case COVID-19 price collapse forecasts. The $900,000 decline comes after its $765,000 stamp duty purchase outlay, plus its 8.25 per cent mortgage rate.
Laing and Simmons agent D’Leanne Lewis handled both sales.
The property, which has views of the Harbour Bridge across the 1930s hospital dormitory building on the Strickland House estate, comes with a 1950s height covenant from a neighbouring Vaucluse Rd home.
Up the other end of Carrara, another non-waterfront sale has been done at $7.5 million, less than the $10.85 million sought on its initial 2018 listing. The house is set on 600 sqm above the Hermitage estate.
Originally published as MAFS groom Cam cops a loss on Kirribilli unit sale