The Sell: Tom Burgess and fiancee Tahlia Giumelli buy family home in Woolooware
Rabbitohs star Tom Burgess and his fiancee Tahlia Giumelli have found a family home … and their renovation project has its own Instagram page.
NSW
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The year-long family home property search by South Sydney Rabbitohs star Tom Burgess and his fiancee Tahlia Giumelli has finally ended with a purchase.
They secured a Woolooware home last weekend, but not without strong competition. In fact, the Highlands Property auction was brought forward a week given the emerging buyer demand.
It ended up with 18 bidders being registered for the chance to secure the home after some 130 inspections over the shortened marketing.
Burgess and Giumelli forked out $2.61 million, which was understood to be close to $400,000 over its conservative reserve.
Highlands Property agent Laura McKay, who was the auctioneer, and colleague Jaymie Kelly had been advising prospective buyers before the auction that they were seeking in the low $2 millions.
The couple started the search after the birth of their now 18-month old daughter Sophie, and have since needed further space following the birth of their daughter Elodie, almost three months.
They will renovate the 2002-built home, which last traded at $1.18 million in 2005.
Indeed, they’ve already set up an Instagram account, building with the Burgesses, with 4500 sign-ups this week.
It seems their first priority is a fresh coat of paint and the floorboards. They say they eventually would love to add a deck and freshen up the kitchen.
“The abundance of natural light and flat backyard was the real winner for us,” Tahlia posted to their new Instagram account, where they’re set to track their renovation journey.
The two-level home on 595sqm has four upstairs bedrooms, including a master with walk-in wardrobe and ensuite.
Downstairs, as well as formal lounge and dining rooms and a home office, there is an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area which opens to the alfresco area, lawn and pool.
Woolooware has just one house currently for sale, an original cottage which last sold in 1953 at £3400. There’s a $1.63 million median house price, according to realestate.com.au.
Based on five years of sales, Woolooware has seen a very subdued 2.4 per cent compound growth rate, but this looks set to surge given the stock shortage.
The couple’s relocation to the Sutherland Shire follows their departure from Little Bay last year.
Burgess, now the sole Burgess brother playing for the Rabbitohs, secured $1.55 million this time last year for the Little Bay penthouse.
Tom, who was the last of the brothers to get onto the property ladder, retains a Coogee apartment he bought for $1,282,500 in 2016, three years after he joined Souths.
SHARMA UPGRADES
Diplomat-turned-federal Liberal MP Dave Sharma and his wife Rachel are on the move because the family desired more space.
They will be crossing over from Paddington’s southern border to the northern pocket of Centennial Park, moving just around the corner, and a few hundred metres, from their current abode.
They have spent $4.3 million on the new family home that comes with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, pool and garaging on its 380sqm holding.
Their redundant four-bedroom Paddington terrace that occupied just 120sqm has been quickly listed.
The BresicWhitney listing agents offered a buyers’ guide of $2.8 million ahead of Saturday’s first open for inspection.
Marketed as a classic Paddington terrace with an ornate white facade, the three-level home has four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The kitchen and dining area open to a rear courtyard. The listing secured some 400 views in its first 24 hours on realestate.com.au on Friday.
No March 6 auction signage was yet up out front of the Regent St offering when around 19 potential buyers went through during Saturday morning’s downpour.
It has been the Sharma family home, with their three daughters, since late-2018 when they paid $2.6 million, just ahead of his second, and successful, attempt to unseat Dr Kerryn Phelps in the traditional blue ribbon Wentworth electorate, which runs from the harbour to as far south as coastal Clovelly.
The Centennial Park home had last sold in 2014 at $3,225,000.
STEVIE COX’S LATEST BYRON BUY
Stevie Cox, the Melbourne-based co-founder of the women’s fashion label Tigermist — and more recently I.Am. Gia — is taking on another Byron Bay renovation project.
Cox and her husband Dave are no strangers to the area, or a renovation.
In 2018, just a few streets away, the family company paid $1,675,000 for a five-bedroom home which they have transformed into a whitewash luxury location, dubbed Nirvana House.
It has become a popular photo shoot location which also offers accommodation.
International model Madi Edwards recently shot a promo there.
Cox’s latest purchase is a 1990s-built home on 1975 sqm holding at Ewingsdale, not far from the popular destination, The Farm.
The four-bedroom home, which features high, raked ceilings, polished hardwood flooring and a designer kitchen, cost $1,875,000 through McGrath Byron Bay agents Ian Daniels and Susan Whyte.
Cox, with her older sister Alana Pallister, founded Tigermist in 2007, then a decade later they launched I.Am. Gia, the name coming from ’70s model Gia Carangi.
The likes of Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid and Arianna Grande have since worn I.Am. Gia.
Alana Pallister spent $2.25 million for a four-bedroom designer residence at Byron Bay last April.
GREG NORMAN ON THE MOVE
No sign yet of getting their desired Australian bolthole, but retired professional golfer Greg Norman and his wife Kiki have found a buyer for their $60 million South Florida compound only two weeks after its listing.
It comes with main house, plus coach, pool, tennis, boat, beach and a carriage house.
It sold to the family of billionaire Leslie Wexner, the founder of L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret, according to the New York Post.
“My wife and I feel it is time to move on after 30 years here,” Norman told the Miami Herald. “Being isolated from our families this past year has made us realise how short life truly is and has caused us to re-evaluate how and where we want to spend the rest of our lives.”
DARLO ABODE FOR CREATIVE DUO
Playwright Michael Gow and production designer Robert Kemp have secured an apartment in the Darlinghurst block, Dominion.
The couple have paid $1.95 million for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with some 140sqm of space, through Anthony Birdsall at Laing Real Estate.
The apartment features an open-plan living and dining area which flows to its large entertainment terrace overlooking the heritage sandstone buildings and gardens.
The 110 Dominion apartments are spread across five buildings, three new and two heritage, on the former site of the historic Caritas House.
The sought-after complex won an award for urban renewal after it was completion in 2015 by Cbus Property.
It was previously traded off the plan at $1,185,000 in 2012, becoming a $1200-a-week rental.
EXEC OFFLOADS COALCLIFF STUNNER
Darling Point-based Leap Legal Software executive chairman Richard Hugo-Hamman pocketed a stellar $4,715,000 when his Coalcliff weekender sold yesterday.
There were 14 registered parties, with most intent on making the sea change from Sydney.
The Illawarra sale will now prompt Mr Hugo-Hamman to buy another coastal property better located to allow him to see both his Brisbane-based son’s family and Sydney-based daughter’s family during 2021 amid potential lockdowns.
He expects to buy on the NSW mid-North Coast.
Ray White Helensburgh agents Mattias Samuelsson and Simon Beaufils had given a mid-$3 million price guide, before taking 200 inquiries within the first 24 hours of its listing.
Mr Hugo-Hamman bought it from the retailer Mark McInnes for $3.35 million in 2017, just shy of Coalcliff’s $3,387,000 record set in 2016.
The Illawarra coastline record sales in recent years included $4.1 million in 2019 for the beachside Wombarra retreat of the late Harry M. Miller, and there was a $4,125,000 sale at Thirroul last August.
FOGARTYS TRADE UP IN BRONTE
Entrepreneur Richard Fogarty, the founder of the online city guide Concrete Playground, and wife Melissa, have traded up in Sydney’s east.
They’ve secured the $8 million Bronte home of Michelle Demasi in an off-market deal.
The three-level, four-bedroom contemporary house was designed by Smyth & Smyth Architecture, with northerly views over the gully to the ocean. It comes with rear lawns, and ponds in the front yard of the 525sqm block.
CoreLogic data shows it sold through Raine & Horne Double Bay agents Michelle Brooks and Ric Serrao with approved plans for a pool.
Its delayed settlement exchange was the fourth-dearest sale in the suburb last year, which saw a $17.9 million record paid by green energy entrepreneur Carl Prins and his wife Kate. McDonald’s tycoon Louie Treffiletti and partner Gabrielle Neves’ $16 million upgrade was next priciest.
Originally published as The Sell: Tom Burgess and fiancee Tahlia Giumelli buy family home in Woolooware
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