The Sell: Anthony Albanese has reduced rental hopes on clifftop home
Having sold his $1.75m Dulwich Hill investment townhouse, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon have turned their attention back to their Copacabana acquisition.
NSW
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s rollercoaster ride on the property market continues. Having sold his $1.75m Dulwich Hill investment townhouse last month after reducing his expectations from $1.9m, Mr Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon this week turned their attention back to their Copacabana acquisition.
And it seems they have been caught in a Central Coast long-stay rental market asking-price decline.
The couple had initially listed the clifftop home with $1900-a-week rental hopes following its November settlement but that’s now been reduced to $1500.
Marketed as “move-in now”, the four-bedroom home also says “pets considered on application”.
While it suggests any tenant “will enjoy magnificent sunrises all year round”, the listing gives no advisory on the available tenure.
PropTrack calculate Copacabana’s median house rental as $720 a week – down from its $800 a week-plus in 2022 – to reflect a 2.3 per cent gross annual rental yield.
At $1900 a week, the clifftop property’s yield reflected 2.3 per cent, but at $1500 it is 1.82 per cent.
With the inner west selling market and Central Coast rental market heading down, their $4.3m Copacabana purchase price was $250,000 less than it sold for three years prior.
It is interesting to note this was apparently not the Prime Minister’s first choice on the Central Coast, with 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham revealing Albanese went head-to-head at auction over a Kincumber property that sold for $2.98m in April 2023.
The handyman buyer told Fordham “every nearby neighbour” had been visited pre-auction by the Australian Federal Police.
Fordham, who often rents on the Central Coast, broke the news about the Copacabana purchase.
WALLABIES GREAT NOW LOOKING AT NEXT PHASE
Former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock and wife Caroline have sold Silverwood, their Burradoo home, for $2.43m as they head to Melbourne.
The Southern Highlands property was listed with a $2.25m guidance.
Built in 2009, the house originally had four bedrooms which they remodelled to add a fifth bedroom along with an extensive open-plan kitchen-living area that flows out to a 60sq m deck.
They also planted hedges and fruit and ornamental trees that have matured on the 2466sq m block.
The couple paid $1,382,500 in 2018 for the property through local agent Duncan Hill, given it was not far from Caroline’s parents.
At the time, Mortlock was a partner at Unio Advisors, having previously spent six years as a wealth director at NAB following his retirement from rugby union.
PropTrack puts the Burradoo median at $2,567,500 – down 8 per cent over the past year. It peaked at $3.012m in early 2023, having been at $1,787,500 at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. Its median time on market sits at 103 days.
Their Pymble property fetched $3.8m in 2018 after they paid $2.4m in 2008 for the five-bedroom Pymble Ave home that features a tennis court and saltwater pool.
When they lived in Melbourne during Mortlock’s time with the Rebels, they leased the home at $1900 a week.
The Burradoo listing was prompted by the opening of a new office in Melbourne for his expanding sports advisory and investment firm, XV Capital, which he co-founded.
The website suggests XV Capital “connects, accelerates and invests in global game-changing sports tech and innovation businesses”.
With the Mortlocks’ youngest child completing their HSC, the timing also works well on a family level.
“Our family spent a lot of time in Melbourne when I captained the Rebels in 2010, and we are excited to be returning to the nation’s sporting capital and reuniting with old friends,” Mortlock said.
During his rugby career, he played 80 Tests for the Wallabies – 29 as captain.
He scored 489 test points and became the fastest Wallabies player to reach 50 and 100 Test points. He was raised in Killara and represented Gordon Junior Rugby Club.
EX-SOCCEROO AND WIFE FLIP MANOR AFTER $500K RENO
Retired Socceroos star-turned-property developer Jason Culina and his interior designer wife, Terri, have flipped their Glenhaven home.
No sale price has yet been revealed by William Brush, of Manor Real Estate, but the couple were reportedly hoping to double the $3.85m they outlaid in late 2022.
After their settlement on the Binet Way acquisition in March last year, the renovation project has been sold just 20 months later.
It took 48 days to find a buyer.
The 1980s manor has been dramatically updated – but the couple got a yellow card in August when The Hills Shire Council pulled them up, with records showing they needed to lodge details for the “formalisation of unauthorised alterations”.
The couple, who operate Culina Design Group, took the opportunity to submit further additions and the conversion of the cabana to a guesthouse on the 2575sq m estate.
The works were valued at $493,548 to both the interior and exterior, with updated colours, paving, lighting and joinery along with a new kitchen complete with double islands in Brazilian quartzite. The property features a tennis court, pool, gym, and triple-garage.
Long known as Arundel Manor, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom home with media room was once marketed as Chateau d’Amour.
It first sold in 1997 for $975,000, being master-built by Binet Homes within the Sandhurst Estate.
The Culinas’ previous projects include their prior home in Denham Court and before that at Putney, along with a Gold Coast project.
They sold their revamped Putney home for a tidy profit in 2017 when they wanted $3.2m and secured $3.48m. The home had cost $1.77m three years earlier.
In 2021, they sold a new build at Putney in a joint venture for $3.575m.
They also sold their Bundall house in 2021 for $4.7m, having paid $3.5m in 2019.
The couple retain a Mermaid Beach townhouse that cost $2.775m in 2021.
$1M-PLUS SHORTFALL ENOUGH TO DO BLOCK
Pompano House, the Suffolk Park investment holiday home of The Block interior designer Darren Palmer and husband Olivier Duvillard, has gone under offer.
The duo seem set to have incurred a loss of a $1m-plus on the property.
Jane Johnston, of First National, notified that her listing of the 30 Beachside Drive abode had gone under offer mid-week, with the pending exchange terms not known.
After the couple bought Pompano House for $3.85m in the pandemic-induced 2021 regional property boom, it went to market with an initial $3.1m to $3.3m guidance in its September listing.
It was then reduced to a range of $2.95m to $3.245m. It subsequently had an offer after the latest price guide of $2.55m to $2.8m.
Held through DPTM Holdings, the four-bedroom home on 720sq m rents at $1500 a night in peak season.
It is just 100m from Tallow Beach, with a path to the beach from the back gate. It attracted 3330 page views on realestate.com.au.
There have been a growing number of listings and discounts in Suffolk Park, with the time on the market trending up to 83 days from 60 days a year ago.
PropTrack puts the median house price at $2.45m, having recovered from the $1.62m four-year low at the start of the year.
However, the prices have still not reached the $2.7m heights that they surged to during the pandemic rush.
The couple’s Bondi Beach house listing recently came down from websites.
SAM GIVES ’60S PROJECT SOME GLAM
Television host Samantha Armytage has neared completion of her renovation project at Moss Vale.
The now-modernised single-level home had got new roofing when The Sell cruised by last month.
Her mid-year $1.3m acquisition – a 1960s home on 1922sq m – was marketed as “exuding timeless character amid a lush mature garden”.
“Each room is filled with potential, offering the canvas for your personal touch and modern updates while retaining the home’s nostalgic allure,” the spiel said.
It was a 12-minute drive to the Berrima farm she shared with equestrian businessman Richard Lavender after they married in late 2020 until their recent separation.
Armytage, who recently joined Channel 9 as host of The Golden Bachelor, having previously hosted The Farmer Wants a Wife, on Channel 7, sold her $3.1m Burrawang weekender in 2020. She also sold her North Bondi home for $3.15m, while retaining a $1,575,000 Rushcutters Bay apartment.
Armytage withdrew her South Coast holiday retreat from sale several months ago, as Hyams Beach struggles with land tax bills, shark sightings and holiday traffic gridlock.
She sought $3.2m for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom holiday home after paying $1.765m in 2018 and renovating it.
NASSIF HOME SELLS FOR $12M
After 7300 page views on realestate.com.au, the vacated Chiswick home of Toplace Group property developer Jean Nassif has been sold under the instruction of administrators for $12.35 million.
The sale was secured by local agent Joe Bousimon, who had given a $9m guidance.
The 2019-built three-level Burns Crescent home is registered in Nassif’s name, although his estranged wife, Nisserine, has a caveat claiming a stake “by virtue of marriage”.
ELEEBANA SALE RECORD
An Eleebana record price was set last weekend when acreage at 5 Casson Ave fetched $4.05m through local agent Anthony Di Nardo.
The 1.21ha bushland estate with creek, just 2km from Lake Macquarie, comes with a five-bedroom homestead across two wings.
It just edged out the $4m sale price of 8 Casson Ave in October.
There was also a $3,725,000 sale in March.
BOARDING HOUSES’ FATE
The fate of the occupants at the four boarding houses at 58-64 Selwyn St, Paddington, will be decided by the Land and Environment Court in May.
A four-day hearing will review the Lin family’s plan to turn 32 rooms into four luxury homes.
Some of its $200-a-week tenants have been living there for up to 50 years.
Boarding houses in the City of Sydney have dropped from 744 over the past decade to 294.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
Originally published as The Sell: Anthony Albanese has reduced rental hopes on clifftop home
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