Mattress spring king’s waterfront home hits market with expectations over $80m

There are only a handful of waterfront properties on Seven Shillings Beach in Point Piper, so rarely does one come up.

Now, with much anticipation, the home of the little known late Lionel Warat, of the mattress inner spring empire, has finally hit the market with price expectations north of $80 million.

The prized 1524-square-metre parcel of land has near-level access on both sides of the block, which gently terraces down to the water. The original four-bedroom house is in a peaceful spot where residents can even hear waves lapping.

Once part of the Fairfax estate, Lionel bought it from his father, Harry Warat, for $1.05 million in 1984.

Harry was a Polish Jew who immigrated to Fremantle without knowing much English and had only a couple of pounds to his name. But he had an entrepreneurial spirit, working in upholstery while learning English before he moved to Melbourne and then Sydney, becoming Australia’s main inner spring pad supplier for mattress companies such as Sealy and AH Beard.

The tightly held Point Piper home of the Warat family is on the market for the first time in decades.Credit:

Once Harry retired, Lionel took over the business and dabbled in other endeavours. At one point, he owned The Golden Sheaf in Double Bay, paying $6.3 million for the New South Head Road pub in 2004. He passed away last year.

The Point Piper home offers an enviable location.Credit:

Much buzz has surrounded the home with gun barrel views of the harbour, and dozens of interested parties have vied for the keys to the property over the years, including agents who have door-knocked and letter-box-dropped the Warats for decades to try and lure them to market.

It’s the last tightly held property on the coveted stretch of sand in one of the most exclusive dress circles of Point Piper, with most of the neighbouring homes trading more recently.

Whoever buys the property will be in good company. Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes owns the neighbouring 1.12-hectare beachfront residence Fairwater, which he bought from the estate of the late Lady Mary Fairfax in 2018 for $100 million.

Next door to that is the grand estate Elaine, on 7000 square metres, which was sold by Atlassian’s other co-founder, Scott Farquhar, for about $130 million last year and is yet to settle.

The Point Piper home sits on a 1524-square-metre parcel of prized land.Credit:

The property would be one of the year’s top sales so far and will no doubt test the strength of the trophy home market as non-beachfronts and properties on busier roads have netted more than $80 million in the past 12 months. It is being sold through Ben Collier of The Agency.

Primo sale

Heiress to the Primo Smallgoods fortune Kristie Ward has sold her Northbridge trophy home for about the $45 million price guide, local sources say.

Ward is the daughter of John Hunt, co-founder of Primo and a former BRW rich lister with an estimated wealth of $324 million in 2016, The Australian Financial Review reported.

The Northbridge trophy home’s sale set a record for north of the Harbour Bridge.Credit:

The exclusive waterfront estate is a record-setting sale north of the Harbour Bridge that has also comfortably doubled in value since Ward bought it in 2017 for $21 million, which was a suburb record at the time.

She purchased the designer digs of Robert and Kelly Salteri, of the Transfield family.

The elegant six-bedroom, six-bathroom house, which has been extensively renovated, has taken the record from the historic Lavender Bay mansion Idelmere, which sold for $42.2 million last year to Lynda Van Der Weegan, wife of Histopath Diagnostic Specialists founder Dr Chris Douglas.

The couple purchased it from property veteran and Sydney Swans board member Greg Paramor and his wife, Kerry.

The Northbridge estate is on 3434 square metres – the largest single landholding in the suburb.

While it is unclear where Ward and her family are off to, it was a decent upgrade at the time when they relocated to Northbridge from their $1.9 million Queenscliff house she bought in 2006.

It sold through Michael Coombs of Atlas, who declined to comment.

Jessica Rowe’s art deco investment apartment has no common walls.Credit:

Rowing away

Jessica Rowe is calling time on her investment property in Clovelly with a $1.4 million price guide.

The television journalist and presenter, who was made a member of the Order of Australia for her mental health advocacy, purchased the light-filled two-bedroom unit for $410,000 in 2000 as her first home to live in before she met her husband, Peter Overton.

The top-floor art deco property with no common walls is in a boutique block of four that is a short stroll to cafes and beaches.

It is selling through Bethwyn Richards of The Agency.