RecipeTin Eats’ Nagi Maehashi opts out of $7m Hunters Hill house after three months

Late last year, best-selling author, food blogger and Good Food columnist Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats exchanged to buy a heritage Victorian manor in Hunters Hill, settling on it in March amid expectations it was to be her forever home.

She even lodged plans a month ago for almost $1 million worth of alterations and additions to the 1883-built sandstone house, known as Daybreak, that included expanding the living and bedroom areas.

The 1883-built Victorian manor Daybreak is being sold by food blogger Nagi Maehashi.Credit: Domain

But her plans clearly changed this week when, just three months after she took the keys, Maehashi returned it to the market, no doubt hoping to recoup what she paid for it.

Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats fame and her dog Dozer.Credit: James Brickwood

Given that she paid $7 million for the 1883-built house, and it came with a $420,000 stamp duty, McGrath’s Tracey Dixon has her work cut out for her ahead of the June 29 auction.

Maehashi was unable to say why she was relisting the property given “pesky NDAs” [non-disclosure agreements], but at least agent Dixon was a little more forthcoming, saying Maehashi has some new and exciting career opportunities on the horizon keeping her from completing her renovations.

Plans were lodged with council a month ago to expand the living areas and bedrooms in Daybreak.Credit: Domain

Maehashi is a former Brookfield Multiplex senior executive who opted out of corporate life to focus on her love of cooking and developing her global hit website. The move served her well – RecipeTin Eats now has a 5 million-strong social media following on Facebook and Instagram, and her 2022 book RecipeTin Eats: Dinner ranked on the New York Times Best Seller list.

At the time, Maehashi was coming from Mona Vale, where she bought a house in 2019 for $3.5 million and sold it late last year for $6 million.

Mighty flips

Brief ownership of a home doesn’t mean you can’t make an extra few million dollars on the way through, although it helps if you undertake a lavish renovation in the meantime.

The Federation house was purchased by Toby Abbey in 2021 for $8.5 million and resold this week for $15 million.Credit: Domain

Take Tobias Abbey, a co-founder of blockchain-focused venture capital firm Polybius Capital. In 2021, he purchased a Federation house in Mosman for $8.5 million and, soon enough, splashed more than $1 million on a Harper Lane Design renovation.

Polybius Capital co-founder Toby Abbey couldn’t sell the house last year.Credit: LinkedIn

The five-bedroom house with a pool was then listed last year with hopes of $13 million but never sold. However, it wasn’t completely withdrawn from the market, judging by the fact that it sold this week for $15 million.

The sale was regaled as a bullish result by local agents not just for the premium being paid for well-renovated digs but the 75 per cent jump in value in the three years Abbey owned it.

Abbey is heading up the road to the Federation mansion Stonehenge, which he also bought in 2021 from former Macquarie chairman Peter Warne for $21.5 million.

Meanwhile, the off-market has also served Commonwealth Bank senior executive Chandu Bhindi well. His Longueville home was listed last year with $15 million hopes by Belle Property’s Simon Harrison and Kim Walters, but withdrawn ahead of the November auction.

The Longueville home of CBA’s Chandu Bhindi was listed last year for $15 million, but never sold.Credit: Domain

This week it appeared to have sold, although the Belle website doesn’t reveal if he scored his hoped-for price. We’ll leave it to the street rumourmongers who put the result about $15 million. Not bad given the house last traded for $3.11 million in 2006 when sold by corporate adviser Geoff Hilton.

Mining your mates

Coal mining magnate Tony Haggarty and fellow mining boss Rick Chadwick go way back. They forged ties in the 1980s when Haggarty was reporting to his then BP Coal boss Chadwick, they made a fortune in the 1990s when the Gloucester coal deposits mine was sold, and again in 2006 when their Excel Coal was acquired by US coal giant Peabody Energy for $1.8 billion.

So when Haggarty heard Chadwick might be selling his Kurraba Point waterfront apartment, he stepped in to buy it direct.

Tony Haggarty and his wife Karen have paid $8.8 million cash for an apartment on Kurraba Point.Credit:

The sale is far from the most lucrative deal by the mining bigwigs, but it’s also easy to see why Haggarty and his wife Karen didn’t need a mortgage to settle on the $8.8 million pad.

Corporate interests linked to Chadwick and his wife Gwenda had purchased the apartment in the redeveloped Wallaringa Mansions 20 years ago for $5 million.

Still with Kurraba Point’s corporate heavy hitters, former Boral chief executive Rod Pearse and his wife Merryn look like they are planning a downsize from their waterfront house next door to Wallaringa Mansions.

Rod and Merryn Pearse have paid about $13.5 million for an apartment in the boutique Watermarque block on Mosman Bay.Credit: Domain

Pearse, who was Boral’s chief for 10 years before he stepped down in 2009, is rumoured to have paid $13.5 million for an apartment in Mosman’s Watermarque block.

Rod Pearse stepped down as chief executive of Boral in 2009.Credit: Rob Homer

Diana and Michael Briggs, co-founder of private equity outfit Anchorage Capital Partners, had listed their pad in the Allen Jack + Cottier-designed block in early May with The Agency’s Claudia Portale.

The home had set an apartment record for Mosman when it last traded in 2014 for $7.7 million. An apartment record was later reset at $10.22 million in 2018 when RAMS Home Loan founder John Kinghorn bought downstairs for $10.22 million, and again in 2022 when Vittoria Coffee’s former part owner Clelia Cantarella sold in the same block for $14.1 million to gold mining boss Craig Williams.