The Sell: Sam Burgess struggles to sell Illume apartment at Little Bay
The auction has been delayed and the price guide has been tweaked as NRL star Sam Burgess struggles to sell his apartment in a hit-and-miss property market.
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South Sydney Rabbitohs assistant coach Sam Burgess has pushed back the auction of his Little Bay investment apartment by a fortnight.
Originally listed with $1.2m guidance, the top-floor apartment with ocean views will now go to auction on April 18.
NG Farah’s Martin Farah and Steve Ausling have tweaked the price guidance down to between $1.175m and $1.225m.
These changes are certainly emblematic of the hit-and-miss market at the moment.
But success came auction eve for Sydney Swans midfielder Luke Parker and his wife, interior designer Kate Lawrence-Parker, who sold their stylish new Matraville duplex ahead of yesterday’s auction for more than $3m. The guide from McGrath agents Simon Nolan and Joshua Karam had always been $2.75m.
And perseverance has paid finally off in Paddington where, after 11,000-plus online views on realestate.com.au, TV sports presenter Emma Freedman and her husband, asset manager Charlie Rundle, have sold their terrace.
They got more than $3m after two failed scheduled auctions through Alexander Phillips at PPD, who’d initially aimed for $3,125,000.
It took 67 days, well up on Paddington’s 37-day median time on market.
They bought for $2.19m back in 2016.
Agents across Sydney advise there’s no doubt that prices have had a floor below which they don’t fall during early autumn, given the lack of stock and cautious buyer demand.
There were 12,000 new listings, auction and private treaty, across Sydney last month, according to SQM Research, compared to 15,000 in February last year.
Given the general economic uncertainty, vendors have been reluctant to come forward, especially if they don’t wish to test just how much prices are down against their boomtime peaks.
This week saw the ignominious return of Julina Lim’s Vaucluse trophy home to the market through Luxe Listings cast member D’Leanne Lewis.
The matriarch of the Oceania Property development family had sold the property for about $27m in May last year, but it never proceeded to settlement.
Of course there’s still the “must list and sell” markets that arise after death, divorces and births.
Since Sam Burgess’s listing last month, it has emerged that the 34-year-old retired league player and his partner Lucy Graham are expecting their first child together.
No doubt they are set to secure something with their family in mind.
Burgess had bought the two-bedroom Little Bay apartment in 2015 off the plan in the Illume development.
It was the same year that he married his former wife Phoebe Burgess, with whom he has two children.
Burgess paid $955,000 for his 107sq m apartment, which settled on its 2018 completion.
UNIT PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT
Maz Hagemrad, the boss of UFC Gym Australia and New Zealand, is selling the family home at Wentworth Point.
Hagemrad, who has been chief executive of UFC Gym for the past eight years, will be upsizing with his wife and three daughters.
The Marine Parade apartment is set in the pet-friendly Bellagio complex, one of the tightly held complexes in the precinct.
They recently spent $350,000 on renovating the apartment, which has a guide of $1.75m for its April 1 auction through McGrath Parramatta agent Ania Aquino.
It spans two levels, and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The kitchen, living and dining space occupies the upper level, which opens to a large terrace with an outdoor fireplace. It has views over the Parramatta River.
The upper level also has its master bedroom with ensuite and a study.
The apartment was bought for $800,000 in 2013, when the suburb’s median unit price was around $475,000. The median price of a three-bedroom unit is now $1.1 million, up 5.3 per cent over the last 12 months, according to realestate.com.au.
The last three-bedroom sale in the 2005-block was in late 2021, when a single-level apartment sold for $1.2m.
The Bellagio comes with a pool and the Pulse Club fitness centre, with tennis courts.
Hagemrad, who had previously been a sports physiotherapist, presumably gets to also exercise at the nine UFC Gym franchisee sites across Sydney, with further gyms coming soon — according to their website — at Woolooware, McGraths Hill and Newcastle.
UFC Gym was founded in 2009 as the first major brand extension of the mixed martial arts fighting franchise.
NEW HOME FOR NEWLY SINGLE McNAUGHT
Erin McNaught looks to have bought herself a new Brisbane home, having separated from her husband, international rapper Example, late last year.
She announced to her 188,000 Instagram followers last October that the couple were separating.
Now McNaught, who had lived in Brisbane’s Paddington with Example and their two children, has emerged as a buyer in nearby Toowong, which is 5km further out.
She’s quietly spent $2,265,000 on an architect-designed home by the award-winning Sustainable Homes.
It was marketed as a contemporary family residence through McGrath Paddington agent Alex Jordan.
It was early 2019 when McNaught spent $2.8m on a strikingly contemporary home in Brisbane’s Paddington, not far from Kenmore where McNaught went to school.
DRIVEN TO GET GOOD PRICE
With plans to head off to France, luxury car dealer Terry Mullens and his wife Wendy have relisted their grand three-storey marine villa, Jenner House, in Potts Point.
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom Georgian Regency house has been for sale for over 1100 days since they paid $15m in 2009, including the most recent 425-day stint, according to CoreLogic.
There was a likely sale in late 2021, with the deposit funds banked, but the conditional sale failed to proceed. There was also a silly marketing attempt on Luxe Listings Sydney.
The 1871-built Edmund Blacket-designed Macleay St home features sandstone foundations, 4m-high ceilings, bay windows, French oak parquetry, Australian cedar staircase and 11 white Carrera marble fireplaces. It was built for the Hordern retailing family.
A third level was added in 1881 by another distinguished architect, Thomas Rowe.
There’s a gym, a cellar and parking for 10 cars, but no pool on its rear lawn.
Raine and Horne Unlimited’s Sam Schumann is giving $34m guidance based on the nearby Bomera $34m sale to billionaire steel miner Sanjeev Gupta in 2019.
Schumann has set an April 4 auction date for the 1900sqm property set above Garden Island. It was one of five navy properties sold in the precinct by the Defence Department in the late 1990s, including Tresco on the Elizabeth Bay waterfront for $9m.
RABBIT’S HOLE
Young South Sydney Rabbitohs star Lachlan Ilias has bought his first home, spending $1.8m on an ocean-view apartment in Maroubra.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment had been on the market for just under three weeks when Ilias snapped it up before its auction.
Ellison Zulian Property’s Josh Ellison sold the apartment, which was trading for the first time since 1983, when it sold for $78,000.
The apartment, which sits on the first floor of a mid-1960s block close to Jack Vanney Park, had been updated.
It covers 83sqm, and comes with a lock up garage. There is an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area, which opens to a balcony with ocean views.
The property had been an $850-a- week rental last year.
The 22-year-old recently took on the role of starting halfback for the Rabbitohs.
DOUBLY GOOD OFFER
Chloe Brookman — one half of nursery emporium Olli and Ella — and her husband Charlie are selling up.
While still waiting for a buyer for their renovated Coogee home, they’ve also listed their holiday home in the Byron Bay hinterland.
The experienced renovators have transformed the home, which has become a popular Airbnb known as Free Wheeler Ridge.
They bought what was an original red brick home on over 4000 sqm in 2017, paying $920,000. The home now showcases mid-century modernism breeze blocks and VJ panels.
It has four bedrooms, the master and children’s rooms with ocean glimpses.
McGrath Byron agent Will Phillips has a $1.75 million guide for its April 15 auction.
The Brookmans are still awaiting a buyer for their 1920s South Coogee home, Bundock House. They bought it in 2021 for almost $4m. Now there’s a $5.5m guide at its April 5 auction.
It seems the couple want the funds for other investment opportunities.
WELL-PLANNED SALE
The North Curl Curl clifftop home of the former celebrity financial planner Sam Henderson has been listed with $9m hopes.
Henderson built after paying $2.061m for the site in 2013.
The former Australian Financial Review columnist had to appear before the Hayne royal commission into banking misconduct in 2018 and later pleaded guilty to dishonesty after Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleged he claimed to hold a Master of Commerce degree.
Henderson was the subject of a bad advice case study during the Financial Services Royal Commission for failing to act in the best interests of clients.
Henderson, who remained a director and shareholder of Henderson Maxwell Accounting, listed an 11ha property in the Southern Highlands for $5m last year without any sale.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
Originally published as The Sell: Sam Burgess struggles to sell Illume apartment at Little Bay
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