Larry and Sylvie Emdur buy Kangaroo Valley property
The Morning Show host Larry Emdur and his wife Sylvie have joined the throng of celebrities heading south to Kangaroo Valley, with the couple snapping up a $2.15 million weekender in the area.
NSW
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Popular Channel 7 Morning Show co-host Larry Emdur and wife Sylvie have snapped up another weekender.
This time it’s away from the water, with the Emdurs opting for the rolling hills of Kangaroo Valley.
Sky Ridge, the luxury offering designed by architect Alexander Michael in 2018, will become tourism accommodation following their $2.15 million acquisition.
The south coast destination has seen a spike in big-name buyers in recent months, including musician Tim Minchin and wife Sarah, who paid $1.08 million for a house on nearly 5ha of bushland with a creek. film producer and director George Miller bought the 37ha Willabrook for $4.35 million in July.
Larry, with wife Sylvie and their estate agent son Jye, have big plans for the 4ha property, nicknamed the Black Barn.
The off-grid, solar-powered, eco-friendly home was constructed from steel, glass and polished concrete floors to give it an industrial feel.
The property has solar panels with a battery bank and rainwater harvesting. It features two towering floor-to-ceiling fireplaces in the open-plan living area.
The four bedroom pods are accessed on the second level of the property, each with their own ensuite.
The Emdurs are already planning a sunrise yoga deck and water tank swimming pool.
Di Jones Southern Highlands agent Michael Cawthorn secured the sale after giving a guide of $2.25 million.
The Emdurs have been spending time away from Sydney in recent months at their Berowra weekender, which they acquired over summer last year. They’ve been renovating the home, which is only accessibly by boat.
Their Sydney base is now in The Rocks, after Emdur sold the family home at Dover Heights for a record $11.5 million in 2017 to celebrity accountant Anthony Bell.
They retain a bolthole on Bondi’s Ben Buckler peninsula, but Jye, who works at The Agency, has been recently seeking buyers for his father’s small investment apartments around Bondi.
Michael purchased the secluded 3.95ha vacant block on Mount Scanzi Rd in 2016 for $185,000.
He listed one of his two Kangaroo Valley properties following the death in May of his partner, the acclaimed jeweller Tony White, who created artistic pieces of jewellery for his eclectic fans.
More than 250 pieces from White’s personal collection, including artworks, attracted bids from his classy clientele across the world.
The top sales included a 1970s Brett Whiteley sketch, Bonsai, at $97,600, and Charles Blackman’s The Dining Table at $84,500.
AGENTS THE REAL DEAL
Sydney is to finally get its reality show starring elite estate agents, but there are doubts it will have compelling bona fide drama.
The show will follow two eastern suburbs agents, Ray White’s Gavin Rubinstein, who has long been accompanied by his own videographer, along with proud single mother, the veteran Double Bay agent D’Leanne Lewis.
Simon Cohen, the buyers’ agent who hails from St Ives, will also star in the series that will follow their professional and personal lives.
The flamboyant Black Diamondz agent Monika Tu, who had been set for a spot, is the surprise headliner omission, although she could make a cameo given other agents are being coaxed into participating.
US streaming service Amazon has commissioned Eureka Productions’ Chris Culvenor, whose most recent production was Drunk History, to get the show to air next year.
Billed as a “brilliant mix of big personalities, spectacular properties and high-stakes deals”, the series has been developed by Kentel executive producers Benjamin Scott and James Kennedy, the jewellery heir.
Earlier this year Kennedy had his own private drama to secure his East Melbourne abode from the Chinese developer Richard Gu after commencing court proceedings
And Scott, a pawn broker, has an ongoing role in Fadi Ibrahim’s company, DI Developments.
But what will go to air?
The reality series genre, which took off in 2006 with Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, sees the latest hit, Netflix’s Selling Sunset, airing drama that has been concocted, even a wedding.
So far Sydney agents have only been asked to participate in re-enactments of staged auctions and negotiations in recent weeks.
And many Sydney vendors are likely to be reticent.
Indeed Lewis’s latest vendor, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, the Optus chief executive, was so secretive that her marketing came without a street address when advertised in The Wentworth Courier.
Rubinstein’s top vendor is the low-key lawyer Gil Baron, who has $10 million-plus Bellevue Hill hopes, so he’s unlikely to appear in shot when his agent turns up in his new shiny black Bentley.
ROOSTERS CO-SKIPPER CASHES IN
Sydney Roosters co-captain Jake Friend has found a buyer for his two-bedroom, two-bathroom Randwick investment apartment. It took close to two months for the apartment to go under offer midweek at an undisclosed price.
The apartment had a $1.5 million guide for its mid-September auction.
Coming with city skyline views from its Frenchmans Rd vantage point, Friend bought it for $1.32 million in 2017.
He and his fiance Jenna Kallin lived there for 18 months before undertaking a major renovation.
The penthouse-style apartment had an initial $1200 asking rental in 2019 and more recently was available at $1050 a week.
Randwick’s median apartment price over the past year sits at $977,500, according to realestate.com.au. Based on five years of sales, Randwick has seen a compound growth rate of 4.8 per cent.
The couple, who bought in Drummoyne for $1.6 million last year, are now contemplating their next property move.
Friend listed the investment sensing there will be a few property bargains to be had next year.
“I thought rather than increasing our debt, I’d rather have money to play with because there could be opportunities next year,” the State of Origin prospect told the Wentworth Courier on its August listing.
“Because of the virus and people having to survive on JobKeeper, if that does stop, people may have to sell. It’s hard to tell, but for myself I prefer to be in less debt and have money to work with.”
DARYL’S HOLDINGS
Former member for Wagga Wagga, Daryl Maguire owns several nondescript properties in regional NSW.
They included a house at Tolland which cost $170,000 in 2003, and became a $180-a-week rental in 2019.
Tolland is a suburb of Wagga Wagga. The neighbouring house was bought for $219,000 in 2014 and quickly became a $290 -a-week rental.
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So nothing too expensive, and both transferred into his name after his 2017 matrimonial property settlement with his wife, Maureen.
He subsequently secured NAB finance.
There is also property at Ivanhoe, in far west NSW.
The house on 2000sqm cost $8000 in 2016 and the neighbouring block cost $750 in 2017. There is also a water access licence.
RECORD $5.8M PEARL BEACH SALE
Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate no longer holds the Pearl Beach price record following a nearby $5.805 million midweek sale.
Seascape was sold by the O’Neill family through Stuart Gan at Central Coast Realty just 16 days into its marketing.
The contemporary oceanfront home sits on a 545sqm Green Point Rd holding with spectacular resort-style infinity pool. It last sold at $3.95 million in 2012.
Gan’s record price won’t last too long because an architect-designed home on Gem Rd, which was listed with $6.5 million to $7 million hopes, has gone under offer.
Last traded in 1988 as a building block for $500,000, the three-level, five-bedroom home comes with 45m of beachfront with boatshed.
It was 2007 when the destination had its first $5 million sale after BridgeClimb founder Paul Cave secured his weekender.
There was a $5 million off-market sale earlier this year when Gan sold a 1960s Coral Cres beachside cottage to Trish Affleck, a semi-retired stockbroker who was living at a nearby property.
The three-bedroom cottage on 670sqm had been sold five times since selling at $1 million in 1998, with three of the prices falling backwards during downturns.
FARRISS MOVES TO NARRABEEN
INXS guitarist Tim Farriss and his wife Beth are upsizing on the northern beaches, having sold their long-time Kangaroo Valley weekender and apartment in Fairlight.
The couple, who pocketed $6.07 million from the two sales, have now spent $3.9 million on a Narrabeen lakefront abode.
The late-1930s five-bedroom weatherboard, transformed in recent years, is one of few that has a north-to-rear lake frontage. The living room and dining area open to a lakeside deck.
It sold, with approval for a pool in the 880sqm grounds, through Cherie Humel and Garry Greco, from Clarke & Humel Property.
The purchase is the second-highest house sale in the suburb in 2020, only behind a grand Malcolm St home that fetched $4.27 million last month.
The band recorded more than 200 songs since its inception in 1977.
There are whisper quiet plans by impresario Michael Cassel and longtime INXS manager Chris Murphy for a stage production with a story inspired around the band’s music, similar to Queen’s We Will Rock You and Abba’s Mamma Mia.
FORMER PANDORA BOSS OFF TO BYRON
Pandora Jewellery founder Karin Adcock has bought in Byron Bay, joining the growing list of high-profile Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne buyers in the booming tourism and sea change town.
Adcock, who sold Pandora for about $100 million in 2012, has quietly paid $1,325,000 for a renovated 1990s home at Suffolk Park.
The single-level home last traded for $532,000 in 2009. It was listed as a $1000-a-week rental just as the pandemic hit earlier this year.
The home opens out to a large covered deck overlooking the magnesium pool set in lush tropical gardens.
Byron Bay Property Sales agents Jeremy Bennett and Vicki Innes secured the sale off-market. Adcock, who recently sold her waterfront in Sydney’s Newport for $8.9 million, gives her address as Winmark Wines, the former Pooles Rock vineyard, at Broke in the Hunter region.