Nine deputy chairman Nick Falloon buys $16m Potts Point penthouse
Chairman of the defunct Fairfax Media board and now deputy chairman at Nine Entertainment, Nick Falloon, has bought a $16 million Potts Point penthouse, real estate insider Jonathan Chancellor reveals.
NSW
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Veteran media player Nick Falloon is set to emerge as the $16 million Villard penthouse buyer in Potts Point.
Falloon and his wife Diane have been at their Longueville waterfront since 1999. They don’t seem set to be moving straight in, as they have $2.8m plans to reconfigure the two-storey Macleay St apartment.
They apparently want to remove the enclosed rooftop magnesium pool, wisely, and turn it into a whole floor master retreat with balcony. There will also be a new internal lift installed.
Falloon was chairman of the defunct Fairfax Media board before becoming deputy chairman at Nine Entertainment last December. He had previously worked at Ten and the Packer empire.
The off-market purchase comes just months after car dealer Laurie Sutton snapped up the penthouse for a then $15.5m suburb record.
Sutton bought from digital media boss Matthew Kapp, who had resided atop the Ercole Palazzetti-designed building since 2000, having paid $4.69m to its original owner, Tim Higgins, of the Design Establishment furniture company.
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Over that time the area has become a hotspot for suburban downsizers seeking out the village vibe. The suburb record stands with audio king Peter Freedman’s $16m purchase in the Mirvac-built Ikon, which has started work on removing common property combustible cladding.
A Horizon, Darlinghurst sub-penthouse was passed in yesterday on a $16m vendor bid at a pitifully attended private auction.
There was no apparent bounce after Lendlease advised a “local” buyer was paying $140m for a Barangaroo South off-the-plan, dual-key penthouse, which reflected more than $100,000 per square metre for the upper two floors of the three level, 1600sq m nine-bedroom space.
BANKING BIGWIG LEAVES PALM BEACH
The Dominguez family have cut their ties with Palm Beach, having bought three decades ago.
Merchant banker Jim Dominguez was among the braces-wearing bigwigs from the emerging financial services industry who invested their hefty success fees in the vacation playground.
Dominguez and wife Suzanne have sold their villa in the dress circle Ocean Road, Susan Rothwell-designed Winten complex.
The three-bedroom 2005-built villa sold through LJ Hooker agents Peter Robinson and Katie Dowdall.
It was their retreat since 2014 when they sold Mandalay, a seven-bedroom home for $6.65 million to the hedge fund trader Daniel Droga and his wife Lyndell. The Florida Road home on 1600sq m cost $215,000 in 1988.
The neighbourhood was once nicknamed Pill Hill because of the prevalence of Macquarie Street doctors. The baton change to merchant bankers included Moonrising being bought by Stephen Higgs for a then-record $3 million in 1990.
When Mark Chiba bought Palisades from the now-jailed futures trader Hamish Watson in 2002, he joined four other then-UBS Walburg bankers.
Dominguez, who was the boss at Dominguez Barry Samuel Montagu, helped Sydney get its Harbour tunnel.
JT’S EXPANDING PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
Two-thirds of Australians buying an investment property picked one close to where they live, and not in another suburb that could potentially outperform their home suburb in the long run, according to a new report co-authored by University of Sydney finance lecturer Danika Wright.
“The explanation for home bias … is a familiarity bias, lack of sophistication, knowledge or education and momentum behaviour,” the report harshly suggested.
The academics argued that putting all the eggs in one basket was riskier for the individual investor and also the economy.
The home bias preference was seen when NRL legend Johnathan Thurston and wife Samantha recently expanded their already impressive investment portfolio, with another north Queensland buy.
Indeed the former Cowboy, who won two premierships, bought just 50m from where the family have called home for the past six years.
They have spent $850,000 in Townsville’s Rowes Bay securing a three-bedroom, original 1960s home that had last been advertised as a $260-a-week rental in 2017.
Their own house cost $1.2 million.
Thurston’s portfolio of six investment properties that cost $2.95 million does include an apartment in Leichhardt, bought when he was at the Bulldogs. He paid $370,000 for the one-bedroom unit in 2005. He sought tenants at $470 a week last month.
ATKINS WALTZES OFF WITH A SALE
Australia’s most awarded choreographer David Atkins has secured $7,265,000 for his luxury Collaroy abode.
Atkins, who was involved in arena entertainment connected to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, had paid $5.05 million for the chic designer residence just off the beach in 2016.
Belle agents Brendan Pomponio and Joshua Perry, who are marketing the nearby home of committed Collaroy basin devotees Matty and Trish Johns, secured the sale, having listed it in April.
The local hot shoe shuffle within the basin has also seen the recent $7.1 million sale of the home of the Housego family.
A WEDGE OF WHALE BEACH
With Melbourne now featuring far more in his work schedule, TV audience researcher David Castran is selling The Wedge House, one of Whale Beach’s most identifiable properties.
Castran, dubbed “the TV doctor”, paid $2.92 million only four months ago.
Architect Peter Stutchbury and colleague Marika Jarv designed The Wedge House.
It was built between 1998 and 2000 for Deon and Kim Huber, co-founders of not-for-profit organisation Living Ocean.
The eco-friendly three-bedroom home is designed with two wedges that extend in opposite directions. It sits in gardens designed by Pape Landscape.
LJ Hooker Palm Beach agents David Edwards and Danielle Forde have a $2.95m guide.