The Sell: Clint Gutherson flies from Collaroy to Dragons heartland
Dragons recruit Clint Gutherson and partner Jesse Arena have exited Sydney’s Northern Beaches, leasing out their Collaroy Plateau home to relocate to Wollongong in Dragons heartland.
NSW
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St George Illawarra Dragons recruit Clint Gutherson has exited Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Gutherson and his partner Jesse Arena have leased out their Collaroy Plateau home to relocate to Wollongong in Dragons heartland.
“I’m going to move the family down, enjoy a change of scenery,” he foreshadowed last November, after signing a three-year deal with the Red V club. The 30-year-old will wear the No.1 jersey under coach Shane Flanagan after nine seasons at the Parramatta Eels.
“I feel really excited and honoured to be able to come here and put this jersey on and have that badge on my chest,” Gutherson said.
He said the relocation would give him “a chance to really buy into what they’re doing and be close to training and all the boys”.
Gutherson’s five-bedroom rental listing came down mid-January after seeking $3500-a-week tenants.
It was marketed by The North Agency as a “picture-perfect home” and a “true Pinterest dream”.
Collaroy Plateau’s median house rental is $1275, up 2 per cent annually after tracking 48 lettings, according to PropTrack, but rising 22 per cent annually to $1695 for its four-bedroom offerings.
Gutherson’s has four upstairs bedrooms, plus another on the ground floor.
The H&C Design contemporary home plans came with an estimated $960,000 construction cost.
The couple had built two years ago after they demolished the 1960s home that cost the former Eels fullback $1,875,500 in 2019.
Back then it was pitched as providing a blank canvas, offered for the first time in six decades through local agent Nick Scarf.
It features a garden, with an entertainer’s deck which opens to a pool on the 645sq m block.
Gutherson also has an investment apartment in Mona Vale, where he was born, which he recently sought $750-a-week tenants for, up from the $590-a-week asking price back in 2022. The two-bedroom 1960s apartment cost $800,000 in 2016, the year he signed for the Eels after departing Manly Sea Eagles.
In 2021, he sold a Collaroy investment for $1.53m, having paid $1.2m along with other family members in 2018. His first home purchase was at Cromer.
FROM £4600 TO $3.7M FOR THE HOME OF CRICKET GREAT
The longtime Strathfield home of cricket legend Alan Davidson and wife Betty has sold at auction for $3.68m. The bidding started at $2.6m with the reserve exceeded at $3.2m.
There were 11 registered bidders who placed 31 offers for the Churchill Ave property which was marketed through Norman So, at Belle Property, as being multi-generational living or dual-income.
The house attracted more than 3200 page views on realestate.com.au during its earlybird marketing.
Davidson, a left-handed all-rounder, died in 2021 aged 92. Betty died in 2023.
They bought the home for £4600 in 1957 during his decade representing Australia in 44 Test matches between 1953 and 1963.
Davidson took a job at the Strathfield branch of the Commonwealth Bank in 1948, where he met and married local Betty McKinley in 1952. There was no registered mortgage for their purchase, but they took financing from Rothmans of Pall Mall (Australia) Limited in the early 1980s.
Davidson served as the chairman of the Rothmans National Sports Foundation for six years. In 2013, he appeared in a TV commercial for the Commonwealth Bank, as an elderly dog walker watching a young boy practise his bowling.
The 678sq m property lost much of its rear lawn when a two-bedroom 110sq m granny flat was built two years ago by one of their two sons, Neil, to replace the garage.
The Federation double-brick house has five bedrooms and two bathrooms, and features ornate ceilings and stained-glass windows.
Churchill Ave’s top sale is shared by the houses at No.67 and No.76, with both fetching $3.8m in 2022.
Strathfield’s current median sits at a record $3.85m, according to PropTrack – up 6.9 per cent annually after 181 sales last year.
HOLIDAY-HOME SUPREMO ADDS GARBO’S PENTHOUSE TO LISTINGS
Holiday home-letting entrepreneur Terry Kaljo, whose business has the priciest rental pad in the country at $75,000 a night, added to her private property holdings over summer.
Kaljo chairs Contemporary Hotels which, since late last year, has sought short-term bookings “from Hollywood celebrities, travelling billionaires and royals” for The Residence, a $60m penthouse owned by rich-lister garbo Ian Malouf that sits atop the ANZ Tower in the Sydney CBD.
Contemporary Hotels – Australia’s largest trophy home holiday-letting agency – was founded by Kaljo in 1997 and is now run by her eldest son, Matthew Fleming.
The business started with a letterbox drop around Palm Beach to see if other neighbourhood landlords would rent their homes for the peak summer season.
Rockridge, the updated 1940s Palm Beach home Kaljo bought in 1996, remains among the numerous Contemporary Hotels offerings that span from the NSW Southern Highlands to Port Douglas, in far north Queensland.
Rockridge shows up as available at $3100 a night next Christmas – an affordable offering along with others on the peninsula, including Porta Rossa that comes at $3700 a night.
Of course, Palm Beach has far pricier private rentals, including Margaret Rose’s Bellona, with these lettings often done direct with the landlord.
Kaljo also has several inner-Sydney apartments in the rental pool, including Horizon, Republic and Top of the Town.
There is no sign yet of her recent purchase at Byron Bay being added. Kaljo paid $2,385,000 to buy the beachfront reserve apartment.
It had last sold for $600,000 in 2014, so the decade achieved annual price growth of 14 per cent.
Kaljo already owned in the complex, having paid $1,350,000 for an apartment in 2020 with her partner of 10 years, business coach Mike Logan, who she married last May at Byron Bay.
EX-HAT FACTORY NOW REAL HEAD TURNER
The stunning Old Hat Factory residential warehouse conversion in Paddington has been listed for sale by Naomi Tosic, founder of the boutique co-working business The Office Space.
The multi-storey trophy home had been the project of her late husband, Boris Tosic, from Elan Construct, a residential and commercial interiors business.
Alexander Galanis, of The Agency, has the much-featured home scheduled for a March 1 auction with a $13m to $14m price guidance.
Mr Tosic bought the 1892 Church St brick warehouse for $2.5m in 2011 from food and lifestyle photographer Petrina Tinslay, whose studio was on the ground floor.
The home was a four-year project with a mission to build a zamak (the Croatian word for “castle”).
Mr Tosic, who arrived in Sydney Harbour in 1989 as a merchant seaman, sought input from Domenic Alvaro, of architects Woods Bagot, and long-time collaborator Don Cameron, an art director, stylist and Italian furniture importer.
There are five bedrooms and four bathrooms across the four floors of the 393sq m holding.
The living space has 13 windows.
There is also a glass-bottomed pool on the rooftop terrace which lets light into the kitchen.
As well, there is a basement space, with a two-car stacker and EV charger.
There is also a storeroom, gym, lift, guestroom and screening room.
Renowned artist Margaret Olley, who died in 2011 aged 88, was a longtime owner after its $67,000 purchase in 1979.
The house was described as “a cornucopia of delight”.
A SLICE OF PITTWATER PARADISE
Philanthropist Sam Meers, co-founder and chair of the Nelson Meers Foundation, has bought on Pittwater.
The three-bedroom Avalon Beach home, set on 1252sq m on dress circle Hudson Parade, cost $8.35 million.
Marketed as a “weekender”, the two-storey brick and timber house dates back to the 1940s and has Pittwater views from most rooms.
The main living and kitchen space comes with a bar in the shape of a canoe.
The ground floor opens to a waterfront lawn that’s just a 100m stroll from Clareville Beach.
LJ Hooker duo David and BJ Edwards sold the home when it last traded back in the mid-1980s when it fetched $420,000.
It was marketed as “one of the very last of its kind, a well-maintained weekender offering exciting development potential”.
Hudson Parade prices hit $14.6 million early last year when doctors Stephen and Elizabeth Mann bought the seven-bedroom modern home of Alexandra Clausen, wife of tech entrepreneur Simon Clausen.
Meers, the daughter of the late former Sydney Lord Mayor Nelson Meers, is the executive deputy chairman of Nelson Meers Group, a property and investment outfit.
Meers was recently appointed to the board of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.
CLEAR HORIZON FOR BUYERS
The Horizon, Darlinghurst apartment of the late businessman Geoff Selig, has been listed for sale.
Selig bought the 32nd floor, two-bedroom, 100sq m abode in 2022 for $3.85 million, downsizing from an amalgamated apartment on level 34 that sold for $8 million.
BresicWhitney agent Jeremy Brink has a $4 million to $4.4 million guide.
Selig was executive chairman of IVE Group.
FRESH LOOK NOW ON THE CATWALK
Model manager Priscilla Leighton-Clark and her partner, antique restorer Patrick Robinson, have listed their Potts Point terrace.
Anthony Birdsall of Laing Real Estate holds the listing for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom abode with a car space on Victoria St.
Set on 181sq m, the three-storey residence has been redesigned by Briony Fitzgerald, modernising the dwelling while retaining original features.
SAIL INTO SUPER SEASIDE PALACE
Dunes, a bushland coastal Ulladulla estate, has been listed with $12 million hopes through Ben Pryde of Raine & Horne.
The South Pacific Rd beachfront offering is a 5.12ha holding with a six-bedroom home boasting a wraparound veranda and travertine pool. There is also a guest wing.
The high-tide residence on Racecourse Beach last sold for $3.15 million in 2013 to the Laidlaw family.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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