The Sell: Footballer turned builder lists stunning property in Bryon Bay
Former dual code footballer turned builder Todd Miller and his artist wife Diana have listed their latest dream home in Byron Bay, overlooking the iconic Tallow Beach, for sale.
NSW
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The former dual code footballer turned builder Todd Miller and his artist wife Diana have listed their latest dream home in Byron Bay, overlooking the iconic Tallow Beach, for sale.
Su Reynolds from First National Byron describes Portum as a stunning property in Bryon Bay.
The three-level house built by Miller from Ziegler Build comes with a price guide of $10m to $11m.
The four-bedroom, five-bathroom home is set on Pacific Vista Drive, sculpted around a striking spiral staircase that leads to light-filled living spaces with views of the ocean and the Arakwal National Park.
Portum’s low-impact design comes with Australian-made clay bricks and low-emissivity glass.
There is a 10kw solar system with Tesla battery, water tanks and carbon water filtering.
The 660sq m holding was bought in 2021 for $2.85m.
Their previous mid-century modern-style Palm Springs-inspired home – just five houses away – was listed for sale with a price guide of $6m and fetched $5.6m in 2021.
The Millers had purchased the 660sq m block in 2019, intending it to be their forever home after moving 28 times since returning to Australia from London, where Miller played for the London Welsh Rugby Club.
Miller had began his career in professional rugby league at the Cronulla Sharks, then the Manly Sea Eagles, Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Chargers, before switching to union with the Gold Coast Breakers’ inaugural team.
Miller’s best-known project was a Brisbane house built from shipping containers over three levels, which featured on Grand Designs Australia in 2013. They sold the container home in 2014 for $1.42m, having been listed at $1.55m. The resourceful couple started with 10, then 20, then 31 steel containers craned on to their suburban Graceville block.
STAR ZAC PLANS ‘WORLD’S MOST SUSTAINABLE HOME’
The striking 1950s art deco home built for the Bornholt family at Tomewin in northern NSW has come up for sale.
It was from here the pioneering family ran their banana growing empire.
Their nearby 128ha farm hit international headlines in 2020 after it was sold to Hollywood actor Zac Efron, having been in the family since 1906.
Tomewin, an hour from Byron Bay near the NSW and Queensland border, was back in the headlines this month after a development application for “the most sustainable home in the world” was lodged for the property owned by Efron.
The proposal lists the environmental activist Joost Bakker as the proponent, giving rise to the unconfirmed speculation Efron could be quietly offloading the property to his mate or perhaps be in an exciting collaboration. Efron’s name remains on the official title.
The three-bedroom home listing, with ocean views despite being surrounded by rainforest, was retained by the Bornholt family until the 1960s.
The 1.43ha holding set between Tomewin and Garden of Eden Road now comes with $1.45m to $1.59m price hopes through Dean Wildbore at PRD Burleigh Heads.
The art deco house has rosewood and teak floorboards milled on site.
The recent Tweed Shire building application for the Efron property seeks a six-bedroom, two-storey house with a series of pods fabricated off site with hemp board panels.
The 4.8 x 9.6 module pods will feature a green roof to retain water as a wicking bed for plants to support endangered butterflies, fireflies, small birds and microbats. The green roof protects the building during bushfires.
The documents call it a “carbon-sequestering, habitat-creating home”.
The land features rainforest with creeks and waterfalls and only traces of its banana-growing past.
The High School Musical star bought the secluded holding for $2m in late 2020, having spent much of the pandemic lockdowns in Byron Bay.
His busy filming schedule has meant he’s not returned to his vacant property.
Efron and Bakker developed their friendship after Bakker’s Melbourne Future Food System home featured on Down To Earth, Efron’s Netflix wellness show.
WRITER KATHY LETTE OBJECTS TO NEW ELIZABETH BAY SITE CHAPTER
The internationally acclaimed novelist Kathy Lette is among the opponents of the luxury Elizabeth Bay apartment redevelopment proposed by the Charles Mellick-led Fortis.
The London-based Lette has a bolthole in the neighbourhood of the 1970s apartment block Vanessa Lodge, built by the Lowndes insurance family, which now faces demolition.
The dual-street 1472sq m site stretches from Onslow Ave to Billyard Ave, set opposite the heritage harbourfront home Berthong where Di Sutton is another objector, according to Sydney City Council records.
The $23m Elizabeth Bay apartment project sought investors with the offer of 18 to 22 per cent per annum returns within a targeted 39 months although the time line may have been extended as its contest in the NSW Land and Environment Court continues.
Lette expressed concerns regarding traffic, noise, light sharing and privacy while other locals have fears the luxury development forces the poor out of the community and risks social cohesion. Lette’s objection was lodged by her short-term letting agent Tracey McArdle.
Fortis have considered recent design feedback and reduced the number of apartments from 22 to 20, with council giving the residents and their design consultants just two weeks to respond. The amendments, which include reducing its footprint, bulk and scale, followed the court’s Section 34 conciliation hearing.
The application comes amid what was a brief spurt in strata renewal applications around the precinct pursuant to state government legislation that facilitates redevelopment of entire strata schemes by developers once 75 per cent of owners agree.
There was another Land and Environment Court hearing last week, into the plans lodged by Terra Ferma last August to demolish Oak Lane Apartments, on the Woolloomooloo-side of Potts Point, to make way for luxury apartments.
KWANTEN LEAP AS STAR SELLS MANLY UNIT
Actor Ryan Kwanten has sold his northern beaches investment after 25 years ownership.
The True Blood star secured $550,000 for the Manly studio apartment after 78 days on market.
The Addison Rd studio was marketed by Rob Hedges of Sweetnams Real Estate as having excellent rental yield potential. It has been recently repainted and carpeted.
It was bought in 1999 when Kwanten was playing lifeguard Vinnie Patterson on the long-running Home and Away.
He paid $162,000 for the 28sq m unit two years after he made his debut in Summer Bay following appearances on A Country Practice and the sitcom Hey Dad.
Kwanten’s unit is on the ground floor of the Regents Court complex, just south of the Manly Wharf.
The last time it was advertised for rent was in 2018 at $420 a week.
The mid-1970s built block, with a swimming pool, has only had one other studio sale this year, two doors along from Kwanten’s; it also fetched $550,000 after being on the market for 50 days.
Kwanten moved to California in 2004 and lives at Venice Beach with his partner, nutritionist and health coach Ashley Sisino.
Kwanten will still retain a foothold in the Sydney market as, since 2017, he’s owned a two-bedroom investment apartment in Balgowlah which cost $1m.
The SAG Awards nominee is set to star in the upcoming sci-fi horror movie Primitive War alongside Tricia Helfer and Jeremy Piven.
COUPLE GETS GOOD NEWS ON NEST EGG
Channel 7 news presenter Angie Asimus and husband Chris Abbott have sold their Collaroy investment apartment.
The Fielding St apartment fetched $1.18 million through Bodie Asimus from Prestige Properties Northern Beaches.
The couple had bought it for $870,000 in 2016.
It became an investment rental when the couple upsized on the northern beaches ahead of the birth of their first child.
The two-bedroom apartment in a 1970s complex just off the beach became a $700 a week rental in 2020.
The pair, who wed on Valentine’s Day in early 2020 after 12 years together, had moved inland to Belrose where they paid $1.55 million for an original 1970s single-level family home, traded for the first time since 1984.
Asimus, who returned to Sydney after being a newsreader in Brisbane, offloaded her Brisbane home turned investment for $629,000 in 2019.
She had paid $405,000 for the four-bedroom, 1980s Jindalee home in Brisbane’s west in 2012.
Asimus started her career as a journalist in 2008 with Seven Queensland, working at its Townsville newsroom.
Asimus has been expected to fill the top Sydney news presenter role during Mark Ferguson’s extended leave.
A BIG CHANGE OF SCENERY
One of Wentworth Falls most scenic properties has been sold for $2.010 million by the Wilson family under instruction from the NSW Trustee and Guardian.
The 11ha Tableland Rd plot with two residences plus a striking lakefront gazebo sold through Brenton Ebzery and Sarah Burnett at Raine & Horne.
It was last traded in 1981 by the Jerrison family for $51,500.
Wentworth Falls has a $920,000 median house price according to PropTrack.
FASHIONING AN ART DECO EXIT
Fashion entrepreneur Joanne Mercer has listed her North Bondi ground floor apartment for an August 24 auction.
The Melbourne-based founder of The Matilda Life range bought the Blair St abode in 2019 for $880,000.
It has been listed by Paula Simoes at XS Property who is guiding at $1.1 million.
The 74sq m two-bedroom apartment is in an art deco building of nine and boasts a modern kitchen and bathroom.
CLASSIC SHOT AT SALES RECORD
Keba, the 1878 Birchgrove home, has hit the market with a $25 million to $27.5 million guide through Elizabeth Rook at Sotheby’s International.
The 1300sq m Louisa Rd property has been the home of legal practitioner Peter Cashman and his wife Polly Pickles since its 2001 sale for $5.36 million.
The $19.76 million Balmain peninsula record was the 2022 sale of gothic Rothesay estate.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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