The Sell: Israel and Maria Folau buy 4ha block just outside of Brisbane
A 4ha land purchase near Brisbane has heightened speculation that former NRL and Wallabies star Israel Folau may return to the paddock for a Queensland team.
NSW
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Former NRL and Wallabies star Israel Folau has bought acreage just outside of Brisbane, heightening speculation that a return to playing could be in Queensland.
Folau and his wife Maria, a former netball star, have quietly spent $1.5 million on a 4ha estate at Pullenvale, the affluent acreage suburb west of the city.
The private bushland block comes with a humble three-bedroom, one-bathroom 1970s cottage.
The purchase by the Kenthurst-based sportsman comes after his key supporter base, the Australian Christian Lobby, presented the results of a survey to the ARL Commission that sought to enhance the prospects of the controversial preacher’s return to the NRL. The survey showed 69 per cent of NRL supporters wanted Folau back playing.
His building block property purchase, without any registered mortgage, was once part of the empire of coal miner Nathan Tinkler.
It was sold by receivers Grant Thornton at a $750,000 price in 2017, having been previously bought in 2008 at $2 million.
The block was located beside Tinkler’s then-sprawling home on 4ha, which was also sold off at a massive discount by receivers.
Its $3.05 million sale in 2016 was $2.15 million less than the $5.2 million Tinkler had paid almost a decade earlier. The Newcastle-born mining tycoon’s five-bedroom mansion came with a sports bar with beer tap overlooking the pool.
Pullenvale is about 15km from the Brisbane CBD.
Folau has an extensive property portfolio in Sydney, but he’s recently listed a building block in Austral, in the Liverpool district.
It was 2016 when he bought three adjoining 290sqm vacant building blocks, each costing $374,900 in the Sekisui House estate.
He’s now seeking between $470,000 and $480,000 through Lisa Jensen at Jensen Bella Vista.
The blocks were bought by an investment company which he co-directs with his father, Eni.
They started their property spend-up in 2010 when they outlaid $773,000 on a four-bedroom Kellyville home. Folau was playing rugby league for the Broncos at the time of the purchase.
Their next purchase was a four-bedroom home in Stanhope Gardens that cost $1,005,000 in 2015. It came just before Folau settled on his own home, a four-bedroom abode in Kenthurst costing $2.1 million and featuring a grand colonnaded entry.
The company’s most recent purchase was a $960,000 investment apartment in Little Bay in 2017.
Additional research by Joel Robinson
BACK FROM BYRON
Entrepreneurial Chloe Brookman, co-founder of the nursery emporium Olli Ella, and her husband Charlie Wheeler have bought back to Sydney.
They emerged as the near-$4 million buyers in South Coogee who secured a renovated 1920s home near Wylie’s Baths.
The four-bedroom home was extended in 2017, which saw a veranda and a swimming pool added to the 650sqm block with lush gardens.
Last sold for $1.85 million in 2014, the home also features a detached studio above its two-car garage. McGrath Coogee agent Marnie Seinor secured the sale just two weeks into its four-week auction campaign.
It’s a return to Sydney for Brookman and Wheeler, who moved to Byron in 2017 after flipping their Balmain Federation doer-upper for $1,915,000.
They retain their 1970s hinterland retreat which cost $920,000 at McLeods Shoot.
Chloe, Charlie and their three children moved to Australia around eight years ago after she and her Clerkenwell sister Olivia set up Olli Ella when they were both living in London.
The cool children’s nursery store has spread globally as Brookman headed the company’s new base in Australia.
The South Coogee market is hot, with the recent sale of the home of Sydney Swans star Sam Reid and wife Kim in just a week.
It was advertised with a $3.5 million price guide, and The Wentworth Courier reported it sold after Sam and his interior designer wife, accepted a $4 million plus pre-auction offer through PPD agent Zach Carter.
The couple are completing the build of their home in Newport, having bought a weatherboard cottage for $1.8 million in 2018.
SCALIS RETURN TO BERRIMA
The patriarch of furniture retailers Nick Scali has bought back into the Southern Highlands, spending $3.2 million on a retreat at Berrima.
The 10.5ha estate was marketed as having infrastructure for horse enthusiasts and budding farmers. Indeed there are eight paddocks, five with full post-and-rail fencing, a sand arena and a grass arena.
The four-bedroom 1980s home has doubled in price since it sold for $1.58 million in 2016.
It had been smartly updated over the past five years, with a sunken lounge and dining room with wood fire.
There is separate access to a large home office, complete with Mont Eltham pot belly stove.
The property seems set to be intergenerational because the purchasing company name is directed by the 88-year-old family patriarch Nick along with Nick Scali Jr and his sister Yvonne.
The extended family, led by Anthony, recently listed a redundant unrenovated 1940s Palm Beach weekender, while retaining another on Snapperman Beach.
The purchase represents a return to Berrima since the family owned the Lingerwood estate until its $1.32 million sale in 2015, having bought the two-hectare property in 2000 for $500,000.
Berrima’s biggest recent buyer has been veteran retail stockbroker Graeme Cutler and wife Suzanne who have spent $6.5 million to secure the seven hectare estate sold by Laser Clinics Australia co-founder Alistair Champion and wife Kate.
HISTORIC BERRY PARK FOR SALE
The 1850s Hunter Valley trophy home, Berry House, set on 1.2ha at Berry Park, has been listed for sale with a price guide of $2.975 million to $3.25 million.
The single-level home dates back to the days of the pioneer pastoralist John Eales, who was granted 2100 acres on the Hunter River east of Morpeth.
Eales, described as tough and crusty, and his assigned convicts cleared the land.
Berry House was to be among several homes on the estate, the most impressive being Duckenfield, which was demolished in 1917 by BHP.
Eales oversaw the expansion of his extraordinary prosperity from the estate, with his endeavours including Duckenfield Colliers, importing thoroughbred horses for racing and being the first director of the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company.
Eales died in 1871, with the estate bequeathed to his five surviving sons, and occupied by the family until 1972. It has been held by the current vendors since 1996.
“Built of hand-crafted sandstone, John Eales chose the perfect site on the flood free, lush, north-facing gentle slope overlooking the fertile farmlands and mountains beyond,” its listing agent Rhonda Nyquist at PRDnationwide Hunter Valley said.
“It has been fastidiously restored and maintained by the current custodians, who have enjoyed the envied lifestyle of our early gentry with the befitting modern comforts one would expect in such a fine residence,” she added.
The locals commonly assume Eales was a forefather of the ex-Wallabies skipper.
MICHAEL CLARKE POCKETS $12M
It has been confirmed that retired cricket champion Michael Clarke secured $12 million in his recent Vaucluse matrimonial house sale after the settlement went through this week.
The five-bedroom, six-bathroom home, which had an anticipated $10 million price guide, was designed by architect Stephen Gergely to sit across two blocks totalling 1236sqm.
Michael and Kyly Clarke announced they were separating in February last year.
The Clarkes had paid $8.3 million in 2014, but in the days prior to settlement, paperwork from Bell Partners Legal between the divorced duo saw Kyly’s name drop off the title.
Neither show up as having yet purchased a new home.
The home has been bought by Rebecca Lowe, the partner of Matthew Mackay.
Other members of the Lowe family spent $15.8 million on the Vaucluse harbourfront when buying in 2015 from rag-trader Nick Jacenko and his former wife Doreen.
WHITNEY MOVES TO COOGEE
Former Test cricketer turned longtime Sydney Weekender television host Mike Whitney has downsized.
After selling in Maroubra, he’s stuck by the beach, buying a new apartment in nearby South Coogee.
The two-bedroom Malabar Rd apartment, which he bought for $1.66 million, is in the Alkira complex developed by a syndicate headed by Matraville’s Scott Morrison and Coogee’s Chris Smith.
There have been recent settlements up to $1.8 million, with locals wondering just who will emerge the $3,985,000 off-the-plan penthouse buyer through PR Grand’s Ritchie Okesene and Peter Fotopoulos.
Matraville-born Whitney, who played in 12 Test matches and 38 One Day Internationals between 1981 and 1993, had owned the Maroubra home since paying $391,000 in 1999.
He secured $1,775,000.
DANESBANK SELLS
The 1860s stone cottage Danesbank, overlooking pioneering dairy farming land at Milton on the far south coast, has been sold by the NSW Treasury Corporation chief investment officer Stewart Brentnall.
Set on 28ha, the three-bedroom cottage, with 4m-high pressed-metal ceilings, is best known for its 36-year ownership by interior designer George Freedman, who bought the property in 1972 for $25,500 with his then partner Neville Marsh.
Freedman, aka Mr Colour, sold in 2007 for $1.165 million to Brentnall, who has recently bought, with wife Melinda, closer to Sydney at Gerroa.
LJ Hooker Ulladulla agent Lisa Cox had it listed at $2.5 million. There are no further $375-a-night Airbnb bookings being taken beyond June.
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