The Sell: Jesinta Franklin seeking $1 million-plus for Mosman investment unit
Former Miss Universe Australia Jesinta Franklin is aiming to almost double her money on an investment unit she bought back in 2012 before she started dating her AFL star husband Buddy.
NSW
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Model Jesinta Franklin is selling the Mosman investment apartment she bought shortly after being crowned Miss Universe Australia.
She’s owned it since 2012, just before she started dating then-Melbourne-based AFL star Buddy Franklin, who is now her husband.
Franklin, then known by her maiden name Campbell-Hogg, paid $605,000 for the apartment.
Vernon Partners agents Adam Vernon and William Mancy are seeking offers between $1 million and $1.1 million.
The last sale in the block was in 2018 when a two-bedroom apartment with a car space sold for $1.1 million.
The Spit Rd abode, with double glazing, comes with access off Awaba St.
The ground-floor apartment, with a larger-than-average 107sqm floorplan, comes with two bedrooms, the master comes with a sunroom marketed as being suitable for a study or walk-in wardrobe and dressing room.
“It was always an investment and the time has come to sell the investment and reinvest that money into other things,” her agent Adam Vernon told The Sell.
“It’s a stunning property, very spacious and (in an) ultra-convenient location.”
The Mosman apartment median currently sits at $1.2 million and units typically rent for $560 per week, reflecting a rental yield of 2.4 per cent.
Based on five years of sales, Mosman has seen a compound growth rate of 2.7 per cent for units.
HEMMES MAKES A $5.5M PITTWATER EXIT
Merivale restaurateur Justin Hemmes doesn’t often sell off assets, but he sold his Morning Bay waterfront retreat for $5.5 million this week.
Set on Pittwater and accessible by boat — or, in his, case by sea plane — the sightings of his amphibious Cessna Grand Caravan have been few and far between in recent times. It seems Hemmes’ focus is very much on his burgeoning NSW far south coast expansion.
He’s more likely to be flying Gigi, his 12-seater seaplane, to Narooma than Pittwater, where Hemmes secured the Morning Bay home in 2016, just after he acquired one of his biggest assets in his hotel empire, the nearby Newport Arms. His skilful oversight saw the creation of the very popular Bert’s Bar & Brasserie at that site.
The bushland waterfront house had been sold to Hemmes for $2.75 million by Laurence Eastwood, the acclaimed theatre production designer, and his wife Deborah.
They had paid $510,000 for the 1275sqm vacant building block in 1996, which saw Eastwood return to his architectural work.
The home, with post-and-beam design, vast floating roof and large stainless-steel box gutters that feed rainwater into a 50,000-litre tank, won Eastwood a number of awards.
The house was designed to take full advantage of both its water and bush views, with wide decks at the front and rear of the living area.
Eastwood once noted most people build for the water view only, but this house was also open at the back to look at the bush.
LJ Hooker Mona Vale agent Lachlan Elder handled the off-market sale, having been instructed by Hemmes to “sell it to people who will give it more love”.
The last big sale on the street was when Aventus Property chief executive Darren Holland paid $3.2 million last year.
Hospitality industry leader Hemmes, who wants to re-teach Sydney how to party after the pandemic, has spent an estimated $30 million on a suite of assets in the once-sleepy Narooma, including the Quarterdeck and the Whale Inn.
He bought a holiday retreat in 2007 at Berrara costing $4.15m, then his $7.5m outlay on a gorgeous old weatherboard set on 60ha of spectacular beachfront overlooking the Glasshouse Rocks.
“I love Narooma with a deep passion,” he said recently, adding that just about all his city staff sent on secondment ended up wanting to stay.
It is a 5½-hour drive, but with his seaplane Hemmes does it in an hour, door-to-door from out front The Hermitage, his Vaucluse harbourfront mansion.
He expects Narooma will one day rival Noosa as a getaway paradise.
BACHELOR PAD FAILS TO SELL
The Rose Bay apartment of former Bachelor Tim Robards and wife Anna Heinrich has a $3.45 million asking price after its unsuccessful mid-week auction.
The modernised apartment cost $1.9 million in 2018, and was secured a few months after the pair married in Italy.
The 137sqm New South Head Rd apartment, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, had been extensively renovated before their purchase.
It sits in a boutique 1930s block of six, retaining some of its Art Deco features, including a curved fireplace in the loungeroom, which has harbour views.
Ray White Paddington agents Josh Kalocsay and Augusto Gerocarni have the listing.
No sign yet of a house purchase, although The Sell understands that is the couple’s intention, flush with funds from their extensive Queensland townhouse portfolio, where they quickly offloaded a townhouse in Brisbane’s Murrarrie for $730,000 last month. The couple had paid $630,000 in 2016.
Robards also listed an investment he shared with his dad Colin, a townhouse in Richlands, further outside Brisbane. They’re after buyers in the $400,000s.
Robards was the first Bachelor, back in 2013, giving Heinrich, a lawyer, his final rose.
SALE LIGHTS UP BOWRAL MARKET
Beacon Hill Estate, the Bowral weekender of the late legal luminary Roddy Meagher, has settled at $5.17 million after being on the market for two years.
The early-1990s four-bedroom, three-bathroom house was designed by Glenn Murcutt.
The acclaimed architect had been commissioned by Meagher and his late wife, Penny, after they had bought the 40ha property in 1983 for $260,000. The land was subdivided off his good mate, the late James Fairfax’s Retford Park Estate.
Featuring Murcutt’s classic pavilion style, set wisely on a north-facing slope, the house was named after a World War II beacon that stood on the property’s highest point to transmit signals from Sydney to Canberra.
Meagher, described by former NSW chief justice Jim Spigelman as “one of the intellectual giants of our legal history”, died aged 79 in 2011, having sat on the NSW Court of Appeal.
It was his daughter, Amy Gerstl, who had listed the property for $6 million in early 2019.
The Beacon Hill sale to Monique Laughton and Mohamad Jarra was the fifth sale in Bowral over $5 million this year, compared to two last year.
The top sale this year has been $8,888,000 for a 98ha acquisition by Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes through Duncan Hill Property.
UNITING IN QUEST TO MAXIMISE GAIN
Media personality Prue MacSween and Apollo restaurateur Jonathan Barthelmess have jointly sold their Darling Point triplex, combining to maximise their value.
The three Yarranabbe Road apartments have reputedly fetched $14.8 million, just shy of the $15 million Raine & Horne price guide.
With her mother Laurette, MacSween purchased the first-floor apartment in 1986 for $165,000. Barthelmess initially bought into the block in 2015, when he purchased the ground-floor space for $1.75 million. He added the top floor three years ago for $2.5 million.
It is a 462 sqm land offering, with the apartments around 150 sqm in size.
The consolidated offering trend sees four Bondi Beach apartment owners and two shop owners combining on a Hall St auction offering with $20 million hopes for its December 14 auction through Allan Levy at Metro Commercial.
FOODIES TASTE MARKET SUCCESS
Foodies Terry Durack and Jill Dupleix have sold their Elizabeth Bay investment apartment for $2.5 million.
The Ithaca Rd apartment had been bought in 2005 for $875,000.
The apartment sold off-market through BresicWhitney Romany Brooks at a record price for the late-1960s block, bettering the $2,275,000 record earlier this year.
Their apartment was set above the treetops in the smartly updated landmark block by Harry Seidler. It had most recently been available at a $780 weekly rental through Laing Estate Agents.
The recent sales spurt comes as owners diligently address standard issues that arise after some 60 years of wear and tear.
Apparently the concrete cancer is being attended to next year, having just installed a new lift motor. There are just the two original owners, including the Seidlers, in the block of 40.
LAKE’S BIG RECORD
Undisclosed Sydney-based brothers involved in the tyre industry have spent $10.5 million to buy their intended Gwandalan holiday retreat. The 12.5ha north-facing building block is set on 285m of Lake Macquarie waterfront.
Buyer guidance during the campaign had been around the $5 million mark through selling agent Mitchell Thomas of McGrath Toukley.
Vendor Steven Thomas had secured a development application since paying $1.1 million in 2017.
The median house price in Gwandalan sits at $700,000, according to realestate.com.au, having been $515,000 four years ago.
Lake Macquarie’s previous record sale was last year when an Eraring lakefront sold for $6 million.
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