The Sell: Luxe Listings producer can borrow against penthouse to fund legal battle
Ben Scott, the executive producer of Luxe Listings Sydney, has freed up his Rose Bay penthouse amid escalating costs in his court case against the luxury jewellery retailer James Kennedy.
NSW
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Ben Scott, the pawn broking executive producer of Luxe Listings Sydney, has freed up some of his net worth amid escalating legal costs in his court case against the luxury jewellery retailer James Kennedy.
A midweek Supreme Court hearing was told a restrictive caveat had been removed from a property, facilitating Scott to borrow if need be.
Land Title Office documents reveal there had been a caveat on Scott’s Rose Bay three-bedroom penthouse which has been removed by the Crown Solicitor’s Office.
The caveat on the title had been there since 2017 when the pawn broker offered the apartment as $1.46m part surity for friend Fadi Ibrahim’s bail. It arose after Ibrahim had been arrested for possessing $600,000 in suspected proceeds of crime following an act of “familial generosity” towards his brother, Michael. Last month the proceedings against Fadi Ibrahim saw him sentenced to 14 months in prison, which was wholly suspended, in part as Fadi had no idea that the money was being used for criminal purposes.
Scott, who is accused of no wrongdoing, has renovated his apartment with floor to ceiling glass windows and luxury inclusions. The whole floor apartment has an estimated $2.5m to $3m value,.
His civil claim against Kennedy, his former Cranbrook school friend, alleges denied secret dealings by Kennedy for product placement of Rolex and Patek Philippe watches in Luxe Listings Sydney, which was produced by their Kentel Australasia production company.
With the contested trial now set to run over 10 days, rather than the initial five day estimate, the court heard arguments whether Scott needed to increase his $300,000 costs security which had been set last August. Justice Ian Pike ruled it needed to be increased by $145,000. The case will return in October.
The now shuttered Amazon Prime series followed cast members D’Leanne Lewis, Gavin Rubinstein and Simon Cohen as they attempted to buy and sell luxury properties.
REALITY STRIKES AS RENO FINALLY SELLS AT AUCTION
Inaugural Bachelorette winner Sasha Mielczarek has finally sold his Bowral residential building project after its bidless February auction.
The striking near all-white Merrigang St property, which comprises two residences, has been sold at an undisclosed price, understood to be around $2.7m.
Mielczarek had initially sought $3.2m through Sarah Burke at DiJones, which was then revised to $2.9m.
Mielczarek had paid $1.315m for the rundown 1890s cottage with his mum Kym in 2020.
The 919sq m Merrigang St property now has its restored three-bedroom 1890s home with raked ceilings plus a separate self-contained studio, making it ideal for a dual-living set-up.
“My mother and I purchased the property at the start of the pandemic with the aim of restoring it to its former glory,” he told his 106,000 Instagram followers on its completion.
“We couldn’t be happier.”
Mielczarek credited his mother as his “eyes and ears during construction”.
It is set a five-minute stroll to Bowral train station and the bustling main street village shops.
There are proposed designs for a two-car garage and workshed.
It was initially listed for rent at $1800 a week on its late 2022 completion. More recently it was up at $1650 a week.
In 2020, Mielczarek bought at Burleigh Waters on the southern Gold Coast, with his partner and now wife Carly Cottam, the Queensland luxury property marketeer.
They had a baby girl, Stevie Marie, last August.
It was Bachelorette Sam Frost from whom he had won the final rose in the Channel 10 show in 2015.
Meanwhile, local hotelier Marty Downs’ nearby cottage Annandale – credited as capable of grossing $160,000 annually as short-term accommodation – remains listed through Lisa-Marie Cauchois at Drew Lindsay Sotheby’s International Realty.
The 2093sq m property, which is set on the opposite side of Merrigang St, now has an asking price of $3.95m.
According to PropTrack data, the median price for a house in Bowral is $1,607,500, down from the $1.7m peak in late 2022.
PLAYER, PARTNER KICK GOAL WITH SALE
Former NRL player Jacob Gagan, now playing for the Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup, and his partner Rachel Pitt have sold their Cronulla apartment for $860,000.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment was their first home, costing $530,000 in 2019. It was when he was playing centre for South Sydney, having secured his start at the Rabbitohs as a replacement for former Devil Greg Inglis.
The 1965 Waratah St apartment with car space had previously traded for $53,250 in 1981.
It sold through Riley Henson at Highland Sutherland Shire.
PropTrack calculate Cronulla’s median price for two-bed apartments at $940,000, up 2 per cent over the past year, but down on the $997,500 peak in September 2022.
There have been 193 two-bedroom apartments sold in the past year ranging between $605,000 on Ewos Pde and $3m on Tonkin St.
The Westmead-born Gagan kicked off his professional career in 2014 at the Cronulla Sharks, having previously been at Cabramatta Juniors. He also played for the Newtown Jets, the Newcastle Knights and for FC Lezignan in the south of France during a brief interlude during the Covid lockdowns.
By mid-2021 he was back at the Devils, taking a job at Devils’ sponsor Altus Traffic.
Gagan was named the best player in their 2022 Hostplus Cup back-to-back grand final win against the Redcliffe Dolphins.
He has played 13 games this year, scoring three tries, but was not in the side that saw the recent upset win by the Papua New Guinea Hunters.
The couple, who now have two children, purchased in Brisbane earlier this month.
It was a newly built $1,065,000 three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse at Wooloowin, located north between the CBD and the airport.
VICTORIAN MANOR FETCHES $10.75M
Earlswood, the grand expanded Victorian Italianate manor in Randwick, has been sold to Mary Wong-Jenkings, the founder of Kyko, the private Australian property investment and development group.
It sold for $10,750,000, having been initially listed with a $12m price guidance and expecting to set the suburb record again.
The seven-bedroom, five-bathroom home with underground four-car garage on its 763 sqm Dutruc St parcel, came with its extension by XPACE Design Group, clad in off-form concrete and showcasing a minimalist aesthetic.
Earlswood had sold in 2017 at a record price when bought by Louise Zavattaro for $6.4m.
The suburb record stood for three years with Earlswood, but has since been overtaken several times. The record is currently being anticipated for Swan Isle, the 1906 home listed earlier this year with $20m hopes which would exceed the $14.35m set for 52-56 St Marks Rd in 2023.
Earlswood has long been recognised as one of Sydney’s best examples of boom-style architecture when Earlswood built in 1891 for the commissioner for stamp duty, Richard Nicholas Johnson.
Its initial restoration was undertaken by Mercedes and Jeronimi Leal, who bought for $780,000 in 1981 and sold for $1.6m in 1999. It has original frescoes by Augusto Lorenzini.
Wong-Jenkings recently sold her contemporary six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Vaucluse home for $10m in just two weeks on market.
PERMISSION FOR PULPIT TO BE MOVED
The Great Synagogue, Sydney’s oldest Orthodox Jewish congregation, received approval this month for a renovation to its historic Bimah, allowing the relocation of the pulpit to its original position in the centre of the shule.
The space was originally designed in 1878 by architect Thomas Rowe.
“Our founders wanted the service to arise from the middle of the congregation, to inspire and connect with everyone present,” Rabbi Benjamin Elton said in the application to Sydney City Council.
It was moved to its current front position in 1907 which Rabbi Elton said reflected the religious ideas of the Edwardian era when services were for observation not participation.
“It meant that we lost some of the warmth, connection and community feel of the original design,” Rabbi Elton said.
The renovation works are valued at $767,800 for the heritage-listed Elizabeth St property.
Peter Phillips, the heritage architect who is a seat holder, has assisted the project.
The church has also been recently awarded 3450 sqm heritage floor space which provides the prospect of bonus revenue as a heritage building owner for maintaining the property.
The synagogue was awarded 1826 sqm heritage floor space in 1989, which was then onsold elsewhere in the city.
APARTMENT IS GONE, POSSUMS
The family of Barry Humphries has accepted a $6.1 million offer from Romano and Patricia Iacono for the late entertainer’s Quay West apartment in The Rocks.
Its Ray White agent Francis Fusco had a $6.3 million guide for the three-bedroom, 30th-floor bolthole.
It was bought from Paul Ramsay, the late founder of Ramsay Health Care, for $2.5 million in 2004 in the name of Bandicoot Corp.
EVERYTHING IS FAR FROM FINE
DG Institute property spruiker Dominique Grubisa, who has sold her Turramurra abode for $5.28 million, has copped a $6 million fine for misleading conduct.
“Her conduct was deliberate and dishonest,” Federal Court Justice Ian Jackman said in ruling the fine in the ACCC civil case, which faces an appeal.
The Bobbin Head Rd address is still on the ASIC records of Grubisa, who gave 52 seminars between 2018 and 2022.
BONDI BARBER SHOP SELLS
A Bondi barber’s shop with two residences has been sold by the Cuccurullo family after 61 years’ ownership.
The 208 Bondi Rd premises cost £6500 in 1963.
Its retail tenant of 25 years is paying $750 a week.
Its full rental potential estimate was advised as $170,000.
Listed with a $4m price guide, it sold ahead of its scheduled August 3 auction.
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