The Sell: Mega-wealthy buyers move into One Barangaroo
Former Rothschild Australia executive chairman Trevor Rowe is touted to be the latest buyer to secure a multimillion-dollar apartment in Crown Resorts’ One Barangaroo.
NSW
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Former Rothschild & Co Australia executive chairman Trevor Rowe, one of the touted buyers in Crown Resorts’ Sydney casino apartment tower One Barangaroo, secured his pricey off-the-plan settlements this week.
Rowe, whose career includes four decades in investment banking, and wife Julie spent $13.5 million for their 218sqm three-bedroom apartment on the 60th floor of the striking high-rise.
There has been no sign yet of James Packer, who spent $60 million for his two-floor apartment amalgamation.
Packer declared his intended acquisition in late-2017, given his then role as company director and the company’s largest shareholder.
He signalled his apartment in the Crown tower would replace his former matrimonial home in Vaucluse that he and former wife Erica sold in 2015 for $70 million.
Packer then also offloaded his bachelor pad on Campbell Pde, Bondi Beach, for $29 million in 2018.
Packer’s abode ranks as the priciest amid the $850 million spend-up within the 82-apartment tower. Sales included an unprecedented dozen or so over $20 million.
And all buyers are on a 99-year lease.
Packer’s mate, Ben Tilley is mooted as a likely buyer amid the upcoming settlements.
Likewise, Bexley hotelier Angelo Elliott has bought, along with the Tartak waste collection family.
Designed by award-winning international architects WilkinsonEyre, Crown Sydney’s tower takes a sculptural form, twisting as it rises in a petal-like formation.
Bob Blann, the retired bookmaker, was among the earliest off-the-plan buyers back in 2018, so not unexpectedly he was among the initial three settlements this week.
It emerged that Blann paid $41 million for the entire 78th floor in One Barangaroo, securing a 525sqm apartment.
He exchanged contracts in 2018, just two months after the casino company launched the marketing campaign to sell its luxury high-rise residences.
Blann, now a venture capitalist, was said to be the nation’s biggest bookie when he retired in 1984, in an era when punters were pitted against the likes of Mark Read, Bruce McHugh, Jack Muir, Harry Barrett and Dominic Beirne.
Blann listed his redundant Rose Bay abode last June with $6.5 million hopes for the 288sqm apartment which sold just before Christmas. No settlement yet on the four-bedroom Rose Bay Ave residence that cost $3.5 million 11 years ago.
The sale, through David Malouf at L.J. Hooker, sees Peter Kaliaropoulos, the recently retired Singapore-based StarHub chief executive officer, and his wife Kanela set to emerge as the buyers.
MEGAN MORTON’S OWN HOME
Downsizing interior stylist Megan Morton has listed her charming 1920s Double Bay garden apartment for sale.
The four-bedroom apartment was bought from a friend 10 years ago, with her husband Giles.
It is one of six apartments in the tightly held 1927 Gladswood Gardens company title block, Far Hills.
The apartment is scheduled for June 1 auction through Sotheby’s International Realty, with more than 5000 likes on Morton’s Instagram page during its first week of marketing.
After its purchase, Morton set about to make the 160sqm space feel more like a house than a unit, with a slightly moody, European feel.
The master bedroom is complete with designer silk and linen curtains, an Italian bathtub, Perrin & Rowe tapware and Poliform wardrobe systems.
The dining table leather banquette seats 10. The unit got its third bathroom during its clever redesign by the author of four styling books.
The cul-de-sac property comes with easy access to Redleaf Beach.
Double Bay’s median apartment price sits at $1,430,000 for units, according to realestate.com.au, with a rental yield of 2.5 per cent.
Double Bay’s median a decade ago was around $830,000, with a compound growth rate of 3.3 per cent over the past five years.
It was 2012 when Morton launched her styling school, for those wishing to delve deeper than the Pinterest page.
In doing so Morton acknowledged that while a stylist’s knowledge was once regarded as consisting of “trade secrets”, she was welcomed sharing insights.
“The more people talk about style, the more it normalises it,” she recently told The Australian.
PITTY PAT’S BRIGHTON HOME SELLS WELL
Not one cast member from the Real Housewives of Melbourne, old or new, was in attendance when the Brighton East home of socialite doyenne Primrose “Pitty Pat” Dunlop sold for $3.233 million at auction on Saturday.
She’s been long gone from Sydney, but remains fondly remembered for her days on the social scene, including time as a Sunday Telegraph columnist.
It was 1993 when she married the Melbourne estate agent George Kirk, otherwise known as Count Jerzy Krasickiv Siecin, who died in 2018.
Her Brighton offering came with $2.6 million to $2.8 million guidance through Nick Johnstone Real Estate, having cost $1.76 million in 2008.
The $2.815 million opening bid saw it hit reserve, with six competing parties, including phone bidders from Sydney and Noosa.
The listing of the French provincial-style home followed her decision to downsize, with the sales contract indicating investment adviser Ross Illingworth has her enduring power of attorney.
Her mother, Lady Primrose Potter, the widow of Sir Ian, who died in 1994, resides on Melbourne’s Spring St, and will turn 90 later this month.
Primrose and George had a daughter, Zofia, who studied design in London.
It was 1990 when Pitty Pat attracted dramatic international headlines after her Venice wedding to flight attendant Lorenzo Montesini was called off with four days to go.
CHEF SECURES BONDI BEACH SALE
Chef Tomi Björck has sold his resort-style North Bondi home, some nine months after shutting his Bondi Beach restaurant Blanca during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The home was listed last month with a $5.5 million price guide through Raine and Horne Double Bay’s Ric Serrao and Mark Yeats, who secured the sale in just 20 days.
Last-minute interested parties were being told to lodge offers above $6 million, given the not-unexpected heightened buying enthusiasm.
Inspired by Scandinavian design, Björck, who hosted MasterChef Finland, and his wife, Minka, had the four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence redesigned after they paid $3.4 million in 2016 ahead of opening his venture in Hall St the following year.
The couple, who may now work their way up to Byron Bay, transformed the backyard, adding a pool with glass-walled spa at the Murriverie Rd address.
The Bondi precinct has certainly seen home prices soar and sell in 2021 with stellar speed — everything from ramshackle semis and Notts Ave penthouses.
Only a few haven’t found buyers, with the Fitness First founder Tony de Leede trying again to sell his redundant Bondi Beach dress-circle apartment.
This time he has The Agency’s Edward Reid who’s quoting a consistent $6 million for its May 15 auction.
The three-bedroom apartment in the Pacific Bondi spans 185sqm plus 35sqm of outdoor space.
De Leede paid $3.85 million off the plan in 2012, three years before its completion.
De Leede and wife Sue upgraded apartments last year to a $6.15 million one in The Bondi.
HAIRSTYLIST IN GULL HOUSE BUY
Kevin Murphy, the much sought-after hairstylist, and his husband, photographer Luis Murphy, are the latest Melburnians to buy in Byron Bay.
They’ve paid $4,125,000 for the striking, award-winning Gull House, designed by Harley Graham. First National Byron Bay agent Su Reynolds secured the sale.
The concept for the lightweight design came after the architectural team envisaged a seagull floating above a timber platform.
The upper level comes with a crisp angular plate roof and fine steel columns that allow it to appear floating in the air.
With views to the east over Tallow Beach and to the north over the bay, it was built at a $900,000 cost, with the 2016 project going only 8 per cent over budget.
It comprises three bedrooms, open living rooms, outdoor living and dining, and double lockup garage. It also features in-ground pool.
SKINNER DESIGN FETCHES $2.92M
An intact modernist Wahroonga home fetched $2,922,000 at its auction on Saturday.
The home was last traded in 1964 when it was bought by the Stevens family for £9300.
The vendors were siblings Peter, Tina and Penny.
The home dates back to the late 1950s, when it was designed by architect RL Skinner for the Kirby family, who were associated with the Australian House & Garden magazine.
Set on an expansive 1380sqm Amaroo Ave holding, the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home had a $2.6 million guide through McGrath Lindfield agent Amanda Robertson.
Three of the five registered bidders participated after the $2 million opening bid for the home with Tallowwood timber floors and cathedral ceilings.
It sold to a family from Roseville with two girls at Abbotsleigh School.
Last year artist Ursula Laverty, the widow of Peter Laverty, the former Art Gallery of NSW director, sold a nearby modernist home, designed by Sydney Ancher in 1952, on a 2255sqm Eastern Rd block for $3.06 million.
JERVIS BAY SPREE
A five-bedroom Huskisson waterfront has been sold for close to $5 million, beating the south coast locality’s record by more than $1.8 million.
Set on Currambene Creek with views towards Point Perpendicular on Jervis Bay, the Admiralty Crescent home was sold by the Jeske family through agent Tim McGoldrick from Elders Berry.
It came with deep water frontage with boatshed, slipway, jetty and wharf.
There has also been a record Callala Bay price when a three lot Marine Parade fetched $3,075,000 last month after being on the market for over 500 days. Last sold six decades ago, the modest two bedroom 1960s home sits on a 3015sqm waterfront reserve holding. It sold through Maddison Clark at First National.
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