The Sell: Potts Point investment pays off for Waterhouse
Socialite Kate Waterhouse has secured $955,000 for her Potts Point investment property, which was twice scheduled for auction this year.
NSW
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Socialite Kate Waterhouse has secured $955,000 for her Potts Point investment property which was twice scheduled for auction earlier this year.
It was listed with $900,000 to $990,000 guidance.
The open-plan William St apartment was bought in Waterhouse’s company entity for $525,000 in 2010 some four years after Sydney Confidential wrote about her blossoming relationship with former Rooster Luke Ricketson.
They married in June 2012 at San Guiseppe on the coast of Italy.
These days Waterhouse and her insurance broker husband reside at a luxurious home fronting Balmoral Beach bought for $17.8 million in 2020.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom William St apartment has 50sq m space with a balcony. Investors had been advised it could fetch between $950 and $1050 a week in rent.
The 1998 building is at the top of William St in the shadow of the flashing iconic Coca-Cola sign through its leafy treescape vista.
The cash buyers were Dianne Blazley and Evan Lee.
Local agent Jason Boon says Potts Point ranks seventh among the Sydney suburbs for cash buyers, with the percentage of purchasing without a mortgage sitting at 44 per cent.
PropTrack put the two-bedroom median apartment price snapshot at $1,402,500 – which is up 7 per cent over the past year after 56 sales.
The cheapest sale so far this year was a $330,000 studio bought in The Cresent on Bayswater Rd without any registered mortgage by brand coach Peter Drinkwater. The furnished 26sq m space had been listed as a $430-per-week rental by Little Real Estate agent Nick Scognamiglio.
The dearest sale was the $13.46 million paid when artist Judy Garb Weiss and her husband Sam Weiss, the former COO for Nike Europe, bought from Andrew Isles of the A. Royale & Co homewares distributor business in Manar through Maclay Longhurst of Sotheby’s.
They have a Westpac mortgage.
SWANS STAR BUILDING A NEW NEST IN MAROUBRA
Sydney Swans star Isaac Heeney looks set to upgrade abodes in Maroubra.
Heeney, who is leading the ESPN 2024 Brownlow Medal predictor with likely votes in nine games so far this year, has spent just over $3 million on an original 1930s semi.
It comes two years after it had been sold for $2.65 million when trading for the first time in five decades.
The semi-detached, double-brick home on a skinny 340sq m block is just 200m from Maroubra Beach.
It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms plus a lounge with original fireplace and an eat-in kitchen. It also has a four-car lock-up garage.
Maroubra’s median three-bedroom house price sits at $2.6 million, up close to 4 per cent over the past 12 months after 58 sales according to PropTrack. It reflects a 2.5 per cent rental yield based on the typical $1300 per week.
Heeney has quickly found a $990 a week tenant, marketed as a six-month pet-friendly lease through NG Farah
It suggests Heeney will likely renovate the home after the end of the AFL season in September. The Swans are still well clear at the top of the ladder.
The dashing 28-year-old is expected to be a Swan for life, being on a six-year contract that sees him at Moore Park until the end of 2028.
Heeney has owned a two-bedroom Maroubra garden apartment since paying $1.56 million in 2016. The apartment, in a 2016-built block of 10, has 150sq m of indoor and outdoor living.
Heeney has a string of sponsorships, from the dog treats Schmackos for his dog Nala, to low-carb, low-calorie alcoholic drinks company Doozy Drinks.
His first property purchase was a $600,000 house in Booragul, 100m from Lake Macquarie’s edge, in 2017 which was sold in 2020 for $635,000.
IT’S SUMMER TIME FOR BLOCK RECORD HOLDERS
The Block 2023 winners Gian and Stephanie Ottavio are on their next project following their recent Bexley house sale.
They have paid just over $2 million for an original Federation home in Summer Hill.
It is a “freestanding renovator’s delight in trendy locale”, according to its Adrian William marketing.
The three-bedroom, one-bathroom home features ornate period details including fireplaces.
There is a traditional washroom and bathroom at the rear that opens to a concreted back yard.
There is also parking available on 300sq m holding.
They purchased the Morris Street house for $2.02 million through William Pereira and Danil Saveliev of Adrian William, prior to auction.
The move sees the couple closer to Gian’s parents in Stanmore while Steph’s parents are in Carss Park.
The home isn’t too dissimilar to the 1920s Federation-style Bexley home they bought for $1.02 million in 2020, before undertaking a seven-month rebuild and extension.
Their four-bedroom home fetched $1,825,000 recently through McGrath, a tidy profit after buying the Glenfarne St home in 2020 for $1,020,000.
Steph, an architect, did the plans to demolish the rear and create a Scandinavian-inspired rear extension, with the kitchen, living and dining spaces.
Its open-plan layout featured vaulted ceilings, skylights, concrete flooring and sliding glass doors opening to the courtyard.
The design included transforming the living and dining rooms into a main bedroom with an ensuite.
The Block couple had pocketed a life-changing $1.75m last year on the Channel 9 renovation show after their Hampton East house fetched $5 million. It was the highest ever contestant takehome prizemoney in the show’s 19 seasons.
They have since launched a homewares brand – a collection inspired by the Japandi (Japanese and Scandinavian) aesthetic.
According to PropTrack, the median three-bedroom house price in Summer Hill is $2,128,250, up 6.8 per cent in the past year after 16 sales.
They include the record-setting $5.4m Rosemount Ave dress circle sale. There was a $4.5 million sale this week of the heritage house at 9 Henson St.
KASSIS KING OF CASTLE WITH PRIME SITE BUY
Sam Kassis, the founder of Kassis Homes, has purchased one of the key Castle Hill sites of Jean Nassif’s collapsed Toplace apartment development company.
It is across the street from where Nassif, now hiding in Lebanon, left behind his trail of defect-riddled and incomplete apartments in the Skyview towers.
The building site at the corner of Garthowen Crescent and Old Castle Hill Rd has been bought by Kassis for $54.25m.
It adjoins the Grand Reve twin-tower development project, right, by Kassis Homes.
By contrast the Grand Reve has been marketed as “the most prestigious development ever offered in the Hills District of Sydney”.
The first stage of Grand Reve is due for completion in October, with the top-floor windows being washed when The Sell viewed the construction site midweek.
Dasco is its builder, one of the
4.5-star rated construction companies in the NSW governments iCIRT ratings system, which helps buyers identify building professionals who have a proven track record.
The off-the-plan offering comes with a 10-year structural defect insurance policy, which is among the first of its kind in Sydney.
It comprises 185 units, with 37 floor plan configurations including studios, one, two and three-bedroom apartments and split-level townhouses.
Prices range from $595,000 to $4.6m through Adam Sparkes at McGrath Projects.
ISLAND MOVE FOR LEADING BARRISTER
Having sold his Woolloomooloo harbourfront apartment, barrister Richard Cobden has bought on Dangar Island.
He has paid $2.1 million, the third highest price paid on the island where prices peaked in 2022 at $2.27 million.
The tri-level, four-bedroom, two-bathroom bushland home was sold by Andrew Searle at Belle Property Hornsby who marketed it as “unquestionably one of the island’s most luxurious properties”.
It has water views framed by the Hawkesbury River railway bridge.
There is a four-person inclinator, sandy beach, wharf, boat shed, pontoon plus a five-person hot tub.
The island has a 10-minute ferry service to Brooklyn village.
Cobden sold his three-bedroom Wharf Terraces apartment, with office, for $6,537,500 through Stone Real Estate agent Julian Rowe.
The property cost $2.55m when it was bought in 2006.
Cobden has been spotted inspecting rentals in the Astor on Macquarie St.
The barrister specialises in intellectual property, with his clients through the years having included Microsoft, Seven West Media and the Australian designer Katie Jane Taylor, who while selling clothing under the trademark Katie Perry became involved in the celebrated court stoush with the American singer of that name.
NO LAUNCH FOR ‘SPACESHIP’
Earlwood’s elevated “spaceship” house with its window cyclorama failed to sell at its midweek auction, passed in on a $4 million vendor bid.
The circular five-bedroom, three-bathroom Bayview Ave house is now listed with a $3.5 million plus guide through Alexandra Stamatiou-Buda of McGrath.
Last traded when half built in the 1970s, it has had 15,100 realestate.com.au page views.
HOME EXITS THE SALES CATWALK
Model Jennifer Hawkins has sold her Minmi investment property for $840,000 after just two weeks on the market through First National Lake Macquarie Edgeworth agent Troy Duncan.
Hawkins was seeking between $800,000 and $880,000 for the three-bedroom home brick and tiled home on 664sq m.
Hawkins had paid $345,000 in 2008, a year after she signed her $4 million deal with Myer.
FAHEY’S WIDOW IN $3M SALE
Colleen Fahey, the widow of former premier John Fahey, has sold their Burradoo home.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom dwelling with a tennis court and pool amid its established gardens fetched $3m through Duncan Hill of Duncan Hill Bowral. The
4001sq m block had cost $65,000 when bought from Miltonbrook Holdings in 1987.
Fahey, who was premier from 1992-95, died in 2020 aged 75.
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