The Sell: Tidy profit as Block winners Steph and Gian sell renovated Bexley home
The 2023 winners of The Block, Steph and Gian Ottavio, have sold their renovated home in Bexley for $1,825,000 – a tidy profit after buying it in early 2020 for $1,020,000.
NSW
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Last year’s winners of The Block, Steph and Gian Ottavio, have sold their renovated home in Bexley for $1,825,000.
It was a tidy profit after buying the Glenfarne St home in early 2020 for $1,020,000.
The property was located between their parents’ homes – Steph’s in Carss Park and Gian’s in Stanmore.
The renovated Federation-style home, with a modern extension, had been listed five weeks ago with a $1.7m price guide. It sold after private treaty negotiations following its early-April auction through McGrath agent Trent Tarbey.
The couple’s 2020 purchase of the then-two-bedroom, one-bathroom house on its 348sq m block followed nearly two years of househunting.
Steph, an architect, then began work on renovation plans that involved demolition of the rear.
The building works occurred over seven months in 2021, with the design including transforming the living and dining rooms into a main bedroom with an ensuite.
They built a Scandinavian-inspired rear extension, with the kitchen, living and dining spaces in an open-plan layout featuring vaulted ceilings, north-facing skylights, burnished concrete flooring and large sliding glass doors opening to the courtyard.
The kitchen features a striking Rosa Zarci marble bench.
Steph and Gian moved into the home with their cavoodle, Lumiere, in early 2022 – just ahead of their April wedding.
They then submitted an audition tape to Channel 9 with footage taken during their build.
The couple pocketed a life-changing $1.75m last year after a $5m Hampton East house sale, which was the highest ever prizemoney in the show’s 19 seasons.
They have since launched a homewares brand – a collection inspired by the Japandi (Japanese and Scandinavian) aesthetic.
FASHION QUEEN CAMILLA HOME SALE HOPES DELAYED
Villa Camilla, the 1880s Woollahra home of fashion designer Camilla Franks, was pulled from its scheduled weekend auction.
The five-bedroom home hit the market last month with a price guide of $8m, which soon became $7m, through Ray White Woollahra’s Randall Kemp in conjunction with PPD’s Alexander Phillips.
It has attracted more than 7200 page views on realestate.com.au during its marketing so far.
The kaftan queen, who has dressed celebrities including Rihanna and Beyonce, listed it after her decision to return to Bondi, where she has splashed $12.5m on the Federation trophy home, Gnal Loa, in an extended settlement deal.
“It just felt like a new chapter,” she told her friends, having founded the Camilla brand two decades ago in Bondi.
Franks, who next week opens a pop-up on the fifth floor at New York’s Saks Fifth Avenue department store, bought her Woollahra retreat in 2016 for $3,868,430.
The Edgecliff Rd residence was marketed as “embodying the bohemian luxe aesthetic for which her brand is synonymous, with her signature artistic fusion of colour, texture and pattern bringing a sense of wonder and whimsy”.
Further, the pitch said: “Courageous colour choices and bejewelled finishes create a perfect counterpoint to the home’s original marble fireplaces and pressed metal ceilings for a look that is maximalism at its best. The inspiring interiors have an uplifting energy.”
But it seems there was tension surrounding the exotic floral and tribal decor.
Phillips apparently recommended Franks remove the bold wallpapers before going to market, but she rejected the suggestion that her bold aesthetic might narrow the pool of potential buyers.
Meanwhile, socialite Tiffany Tilley has just sold her refurbished freestanding Woollahra terrace two years after it was bought for $3.32m.
It is being marketed as the most recent triumph by Marco Meneguzzi Design, coming with a Parisian-style courtyard and Juliet balconies.
There’s no price disclosure, but it took six months to find a buyer, having had an initial $4.9m guide before a recent change of listing agency to Black Diamondz Property Concierge.
ALL IN FAMILY AS TIA EMDUR SELLS LUXURY APARTMENT
The Emdur family are continuing with their property manoeuvres.
This time it’s the youngest, Tia, who has just sold her Bellevue Hill apartment. And, not surprisingly, she enlisted her estate agent brother, Jye, to oversee the sale.
Jye, who only had a cameo appearance in Luxe Listings Sydney given his employment, had been guiding $900,000 before the apartment sold midweek for an undisclosed price.
Tia paid $1.08m for the three-bedroom apartment in 2018 when she was just 19.
The top floor unit, with 77sq m of internal space, sits in the 1930s Marlborough complex on Victoria Rd.
Jye posted about the listing on his Instagram, telling his 7500 followers that it was “a special one”.
Tia’s $1.08m purchase had held the building’s record since 2018, with another two-bedroom apartment selling for just shy of that at $1.05m in 2021.
There has been an effusive client testimonial since the sale, coming from the undisclosed vendor, which said they “wouldn’t trust anyone else”.
“Jye really knows what he’s doing, and he does it with a smile,” the gushing review noted.
The sale comes two months after Tia married Rowell Jauco, a designer at creative digital advertising agency GMS Media Group.
The Emdur clan have always had a penchant for property, led by the patriarch, Channel 7 personality Larry Emdur.
Jye sold his dad’s Tamarama investment apartment in 2022 for $1,805,000.
It was the same year Larry and wife Sylvie traded in their cool pad in The Rocks for an apartment in Darling Point. They retain a longtime apartment in North Bondi, as well as a weekender in Berowra Waters.
Late last year, the couple sold their earlier Berowra Waters project for $1.9m and also their Kangaroo Valley retreat.
Jye sold his Pyrmont apartment last year for $1.12m, having paid $980,000 four years earlier.
FLIPPIN’ HECK, NOW THAT’S A STUNNER
Baby goods entrepreneur-turned-luxury house flipper Chloe Brookman has listed her latest project.
Just 11 months after paying $4,315,000 for a dated 1930s home in Coogee, Brookman – one half of the Olli and Ella enterprise – has put it up for sale.
Alexander Phillips at PPD has a $5.8m guide for its May 11 scheduled auction now that the home has been updated throughout, with the inspiration coming from “French country living”.
Now with a more Mediterranean facade instead of two different shades of blue, the grand home is being marketed as Rainbrook House, with the listing suggesting the “stately residence seamlessly blends a sense of refined European elegance with the flawless symmetry for which iconic film auteur Wes Anderson is renowned”.
Complete with Art Deco finishes and modern features, the home has five bedrooms, formal and casual living spaces, a kitchen with marble benches and an authentic Falcon gas range. There’s also a home cinema/office room and a study alcove.
The home previously was self-contained on both levels.
The gardens have been landscaped and feature a barbecue terrace and a firepit area. The gardens had previously been landscaped by Brendan Moar.
Brookman’s last project was in South Coogee where she flipped Bundock House, with a similar style to this home, but with a pool.
It sold for $6m after she paid just under $4m.
DO THE MAFS: SALE PRICE A NICE PROFIT
Married at First Sight survivors Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant have sold their Gold Coast investment property for $700,000.
This was a nice profit on what they paid for the Mermaid Beach townhouse three years ago.
The couple, who tied the knot on season six of the Channel 9 series in 2018, bought the property for $550,000. Located in the Diamond Sands complex at 2320-2330 Gold Coast Highway, the two-bedroom dwelling is a five-minute walk to the beach.
It has been listed for rent at $690 a week through LJ Hooker Robina following its sale.
Cascade Investments’ development on the 5.26ha former Coconut Grove caravan park site resulted in the construction in 1994 of 93 units, townhouses and villas.
Jules and Cameron bought a $3.65m contemporary six-bedroom, five-bathroom Broadbeach Waters house, on the Nerang River, in 2022.
The former cricketer and hairdresser, who married for real in 2019, retain their Cromer home, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, that cost $1.806m in 2022.
The couple, who welcomed son Oliver in 2020, are expecting their second child.
BANKER MAKES A WITHDRAWAL
Investment banker Simon Mordant and wife Catriona have listed their Clareville beachfront through David Edwards at LJ Hooker.
It was a $1.2m new build designed by Tanner Architects – with Zen-like simplicity – 12 years ago after the Hudson Pde property cost $1.8m in 1999.
Clareville’s top end is strong, with a record price set this month when pathologist Dr Stephen Mann and his medico wife, Elizabeth, spent $14.6m.
LUXURY IN THE HEART OF BONDI
Interior designer Chloe Matters has listed her freestanding Bondi Beach property, for which she is offering a complying development certificate for a designer residence.
It’s a collaboration between architects Common Office and her studio, Matters + Made, for the Forest Knoll Ave property, which has a $7m guide through Maclay Longhurst at Sotheby’s.
It was bought by Matters and her estate agent husband, Adrian Oddi, for $7.85m in 2021.
A BETTER HOME AND GARDEN
Celebrity builder Rob Palmer and wife Gwen have sold their Allambie Heights home for $3.5m through McGrath Manly agent Tim Cullen.
The six-bedroom, four-bathroom abode has been sold to a family from Riverview.
Rob, the former presenter on TV’s Better Homes & Gardens, renovated the Maroa Crescent house four years after they bought the property for $902,000 in 2008.
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