The Sell: Karl and Jasmine Stefanovic’s vegetation issue at Castlecrag property
Today show host Karl Stefanovic and his wife Jasmine have made a “vegetation” application to council for their Castlecrag property, real estate insider Jonathan Chancellor reveals.
Property
Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News.
There’s finally an application for works at the Castlecrag home purchase of breakfast television host Karl Stefanovic and his wife, Jasmine, the former shoe designer.
The three bedroom 1960s brick house which sits on a 550sq m block cost $3.2 million in March last year.
The couple were well acquainted with the suburb, having rented a luxury home there.
Rather than undertake a renovation or rebuild, their initial request to Willoughby Council is a “vegetation management application”.
They want to remove one tree from the rear of the property which the couple put up for rent last September at $1800 a week.
The elevated rear garden also comes with a spa and gazebo.
The couple recently listed their lavishly renovated Sunshine Beach, Noosa home but it has yet to sell with Stefanovic reputedly experiencing “sellers’ remorse” while going through the auction campaign. There’s even been a report in The Australian’s media diary column that with borders now fully open, “Stefanovic has privately confided to friends and Nine types that he wants to spend two weekends a month at the property”.
Unused at Avalon
The little-used Avalon weekender of prominent racehorse breeder, John Messara, has quickly gone under offer.
The listing of the deep waterfront with its $9.75 million guide came in early April, less than two years after it was bought for $7.2 million in July 2020, when it took 259 days to find its buyer.
The Hudson Pde property comes with a jetty, boathouse and berthing.
James Baker, of McGrath Pittwater, had scheduled the 954sq m waterfront listed for May auction.
The Balmoral-based Messara and wife Kristine bought on Taylors Point during the pandemic lockdowns but they haven’t used the property as much as they thought they would.
That’s not hard to believe given the hall of fame breeder’s many roles, including his hands-on Arrowfield Stud chairmanship, where given Covid-induced staffing shortages, he recently decided to sell 80 mares in the next few weeks through Inglis Digital.
Of course Arrowfield sold a triumphant $30 million worth of yearlings at the recent record-breaking Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, with 59 horses sold, and seven fetching $1 million or more.
And no doubt Messara, the Racing Australia chair, and the rest of the racehorse breeding industry, have been busy reading the 25,000-word, midweek judgment in the NSW Supreme Court which saw Godolphin Australia win its land tax battle with the NSW Chief Commissioner for State Revenue.
Godolphin Australia will be repaid $1.438 million for land tax paid between 2014 and 2019 after Justice Julie Ward ruled its 907ha Kelvinside and 2420ha Woodlands operations fit the zero land tax status of primary production.
The legal team of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum challenged the State Revenue determination arguing that the integrated operation’s dominant use of the land was for the maintenance of stallions for the purpose of selling their semen.
Jacqueline Stewart, keeper of the Australian Stud Book at Racing Australia, provided affidavit support. The case did not involve Godolphin’s properties at Crown Lodge and Osborne Park, which conduct racing operations and do not qualify as primary production.
The judgment, which could be subject to appeal, could have positive consequences for the industry in retaining the status of thoroughbred breeding operations, especially those with racing arms.
Vaucluse home fetches $25.2m
Former Westpac chief David Morgan and his wife, former Labor MP Ros Kelly, have pocketed $25,275,000 from the sale of their Vaucluse harbourfront home.
The power couple have resided on the waterfront since they bought it for $9 million in 2009 from the Bracey family, who have recently listed their adjoining landmark home, Point Seymour, also known as Wedding Cake House, after eight decades ownership through Michael Pallier at Sotheby’s International with $50 million hopes.
Morgan and Kelly, who sold to hotelier Graham Campion and his wife, Marisa, are leaving the harbourfront, buying a nearby, non-waterfront mansion from mechanic Steve Davidson and his wife Carmen for, reputedly, more than $35 million.
Fitzwillam Rd’s latest listing is the Goldberg family’s old shop that closed its doors decades ago.
There is a $13 million guide given it’s a 588sqm waterfront.
The Goldbergs sold the adjoining property to Michelle Shein, wife of the former Dimension Data chairman, Jon Shein, for $5.5 million in 2001.
$60m outlay for harbour return
Healthcare sector entrepreneur Dr Glenn Haifer, who is paying more than $60 million to return to living on Sydney Harbour, has listed in Woollahra.
The Attunga St offering was bought in 2018 for $6.3 million from the Placek family.
It has been listed through Michael Pallier at Sotheby’s International by Haifer, who sits on the board of Genesis Capital Partners.
The six bedroom, five bathroom house comes with interiors by Blainey North. The development approvals were costed at $700,000, complete with a curved stairwell wrapped by rounded walls for “Gugenheim inspired momentum”.
Haifer, who has been the Australasian medical consultant to P&O, is the reputed buyer of the Darling Point waterfront of Lisa Allen, former wife of yachtie Matt Allen. Haifer pocketed $39 million when selling Deauville in Point Piper in 2017.
Blackheath gem
West Hill, the 110-year-old Blackheath farmhouse with an extension by architect Glenn Murcutt, has been listed for sale.
The 1.6ha Evans Lookout Rd estate comes with $4 million to $4.4 million hopes through Brenden Purcell at Purcell Property.
It comes with two glass-walled pavilions installed in the early 1980s by Jenny Kee and Michael Ramsden. The home’s main bathroom sports a bath painted by Kee and handmade tiles by Ramsden.
The grounds, that back onto the Blue Mountains National Park, have floodlit garden rooms and organic vegetable gardens nurtured by the current owners, the Kerr family, over their 17-year ownership. It has been a $1100 a night Airbnb rental.
First look: New Coast shopping centre for surprise site
A long-empty site in a surprise location will be transformed into a retail showroom complex under fresh plans lodged with the council. FIND OUT WHERE
Revealed: How much rent you need to pay in every Qld suburb
Rents have increased again in 252 Queensland suburbs, reversing the brief downward trend recorded just three months ago. See how your suburb compares!