The Sell: Larry and Sylvie Emdur buy boat-access-only land on Neverfail Bay
Two years after buying a Berowra Waters weekender, TV host Larry Emdur and his wife Sylvie have bought a second property in the riverside locale.H
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Popular Seven Network morning TV presenter Larry Emdur and wife Sylvie have certainly taken a shine to Berowra Waters.
Two years ago they bought an architect-designed weekender which they made a little more fashionable.
And now they are set for an even larger project on Neverfail Bay, one of the most reclusive spots in Sydney, accessible only by boat.
The couple, who split their time between their Rocks apartment, Berowra Waters, and a luxury Kangaroo Valley retreat, have bought a derelict bushland block for $1 million.
The 1176sqm holding traded for the first time in over two decades, having last sold for $575,000 in 1999 when bought by a company directed by Bechara Khouri.
The acquisition by Larry Emdur, who recently took over hosting duties on The Chase Australia, is on the northernmost remote block within the bay.
Emdur’s current riverfront, a 23km trip from town, was bought in late 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic-induced flight to safety through seclusion.
They snapped up a $1.1 million getaway that had fetched $1.3 million five years earlier.
The architecturally designed home was built in 2013 with 5m-high ceilings on the north-facing home, with the wall on the river side almost entirely glass.
Earlier this year Tom Wallace, the former manager of Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, quietly secured $1.75 million for the 1905 home, Sunny Corner, against price expectations of $2.6 million. It had last sold for $1,005,000 in 2002.
The secluded location enjoyed headlines when entertainment industry couple Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton pocketed $1.7 million in late 2019. The three-storey, five-bedroom, four-bathroom creek-front with private jetty had cost $1.495 million in 2014.
Artist Annita Keating continues to enjoy the seclusion of her occasional retreat, secured a few months after the family departed the Lodge in 1996. The property was acquired from 2SM radio veteran John Laws for $931,000. Heavily timbered hills and cliffs rise behind the three-block property, which had been transformed into a Lake Como villa-style retreat by Laws’ late wife Caroline.
Laws had bought the then-fisherman’s cottage for $175,500 in 1986 as a surprise for Caroline, who renovated it extensively as he increased their riverfront holdings in 1995 with two adjacent purchases totalling $290,000.
I calculate the past year has been the busiest, fastest, priciest sales period ever for Berowra Waters.
MINNS ON MOVE TO SEAT OF KOGARAH
New state Labor leader Chris Minns and his wife Anna have sold for $2.05 million in Sans Souci and bought in Kogarah. The family has spent $1.7 million on a three-bedroom 1910 Federation home that needs renovation.
The brick home with period appeal was marketed as ideal for a growing family “located in a prestigious Kogarah address”. It last traded at $96,000 in 1980.
Marketing noted the formal lounge and dining room could be converted into fourth and fifth bedrooms, which might happen because the couple sold their three-bedroom waterfront semi because they needed more bedrooms for their three boys.
The Sans Souci home had been listed with a $1.95 million to $2.145 million price guide.
It was listed in mid-January, with the McGrath sale secured in May, a month before Minns’ election as leader.
The property, set on the shores of Kogarah Bay, was bought for $1.62 million in 2015, when they were upgrading from their $900,000 home in Carlton.
There had been council approval for a $100,000 renovation in 2016 to their home.
Minns’ first home was a two-bedroom Mortdale flat that cost $326,000 in 2010.
Kogarah three-bedroom houses have a $1.4 million median, according to realestate.com.au, and, based on five years of sales, the suburb seen subdued 2.4 per cent compound growth rate.
Minns now owns in his electorate of Kogarah, with the prior Sans Souci residence being in the neighbouring seat of Rockdale.
KYLY GETS A DOER-UPPER
Interior designer Kyly Clarke has added a second property investment to her Illawarra district portfolio.
She has spent $550,000 at Lake Heights, securing a two-bedroom doer-upper.
The home is set on a 575sqm block and has potential for an extra income, with the prospect of a granny flat at the rear of the property, mooted by selling agent Adam Spinelli at Spinelli Real Estate Wollongong.
Lake Heights has a $644,750 medium for houses, according to realestate.com.au, having seen a compound growth rate of 6 per cent over the past five years.
Last year Clarke’s nifty first investment, at nearby Berkeley, on the outskirts of Wollongong, was bought at $480,000 by her newly-created entity, Sparkles Property Investments.
It was marketed as a “classic three-bedroom home on a desirable 567sqm block in this ever-popular neighbourhood lakeside suburb.”
It has since been rented out at $420 a week.
Clarke does not yet show up as owning a new trophy home following the $12 million sale last year of the Vaucluse matrimonial home she enjoyed with her retired cricket champion husband Michael.
Her passion for renovation emerged when she took on a judging role on House Rules High Stakes in 2020.
Clarke, who turned 40 earlier this month, had previously produced her own line of lifestyle products while practising as an interior designer.
Her Lyfestyled entity has now pivoted to Kyly’s Constructions, which helps clients renovate their homes and build granny flats.
Her biggest project was recently completed for a Paddington client.
RICHTORS CASH IN AT ELIZABETH BAY
How easy are the gains during this pandemic property surge?
They were evident when former ING boss Vaughn Richtor and his wife Jane sold recently in Elizabeth Bay.
They pocketed $8.5 million for the Kincoppal complex.
It was a windfall $2.7 million on the $5.8 million price secured in 2016 by Emma Van Haandel, owner of PR agency EVH, and her husband Joel Williams, who put in the hard yards on its renovation.
Van Haandel and Williams only owned the apartment for a year for their $2.3 million gain on their $3.51 million purchase.
The latest $8.5 million price, paid by radiologist Craig Dyer through Patrick Cosgrove at Ray White TRG, equalled the record set just four weeks prior in the early 1980s harbourfront complex.
That was the sale to Raymond and Ann Dresdner of the deceased estate of Erin Ostadal, whose east-facing three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment came with 202sqm of internal space, 55sqm of balcony and carparking for two. The Mirvac-built apartment had traded for $5 million in 2016, having first sold in 1981 at $660,000.
Strata records show Richtor had been the treasurer of the complex that has been torn apart with division over whether to build extra accommodation lots on common property, with a loan from Macquarie Bank.
FARRISS BUSTS $3M
INXS founding member Andrew Farriss has secured $3,125,000 for his long-held classic 1950s Newport weatherboard house.
It went to auction unsuccessfully in June.
Buyers were being told pre-auction by Shores Real Estate to expect to pay more than $3 million, and that was where the only bid lobbed before it was passed in. The couple bought the 1950s house in 2007 for $1.4 million.
The four-bedroom weatherboard cottage sits on a 942sqm block with lush gardens.
The Farrisses are cattle farmers near Tamworth, having bought historic Piedmont Station for $2.05 million in 1992.
Given the recent drought, the 1600ha farm is currently carrying around about 430 head.
WAY WAY TO GO FOR MANFREDI
It has taken two years, but chef Stefano Manfredi has finally sold his custom-built Way Way retreat on the NSW mid-north coast.
There was a $3.3 million initial asking price for the 3.3ha ridge-top holding, with its sale at a record $2.2 million through Peter Stone at Real Estate of Distinction Bellingen when bought by Mark and Melanie Gianoutsos.
It’s a corrugated iron-clad beach house designed by Luigi Rosselli, and comes with northerly views across the valley to the ocean at Scotts Head and up the coast to Nambucca Heads.
The home features four bedrooms as well as a separate studio.
The origins of Way Way House started around 20 years ago with friends who surfed.
Their brief to Rosselli was a holiday house for two families — one for Manfredi and the other for his then brand manager Sally Hunter.
There’s a chef-designed kitchen with concrete benchtops.
Way Way’s prices hit $1.7 million in 2017, and again last year.
WATEGOS BUY FOR NELSON-CARNEGIE
Investor and social entrepreneur Tanya Nelson-Carnegie has emerged as a $14 million buyer in Byron Bay.
Her Wategos acquisition comes nine months after she spent a re
cord $11 million on Hillstone Farm in the hinterland.
Byron Bay Real Estate agent Liam Annesley secured the sale, having sought $13 million to $14 million.
The Wategos home was redesigned by architect Peter Maddison, but wasn’t featured on the Grand Designs series.
The Palm Valley Dr home was designed for his Melbourne-based client Allan Sinclair. They sold for $5.6 million in 2016 to Nicholas Baxter and Johanna Gustaffson, who are now sailing the world on their newly acquired Fleming 65 yacht.
Carnegie’s Sydney base is a $10.8 million Bondi Beach penthouse in Toga’s Boheme complex.
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