The Sell: Nick Kyrgios buys $1.6 million Kensington penthouse
Love appears to have drawn Nick Kyrgios to Sydney, with the tennis star rumoured to have bought a $1.6 million three-bedroom penthouse in the city’s east.
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Word last month that tennis superstar Nick Kyrgios is moving to Sydney has triggered suggestions he’s bought a $1.6 million penthouse in Kensington.
His buy has been pinpointed as a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with sweeping panoramas, along with two car spaces for parking his $190,000 Tesla.
Sunday Telegraph colleague Phil “Buzz” Rothfield recently noted it was “a big move for a guy who has lived in Canberra for most of his life”.
It seems the 26-year-old wants to be in Sydney with his partner Costeen Hatzi when he’s not travelling overseas on the tennis circuit.
“He has fallen in love with the lifestyle in the Harbour City,” Rothfield noted after Kyrgios was spotted grabbing a coffee The Pool cafe at Maroubra Beach, following his decision to skip the current clay-court season in Europe.
The penthouse was quietly secured, with assistance from colourful buyers’ agent Jack Henderson.
There’s been no confirmation from Henderson, although a recent post on his agency Instagram, came with a telltale caption “game, set, match”.
It’s expected Kyrgios’ purchase and move to Sydney will feature as part of a Netflix documentary that the tennis star recently confirmed he was participating in.
It will also include his relationship with Hatzi, brand ambassador, blogger, home decorator, model and entrepreneur.
It was New Year’s Eve when Kyrgios went Insta-official with his girlfriend.
“I’m blessed,” he wrote.
The apartment was just nine days into its marketing through City Residential Property agent Kristian Nelson-Marshall, who’d marketed it as “the entertainer you’ve been dreaming of”.
The two-level 175sqm penthouse is a perfect fit, coming with a rooftop wet bar.
There’s wraparound, double-height glass with city skyline views that let in plenty of natural light. There’s also an integrated kitchen with Miele appliances. There’s a lap pool and a gym in the complex.
It last sold in 2011 at $950,000, with the vendors seeking buyers twice in the past four years. It has been a rental investment, most recently with an $890 asking rent.
Kensington three-bedroom apartments have a $1.62 million median price, according to realestate.com.au.
The overall apartment median sits at $980,000 based on 175 sales last year, the busiest year since 2015 when there were 181 sales at an $800,000 median.
Kensington apartments typically rent out for $500 a week, reflecting a 2.7 per cent rental yield. Based on five years of sales, Kensington has seen a compound growth rate of 3 per cent.
Kyrgios hasn’t owned property outright in NSW before, but a family company he is a shareholder in owns an holiday home in the popular fishing village of Turross Head on the NSW south coast. It cost $583,000 in 2017.
The five-bedroom, two-storey home that sits on a 930sqm holding is set just a few roads back from the beach in the village between the townships of Moruya and Narooma.
Kyrgios has improved to world No. 75 in the latest ATP Tour men’s singles rankings.
BENJI AND ZOE MAKE THE MOVE
NRL legend and Fox Sports analyst Benji Marshall and his award-winning podcaster wife Zoe have bought in Hunters Hill, having sold in Canada Bay.
The move to the five-bedroom, four-bathroom $4.75 million abode comes 10 months after the birth of their second child, Ever, sister to older brother, Fox.
The home was marketed by The Agency selling agent Lee Dowdall as a “brilliant family haven sheltered by landscaping, so ideal for families who covet their privacy”.
There’s a vibrant formal entertaining area plus a large, family-orientated indoor/outdoor space. The designer kitchen with huge island bench comes with walk-in pantry. There’s a dedicated home cinema room plus a study retreat on each level.
It was bought from Andrew Tieck, of the Franklins supermarket family, who’d given it a makeover after paying $2.48 million in 2014.
The initial price expectations were $4.9 million to $5.1 million.
Their renovated 1940s Concord family home with four bedrooms and three bathrooms fetched $2,185,000.
It had been their home base since 2014 when they paid $1,535,000, a year after their marriage.
Zoe Marshall has regularly mentioned their house move over recent months in her social media postings. “How fun is moving house? Said no one ever!!!!!!!! I’ve already booked therapy because we all know moving is one of the greatest stresses in life!”
Last month she mentioned it was “daunting.” And this week she has queried her 62,000 followers: “What makes a house a home?”
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am but also how I feel a sense of uneasiness,” she noted.
“Surrounded by foreign things. Foreign spaces I haven’t made my own. I desperately need to make this place mine. Ours. The babies are settled. It’s me. I don’t feel grounded.”
GWS GIANT TO SETTLE AT NORTH BONDI
GWS Giants veteran Callan Ward and his pregnant wife Ruby have traded up in the eastern suburbs.
Ward, who’s played a record 255 games with the club, has headed closer to the beach.
He’s paid $4,866,000 for a renovated 1920s home in North Bondi.
The four-bedroom home, marketed as a Palm Springs-inspired family home, underwent a pricey renovation last year, after it sold for $2,175,000 in 2019.
It features hydronic heated floors, terrazzo and mosaic tiled bathrooms, and a striking steel stairway.
It sits in low-maintenance gardens, which include a private decked entertainment area with infra-red sauna and a shower. There’s a small water feature that flanks the house.
Mark Yeats and Dion Markovics at Raine & Horne sold the home, after its failed Ray White marketing at the end of 2021.
The purchase comes after he sold his long-held Randwick home for $3.6 million last December. It was the home he bought when he made the move from Western Australia to Sydney back when he was 22 years old, having spent his first few years in the AFL at the Western Bulldogs.
Ward had paid $1.51 million for the 1920s home before extensively renovating, adding a gas-heated pool to the landscaped gardens on the 405sqm block.
McGrath Coogee agent Mark McPherson secured the sale.
Ward retains a two-bedroom Bronte apartment, which cost $1,606,000 in 2017, and a year later he bought a Bondi apartment renovation project for $810,000.
Ward married his long-time girlfriend Ruby Keddie at the Elizabeth Bay waterfront mansion Tresco in 2019. Their first child, Romeo, was born in 2020.
HILLSIDE AT PALMIE FOR HEMMES
The focus tends to be on her hospitality industry tsar brother Justin, but Bettina Hemmes, who also works in the family business, has quietly secured a Palm Beach weekender.
No price details have yet emerged, but the 1930s Pacific Rd hillside home is likely to have sold for just shy of its envisaged $7 million, after being passed in on a $6.5 million vendor bid.
The rustic property, which still has the electric Kooka in the kitchen, has had only four owners in the past 100 years. The 1170 sqm holding last sold in 1977 at $82,600.
Palm Beach’s median house price sat at $5.7 million last year, according to realestate.com.au, after 59 sales.
Last year Justin sold at Morning Bay on nearby Pittwater for $5.5 million.
Sightings of his Cessna Grand Caravan sea plane had become few and far between, with Hemmes emphasis being on his burgeoning far south coast expansion.
These day’s Hemmes is more likely to be flying to the NSW far south coast where he’s got big plans at Narooma.
SPARKLING JEWEL AT DOUBLE BAY
Jewellery designer Sybella Morris and her billionaire brother Hamish Douglass have listed the family’s grand Double Bay estate.
It has been held by the family since 1967, when their late father, arts patron and racehorse owner Gordon Douglass bought it for $74,000. Their mother Jane died last July.
Jane and Gordon were great advocates of the live arts, dance and ballet in particular, being instrumental in the production of the film of Don Quixote in July 1973. Its world premiere was the first event in the Sydney Opera House.
Their six-bedroom Pinehill Ave home has been listed through Ray White Double Bay agent Elliott Placks with $30 million hopes.
Its 2300sqm cul-de-sac setting is being marketed as “presenting a rare opportunity to secure one of the largest tightly held estates in Double Bay”.
GREAT MOVEMENT ON MACKEREL BEACH
Warwick White, the former managing director of Coca-Cola Amatil, has secured the snappy $6.5 million sale of his Great Mackerel Beach retreat.
The 1119sqm holding enjoys the beachfront perspective plus a backyard with bush views from the pavilion style house that has 149sqm internal space and 140sqm external living space.
It was bought in 2006 for $3.3 million, which was the strip’s highest price until another $3.3 million sale occurred in 2020 with the sale of Hart House, a modern interpretation of the classic Australian beach shack, designed by Casey Brown.
Adjoining Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, the latest sale was through David Edwards at LJ Hooker Palm Beach. The single-storey Ross Smith Pde home sits on the same stretch as three other big sales.
The year kicked off with the $5.6 million sale of a modernised 1950s home on 734sqm.
It was bought by Willoughby’s Luke Brown and Angela Smith, who’d snapped it up within three days of its listing. It had previously traded at $450,000 in 2000.
There was a $5.5 million sale in March when Paul and Belinda Hannan bought from the Bird family.
Finance sector veteran Cameron McCullagh was another recent seller, with settlement yet to occur, but understood to be between the recent sale prices.
It had been bought for $1.6 million in 2007 from the London-based Mark Tydeman of the popular clothing brand Mambo.
With access only by boat, listings are typically low and sales are slow, but not in 2022.
A DOVER ORIGINAL
The Sheedy family’s mansion at Dover Heights has been listed for sale through Josh Ellison at Ellison Zulian Property for June 11 auction.
The Hardy St home was built for graphic designer Sidney Sheedy, who’d camped out for two days to secure the building block acquisition. He and wife Elsie had their trophy home designed with the help of architect FG Leslie Allen.
For many years it was home to son David, the heritage architect and marine and train historian who died in 2018. He worked with the National Trust from the 1970s, helping to add significant buildings to heritage registers. There is now a David Sheedy Foundation.
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