The Sell: Simon Baker buys Ruth Ostrow’s home at Bondi Beach

Avid surfer Simon Baker has returned to the Sydney property market, with the internationally acclaimed actor and director buying a home close to the beach.

Internationally acclaimed film actor and director Simon Baker has bought back close to the beach in Sydney.

He’s spent around $6 million for a rustic home set in tropical gardens at Bondi Beach, which was ­offered for sale by social commentator Ruth Ostrow.

It was last September when Baker, the surfing enthusiast, and his then wife Rebecca Rigg sold their Bronte home for $17 million, marking the end to their 29-year marriage.

Baker, who retains a retreat at Nashua in the hinterland above Byron Bay, had also sold their apartment on North Bondi’s Ben Buckler for $3.69 million in 2016.

Baker’s latest film, Blaze, will premiere next month at the Sydney Film Festival. Directed by the award-winning painter Del Kathryn Barton, it stars Baker alongside Julia Savage.

Simon Baker at last year’s Sydney Film Festival. Picture: Toby Zerna

Baker’s unconfirmed whisper-quiet semi purchase will see him settle equidistant ­between the surf of Bondi Beach and Tamarama.

It was marketed as a “tropical rainforest haven which marries exotic decor with modern amenities”, by its tight-lipped selling agent Pauline Goodyer at Goodyer Real Estate.

Baker spent $6 million on this Bondi Beach home.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom cottage that sits on a 310sqm corner has polished floorboards and high ceilings with fans.

There is a double-sized loft home office space which captures views to the ocean at Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach’s current three-bedroom house median sits at $3,762,000, according to realestate.com.au, which reported there’s been just the one fresh offering in the past month, and 24 sales over the past year.

Based on five years of sales, Bondi Beach has seen a compound growth rate of 9.9 per cent for houses.

The cottage was sold by social commentator Ruth Ostrow.

Ostrow, who for almost a decade wrote a much-missed weekly Heart & Soul column in The Weekend Australian on money, health, fitness, family, love, religion, friendship and creative hobbies, had paid $1.9 million in 2008.

Long working abroad as a foreign correspondent, including with the Israel Economist Magazine, she later settled in Byron Bay’s Suffolk Park, ­becoming a yoga teacher, ­nutritional consultant and keynote speaker on matters of wellness.

Over the years she wrote six books, including The New Boy Network: Taking over Corporate Australia.

Published in 1987, she interviewed Australia’s then leading entrepreneurs and risk-takers, including the late Sir Peter Abeles, Larry Adler, George Herscu, Rene Rivkin, Alan Bond, Robert Holmes a Court and John Spalvins, one of the ageing survivors who was spotted in Sydney last weekend, up from Adelaide to catch up with old friends.

FOLAUS TO OFFLOAD KENTHURST HOME

Expatriate rugby star Israel Folau and wife Maria have listed their Kenthurst estate.

They paid $2.1 million in 2015 when he was playing for the NSW Waratahs.

Now the 2ha estate has been listed with $3.5 million to $3.85 million price guidance through Jensen Bella Vista agent Lucy Jensen, who is telling prospective buyers that the “vendor is ­motivated to sell”.

The listing follows his decision to play rugby union in Japan last year, and their ­recent residential acquisitions in Queensland.

Over recent times he’s also offloaded a few Sydney investments.

Israel Folau and his wife Maria are hoping to sell their Kenthurst home, in Sydney’s northwest. Picture: Aaron Francis

The Kenthurst listing is being marketed as one of the best blocks in the area.

Its two-storey home is located at the end of a circular driveway.

It has four bedrooms, including a master with a walk-in wardrobe and ensuite.

The formal lounge and combined dining area is reminiscent of a large ballroom, the marketing suggests.

There’s a rumpus room with a combustion fire, as well as a separate study, li­b­rary and family room.

There’s also a freestanding studio on the grounds, along with a pool and shedding.

The 2ha estate has been listed with $3.5 million to $3.85 million price guidance.

The listing comes after Folau made another Queensland purchase, a Hamptons-inspired home in New Beith, in the Logan area south of Brisbane.

He paid $1.28 million for the 2017-built home earlier this year.

It follows his earlier $1.5 million acreage buy at Brookfield, west of Brisbane, which was secured when he was playing for the Southport Tigers.

His season in Japan this year at the NTT Shining Arcs has seen Folau score nine tries, leading the team’s try-scorers.

ELITE OPERA APARTMENT RESALE

The luxury Circular Quay apartment of international fugitive Michael Gu has been sold for $7.2 million in a receivership sale.

It was part of the once-vast real estate portfolio of the head of iProsperity.

The luxury harbourfront Macquarie St apartment was put to March auction without success, but sold last week.

Billed as the best non-subpenthouse unit in the Opera Residences complex, its listing agents had ­initially expected about $8.5 million for the three-bedroom 13th-floor apartment.

Gu’s company Elite Opera had paid $6.419 million off the plan.

The apartment in The Opera building on Macquarie St came with a spectacular view.

Gu was a former Western Sydney mobile phone salesman who made his way into the pockets of elite investor circles in Sydney’s Chinese social scene.

He ran his failed $350 million hotel and real estate empire without proper documentation, which he claimed was the “Chinese way”, in between high roller gambling ­episodes at Star Casino.

Just weeks after iProsperity’s July 2020 collapse, Gu was granted a pandemic lockdown travel exemption by the Home Affairs Department to leave the country. His whereabouts remain unknown, but apparently after his flight to the United States, Gu might be in China.

Since his departure his fleet of luxury cars that included a Rolls-Royce Wraith and Lamborghini have been sold along with his $12 million designer home in Mosman home.

PARRAMATTA PENTHOUSE LOSS

Semi-professional race car driver Ryan Simpson has sold his 54th-floor penthouse in Parramatta for $2 million.

It was initially listed late last year with a $2.5 million price guide, then relisted in February with the McGrath agency with $2.2 million to $2.4 million price hopes.

This guidance was dropped to $1.85 million ahead of the scheduled weekend auction by McGrath selling agent Peter Pokorny.

It sold to a downsizing businessman from the Hills District after swapping the marketing campaign to auction generated new buyer interest.

The apartment is in the Church St Altitude tower by Meriton.

Ryan Simpson has made a loss on his Altitude penthouse. Picture: Toby Zerna

The three-bedroom apartment has views over the Parramatta River.

Purchasing the apartment off-the-plan in 2017 for $2.2 million, Simpson was able to request changes to the original floor plan to covert it from a four-bedroom apartment to three bedrooms with an open-plan living and entertainment area.

Of course, Eat Street is in on the doorstep.

Simpson, who has raced since the age of 16, is involved in the family business, Parramatta Smash Repairs, which has been based in Parramatta for more than five decades.

The Parramatta LGA was pinpointed as having Sydney’s highest rate of loss-making resales, according to the CoreLogic Pain and Gain report for the December quarter.

The LGA saw 13.3 per cent of all sales being loss takers, with 82 per cent being investor sales. The median loss was $35,000.

NASTESKIS SELL POST-AUCTION

There was just the one active bidder, international celebrity manager James Erskine, when the Nasteski family put their Potts Point bolthole to weekend auction.

He lobbed a $6.4 million opening bid, which auctioneer Jake Moore ­described as “strong.”

The Nasteski family’s Potts Point bolthole has sold.

A $6.5 million vendor bid followed, then came a $6.51 million offer, which is where it was passed in.

The listing was a shared equity arrangement, with art dealer Steve Nasteski having 5 per cent, and siblings Luca Ace-Nasteski, the basketball star in the making, also on 5 per cent, and Marcus holding 90 per cent.

The 174sqm Wylde St apartment, listed through Ben Collier at The Agency and Geoff Cox at R&W, had last sold unrenovated at $3.75 million in May last year.

Negotiations continued with ­Erskine, who was representing one of his ­clients, but another buyer emerged, and bought it post-auction.

FROM MOSMAN TO SUTTON FOREST

With the recent $14.1 million sale of her whole-floor Mosman waterfront apartment, it seems Clelia Cantarella has now turned tree-changer.

The daughter of the founder of the Cantarella coffee business has purchased a 40ha Sutton Forest farm ­estate for $4.05 million.

Clelia Cantarella’s whole-floor Mosman waterfront apartment sold for $14.1 million.

Its sale comes four years after her Whale Beach house was sold for $6.5 million in 2017, having paid $5.5 million two years earlier.

And before that she secured a record price in Killcare.

Her Southern Highlands estate comes with a 2005-built, five-bedroom homestead, plus eight paddocks with cattle yards. It was bought in partnership with Adele and Muzio Cantarella. Platypus Run was sold by David Thomas, who was an ­active advocate against the now-abandoned coal mine proposal for the neighbourhood.

Cantarella’s Watermarque, Mosman, offering, designed by Allan Jack+Cottier, had $11 million to $12 million price guidance, having last traded for $8.4 million in 2015.

The 414sqm apartment overlooks Mosman Bay. The residents share a boat shed, jetty and deepwater mooring.

$7.7M BRONTE PRICE TAG

One Big Switch co-founder Lachlan Harris has listed his Californian bungalow in Bronte.

Its PPD listing agent, Alexander Phillips, has given buyers an initial $7.7 million price guide. It is being ­offered just 10 months after being bought for $7.35 million last July, when it spent just eight days on the market.

It is a double-fronted home redesigned by ­architect Simon Hanson, with a two-storey glazed pavilion set in a coastal garden by Bondi ­Landscapes.

The original front of the home features wide Kauri floorboards and classic high ceilings.

It sits on 490sqm.

Bronte’s median property prices over the past year was $5,375,000 for houses.

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