Sea Eagle Tom Trbojevic selling his Warriewood nest
Manly Sea Eagles star Tom ‘Turbo’ Trbojevic is selling his Warriewood property with a $2.4m guide for the two-level home.
NSW
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Manly Sea Eagles star Tom Trbojevic is selling his Warriewood property.
LJ Hooker Mona Vale agents Marco Cimino and Tom McKenzie have a $2.4m guide for the two-level home on its 334sq m holding.
The home, advertised as being on offer for the first time since its 2019 build by Clarendon Homes, has four bedrooms, two downstairs living areas and a study area. The rear living area, adjoining the open-plan kitchen and dining area, opens to a paved terrace and a private landscaped garden with a built-in spa.
Seven years ago, Tom and brother Jake, another of the Sea Eagles’ top players, bought house and land packages just three doors away from each other for $964,000 each in Warriewood’s Fern Creek Estate. Tom, who is in doubt for this year’s NSW Origin series after a string of injuries, put his up for rent at the end of 2019 at $1300 a week.
He followed in the footsteps of his older brother Jake when it came to creating a property portfolio.
But the Trbojevic family haven’t had it all their own way when it comes to property. Tom and Jake, and parents Melissa and John, are locked in a NSW Supreme Court battle with the developer over off-the-plan purchases in the Mimosa project, also in Warriewood. Sales marketing by the Knowles Group began in 2020 for the residential development of the 43-lot Warriewood Rd site, then costed at $31m with a 2022 completion forecast.
The Trbojevics and their fellow purchasers claim the Knowles Group acted unreasonably in not proceeding to completion after its builder exited the project in 2022.
The project’s completion sunset clause occurred in June 2023 with the NSW 2015 Conveyancing Act providing some remedy for purchasers after its expiry. The case in the civil court against the Melbourne-based J & G Knowles and Associates, as trustee for the Knowles Investment Unit Trust, was last before Justice Ian Pike in February. The matter is next listed for a directions hearing in late May, with its seven-day hearing scheduled for next March.
Some 29 purchasers participated in mediation last year and about eight have settled away from the ongoing court hearing. Melissa and John, who were intent on buying a $1.795m townhouse, are now the lead plaintiffs.
INSIDE STAR SWAN’S BIG REDESIGN PLANS
Sydney Swan star Isaac Heeney is planning a new home in Sydney’s east.
Heeney bought a semi in original condition in Maroubra in February last year, around the corner from where the midfielder bought his first home in 2018.
Plans were recently lodged with the Randwick City Council for a redesign of the $3m three-bedroom home set 200m from Maroubra Beach.
It will be a three-level home with Lohas Roman handmade external brickwork.
There will be four bedrooms – three upstairs and one on the entry level.
An open-plan kitchen, living and dining area will open to an alfresco deck, which will have stairs to the rear pool-less lawn. The plans, by ARCM Design, are costed at $478,500.
They include demolishing the four-car garage at the rear of the skinny 340sq m block. Double garaging will instead beat the front of the house, \which will occupy 162sq m of the site.
After its purchase, Heeney put the double-brick property up for rent on a six-month lease, suggesting he’d been planning to lodge plans for a new home earlier than now. ARCM Design did its initial sketch last June.
The 206-game veteran, who was among the better players when the Swans lost to Collingwood on Friday night, has been in Maroubra since 2018 when he spent $1.56m on a two-bedroom garden apartment, 400m away from the new home.
The 28-year-old Maitland-born midfielder has been at the Swans since 2015, having played his junior football at the Cardiff Hawks.
Heeney, who has a string of sponsorships, including dog treats Schamckos for his dog Nala, is following in the building footsteps of his former Swans captain Luke Parker. Parker, who recently joined Melbourne, and his interior designer wife Kate, demolished the majority of their nearby Malabar home and are undertaking a build.
SAMMUT ABODE PULLS CRONULLA RECORD $22M
The Cronulla waterfront home of developer Allen Sammut sold Friday night, a week into its marketing, for a record $22.5m.
Listed for May 14 auction, the 2014-built Taloombi St house had come with $20m-plus guidance through David Highland, Mitchell Wynn and Laura McKay at Highland Property.
The three-bedroom, four-bathroom abode on Gunnamatta Bay comes with an infinity pool and boathouse with portholes on its white sand beach.
The Sammut Group designed and developed the home for Allen and his wife, Nicole, who’d purchased the 764sq m holding for $4.4m in 2011 after the site had been pinpointed by Highland for them.
Set on three levels, the Sammuts are looking to downsize.
The property is a five-minute walk from the busy coastal strip.
The master suite includes a gas fireplace, private balcony, dressing room and ensuite with a built-in TV, while the additional bedrooms have access through French doors to ensuite bathrooms and private loft living areas.
There’s a state-of-the-art home theatre with cinema lounge seating and Dolby Surround sound, fully-equipped home gym, and double garage with internal access, along with a double carport and a further two off-street parking spots.
The property features a west-facing infinity pool. There is a sun-drenched alfresco area along with a rumpus area with a wet bar and entertainment space.
The middle-level balcony has sunset views over the bay.
The lower-level rumpus features underfloor heating, a Jetmaster fireplace, a steam room, and a fully equipped bar, ideal for entertaining guests along with landscaped gardens with an integrated barbecue and wet bar.
The snappy sale comes after Highland reports March was his biggest month in Cronulla in 18 years.
The Sutherland Shire’s prior record was by Highland with a street-to-waterfront 2071sq m Woolooware Road property at $20m in 2022.
SANDAL CLAN SEEKS SYDNEY FOOTHOLD
Alex and Vanessa Birkenstock, of the German leather sandal-family, have been contemplating buying an Australian abode. But they have yet to find anything, despite a preparedness to spend up to $200m.
Their hitherto discrete purchasing intent emerged in a Nine Entertainment website puff piece on the tight-lipped Double Bay buyers agent Simon Cohen.
The Sell gleans frustrated vendors have sensed the ultra-private cobbler family has been torn between Vanessa’s desire to remain living in Melbourne and Alex’s wish to live, and sail, on Sydney Harbour.
The Sell presumes Alex and Vanessa inspected the One Barangaroo penthouse, but seemingly didn’t like it or its then $100m price.
Forbes World’s billionaires list previously reported Alex, 56, as having invested in property including New York and Miami with their home advised as an estate on Lake Tegernsee, in southern Germany.
The German footwear company dates from 1774. Brothers Alex, Christian and Stephan, who sold his stake in 2013, took control from their father, Karl, in 2002. In 2021, they sold a majority of their stake in a $4.7bn deal with Birkenstock now trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Before the deal, the brothers were receiving around €100m in dividends annually.
Vanessa Cush Birkenstock is a British-German model who from 2002 to 2012 lived in Australia, appearing in campaigns for the likes of Kenzo, Myer and Bettina Liano.
NEIGHBOUR’S GRASS GREENER FOR PALMER
Interior design doyenne Ros Palmer is selling her grand home in Tasmania, but she’s not returning to Sydney.
Palmer, who quit her Queen St, Woollahra retail shop in 2013, will only be moving next door at Evandale, the historic town in northern Tasmania.
Palmer, who helped furnish The Lodge in Canberra for Paul Keating, is seeking offers between $2.5m and $3m through Bushby Creese agents George and Joscelyn Bushby.
The 1830s Georgian residence has quickly garnered 3100-plus page views on realestate.com.au.
The four-bedroom Macquarie St heritage home features soaring ceilings, bay windows, ornate fireplaces, decorative window box valances, delicate wallpaper and intricate mouldings and cornices.
It sits in extensive 1998sq m of gardens.
Palmer will be moving into the heritage-listed home next door, where she commissioned local Launceston practice Blackman Architects to undertake a significant renovation of a Georgian cottage and shop.
Her Woollahra retail premises sold in 2013 for $2.75m through Bill Bridges to Gary Singer and Geoffrey Smith with the premises now trading as Smith & Singer, dealing in fine art, jewels and objects of virtu.
FAMILY FANS OF RANDWICK
Danny Avidan and Charlie Brown were the $7.5m vendors of the Randwick apartment block Only Fans model Paris Ow-Yang (pictured) has reputedly bought for the family company.
The 216 Alison Rd offering was marketed as six recently updated leased apartments with rents ranging from $810 to $1275 a week.
Other real estate owned by Ow-Yang Property includes a block of four on nearby Avoca St.
KING KONG DOESN’T BELONG
There’s a giant King Kong gorilla on the wall of a two-bedroom apartment listing in Pacific Square, Maroubra Junction.
But the 2.4m x 3.2m wall print is not in the inclusions on offer at its May 3 auction through Tony Lucas of Raine & Horne.
“When the vendor purchased she initially had aspirations of painting the wall with a mural of the ocean,” Lucas advised.
The 514/1 Bruce Bennetts Place apartment sold at $858,000 in 2023.
MEARES SELLS TO KIRBY CLAN
Descendants of the late industrialist Sir James N Kirby have emerged as the $5.2m buyers of the Watsons Bay home of Byron Bay-based fashion designer Jodhi Meares.
The 1880s fisherman’s cottage is a heritage-listed, double-storey weatherboard with baby blue facade on a 250sq m holding.
The rectangular house had last traded for $2.75m through Pauline Goodyer in 2017.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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