Kylie Minogue buys $8m home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs
Pop princess Kylie Minogue has put down roots in Melbourne after more than 30 years in London, splashing $8m on a luxury home in the leafy east.
Fiona Byrne
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Pop princess Kylie Minogue has put down roots in Melbourne after more than 30 years of living in England.
Minogue has bought a grand $8m home in the city’s leafy eastern suburbs, locating her near her parents who reside in Canterbury and her sister Dannii who has a base in Hawthorn East.
The deal is understood to have been negotiated privately at the end of last year.
The four-bedroom home, which is set back from the road on a large block, last changed hands in 2003 for $1.5m.
It offers privacy and security, while sitting in a premium location just a short drive from the CBD.
The luxurious property boasts an alfresco dining area with outdoor kitchen and fireplace, perfect for entertaining.
It has three bathrooms and room for eight cars.
The home also has a wine cellar, vegetable garden and vintage fireplaces.
Minogue, 53, is understood to have quietly arrived in Australia at the end of January after announcing in October that she was leaving London, which had been her base for more than 30 years.
She was spotted going about her business on the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne’s summer playground of the well-heeled and well-connected, last week by eagled-eyed fans. Minogue spent much of last year in Melbourne with her family during the pandemic lockdown.
“I have spent a lot of time with my family this year (2021) in Australia and it felt really good,” she told the BBC in October, adding she was surprised by the public reaction to her plan to move back to Australia from the UK.
“I’ve had friends call me, my friend at my local restaurant was saying: ‘Kylie, what do you mean? You can’t go’.
“I said: ‘I’m not really going. I’ve lived here (London) for 30 years, I’m always going to be back.”
It goes without question that Minogue has perfected the art of not drawing attention to herself when she is in Melbourne and it also goes without question that she will be welcomed with open arms to the city where she grew up.
There is little doubt she will be the No.1 “get” on the wish list of VIP guests for every event manager and PR in the country, but if history is anything to go by she won’t be at the opening of an envelope.
Minogue has been a savvy property investor over the years in Australia and the UK.
She recently sold a picture perfect two bedroom cottage in Armadale, that she owned for more than 30 years, for $1.7m.
She paid $185,000 for it in 1990.
The Minogue family sold a commercial property in Church St, Hawthorn last year for close to $20m.
The property, which was owned by a Minogue family company, was originally purchased for $12.5m in 2007.
Minogue famously owned a home on the secluded French Island in Western Port Bay.
She bought the 20ha hideaway, called Beauciel, with her siblings in 2005 for $400,000. It sold for more than $1m in 2009.
CALLS TO PUT KYLIE STATUE BACK ON DISPLAY
Kylie’s latest property purchase comes as the artist who created the life-size statue of the pop princess as part of a ‘Walk of Stars’ for Melbourne has called for the sculpture to be returned to public display.
Acclaimed sculptor Peter Corlett has urged Development Victoria to get the statue of the singer and four other famous Melbourne entertainers released from a storage warehouse in Clayton where they have been stashed since 2016.
“As an artist I want my work out on display. I went to a lot of trouble to make the five statues,” Corlett said.
“I am keen to co-operate with them (Development Victoria) any way I can.
“I am appalled that they are wasting away in a big warehouse, just sitting there. I put my heart and soul into them.
“I would love the sculptures to be on public display and particularly in an arts precinct of some sort.”
Corlett created the bronze life-size works of Minogue, John Farnham, Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage, Graham Kennedy and Dame Nellie Melba, as part of an Australian Walk of Stars project that launched in the Docklands in 2006.
The stars were evicted in April 2016 to make way for yet another apartment tower in that part of town and have not been seen since.
Corlett said Dame Nellie was likely to be the first to see daylight.
“Dame Nellie Melba is going out to her old property, Coombes Cottage (in the Yarra Valley),” he said.
“I am quite happy about that, except I would have liked them kept together as a group.
“I had hoped they would go to perhaps a regional gallery, that is what would be my ideal place for them, as a group but according to Places Victoria none of the regional galleries are interested as they don’t have the money to install them.
“Putting in a footing and fixing them down, that seems to have stopped people.”
When asked about the future of the statues Development Victoria said in a statement: “The statues are safely in storage, with Dame Nellie Melba set to soon be moved to a new home.”
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