Spin King Shane Warnes splashes $4m on Portsea beach house
Shane Warne plans to turn his $4m Mornington Peninsula property purchase into a family compound. The savvy investor stumped up for a block in one of Portsea’s most prestigious locations. Take a look inside.
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Shane Warne has stumped up more than $4 million for a block in one of Portsea’s most prestigious locations.
Our “King of Spin” is one of Melbourne’s high-profile property players, spending millions on Bayside homes over the years.
The larrikin turned savvy property investor has been scoping the Mornington Peninsula area for more than four years.
Now the former Test cricket great has snapped up a subdivided allotment to build a coastal palazzo, maybe with a few mirrored ceilings.
The 3000 square-metre Campbell Rd and Duffy St property already has a clay tennis and was owned by late Victorian Liberal Minister Vin Heffernan.
It’s not quite Point Nepean Highway, where families with surnames like Fox, Roche and Deague have stately seaside residences. But Campbell Rd, a short stroll from Portsea’s popular Shelley Beach, is considered the next best thing.
Media baron Antony Catalano lives just down the road in a $6 million plus abode, while Warnie’s old teammate Ricky Ponting is just a few cricket pitches away.
The Heffernan family sold the block with plans for a contemporary four-bedroom home by renowned Pandolfini Architects.
But Page 13 understands these plans will be left on the scrap heap, with Warnie to build his own unique compound.
The listing by exclusive Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty fulsomely describes the property as an “elevated block which enjoys a desired northern aspect and complete privacy for you to create Portsea’s next most desirable home with your own personal style”
Warnie sure knows how to bring his own personal style.
In his many sprawling Brighton mansions, Warnie’s ostentatious decor has included everything from a pool emblazoned with his cricket test number 23, a noise-activated disco ball, a 500-bottle wine cellar and Page 13’s personal favourite, a mirrored bedroom ceiling, which he used as one of his Tinder profile pictures.
Warnie loved his “favourite” mansion, Melville, so much he bought it twice.
He first bought the sought after Middle Crescent home with ex-wife Simone Callahan in 2000 for $3.6 million, before selling it for $8.8 million in 2017.
Warnie bought it back for $14,249,999 in 2016, before selling again for $18,888,888 (it’s no secret Chinese buyers like the number 8).
It wasn’t just his flipper on the cricket pitch which has impressed people. The property flipper has owned plenty of other up-market addresses in the Bayside area, including16 Park St, bought for $3.7 million in 2007 and sold for $6,775,000 in 2009.
There was 6 William St, which he shared with actor Elizabeth Hurley after his separation from Simone, which he bought for $7.55 million in 2009 and sold for $10.85 million in 2013.
Earlier this year he put his 15 Newbay Cres, Brighton property, once owned by Essendon football champion Matthew Lloyd on the market with a $6.8 to $7.4 million asking price.
Warnie is also understood to have bought into Tim Gurner’s Saint Moritz ultra luxury development on the Novotel St Kilda site, which began construction last year.
Back to Warnie’s sea change!
It’s all the coastal chatter of the mum’s having sneaky coffee catch ups down at the footy oval and their significant other’s teeing off at the golf course.
Sotheby’s top-end Mornington Peninsula agent Rob Curtain would not comment on whether Warne was the mystery buyer of the Heffernan block.
But Curtain did say the area has had a recent boom, with record sales.
Curtain says young and wealthy Melburnians are snapping up coastal properties or upgrading existing beach houses as their primary residence.
Melbourne houses have become a place to crash when in town for a few days.
As Gilly used to say: Bowwlled, Shane!
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