The Sell: Nothing fake about this $8.26m Byron Bay buy
Bondi Sands co-founder Shaun Wilson has poured some of the proceeds of the sale of the fake-tanning products company into Byron Bay’s high-end property market.
NSW
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Bondi Sands co-founder Shaun Wilson has poured some of the proceeds of the sale of the fake-tanning products company into Byron Bay’s high-end property market.
Byron has certainly a place in the heart of the Melbourne-based Wilson. He proposed to his fiancee, the supercharge smoothies entrepreneur Tess Shanahan, at the coastal hotspot last year.
The couple then returned to the beach to announce to their Instagram followers that they’re expecting their first child, due in August.
Wilson, who with co-founder Blair James sold the Bondi Sand company to Japanese beauty giant Kao Group for $450m last year, has spent $8.26m on a six-bedroom home in what local agents call Byron’s Golden Grid near town.
The house on an elevated 1010sq m block won a North Coast HIA Best Renovation award for builder Ian Heanes.
The home features open-plan living areas with Tallow Wood flooring, a kitchen with butler’s pantry, integrated Liebherr fridge and Ilve oven, and an entertaining area with pizza oven, barbecue and sunken firepit area. A self-contained studio overlooks the saltwater pool and spa.
The purchase comes just a few months after the couple sold their landmark Kew home Lalla-Rookh.
The home, dating back to the late 1880s, was named after an Oriental poem written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore in 1817.
The couple are now undertaking a new build in Brighton, documenting the journey, dubbed Project No. 4, on Instagram. They’ve had McKimm design the home.
Other recent buyers at Byron include the hospitality industry billionaire Justin Hemmes, with his third residential property on the Belongil peninsula.
None of the three Hemmes’ holdings are adjoining.
His latest dress-circle purchase, that cost $3.1m, is a two-bedroom cottage on 300sq m on Belongil Creek overlooking the estuary that had been listed with $3.75m hopes. The Vaucluse hotelier secured his first property on the beachside of Childe St for $16m in February last year, then added another Childe St holding overlooking the beach for $22m in May last year.
Hemmes owns two commercial premises in the town, with the initial foray in 2021 costing $11.5m, and then adding next door for $11.9m last year.
Hemmes also has a collection of five homes dating back to 2006 at Berrara on the NSW south coast, and a coastal retreat at Narooma.
HAWKINS NOW MODEL VENDOR
Model Jennifer Hawkins is selling a Lake Macquarie district investment, one of the last homes in her once extensive investment portfolio.
Hawkins, who was born in Newcastle, is seeking between $800,000 and $880,000 for the three-bedroom Minmi home, about 20km inland from the centre of Newcastle.
Hawkins paid $345,000 in 2008, a year after she signed her reputed $4m deal with Myer.
The single-level brick and tiled home on 664sq m features a back deck that overlooks a large lawn with a “man shed”. The home backs on to a reserve.
The marketing by First National Lake Macquarie Edgeworth agent Troy Duncan suggests the potential rental return could be $700 a week for an investor.
In 2016, Hawkins offloaded another investment that had been the first property she ever bought. The three-bedroom Merewether house cost $469,000 in 2006 and was sold for $731,000. Hawkins has been an avid property owner over near two decades, including apartments in Bondi and Coogee.
She’s also built homes with her husband, builder Jake Wall, who heads construction company J Group Projects.
Their first project was in North Curl Curl, then Curl Curl and on to Pittwater to create Casa Paloma.
The five-bedroom Newport waterfront sold to billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes for a record $24.5m.
The couple are creating a mega mansion in Whale Beach that has already sold for about $30m.
Rocca Bella, the oceanfront double block, was once owned by late opera singer Joan Sutherland. The couple bought the 3200sq m holding for $6.95m from Museum of Contemporary Art chairwoman Lorraine Tarabay.
The couple retain a 3ha block in Terrigal they bought for $6m in 2022.
The 3.3ha property comes with a seven-bedroom old-English-style manor with lawns running down to Avoca Lake, one of only a few bordering the Bulbararing Lagoon.
SEIDLER LEGACY LIVES ON AS APARTMENTS FINALLY LISTED
Sydney City Council is finally set to heritage-list mid-century buildings in Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay that will ensure the preservation of the apartment buildings designed by late acclaimed architect Harry Seidler.
His 1960s residential towers buildings are at heightened risk of demolition as the council refused to recognise Seidler’s buildings as heritage.
The backflip will likely capture Ithaca Gardens in Elizabeth Bay, built in 1960, and where he and his wife Penelope lived before building their home at Killara.
It will also likely take in the twin Gemini complex, built on Victoria St, Potts Point, in 1969.
Other Seidler buildings include Rushcutters Bay’s Aquarius block, and Elizabeth Bay’s Ercildoune building that were both built in 1966.
Despite Seidler, who died in 2006 aged 82, being recognised as one of the most important architects in Australian history, the council has been woken from its heritage inertia following the recent redevelopment of several less quality mid-century buildings under state government strata renewal laws.
The council heritage move is likely to capture other mid-century buildings in its sweep through the neighbourhood. It comes after the newly-formed Potts Point Preservation Group, which has local veteran influencer Leo Schofield as its patron, seeks greater recognition of the neighbourhood as a special living and historical community requiring specific preservation.
Meanwhile, an Ithaca Gardens apartment has been listed for auction by architect Otto Cserhalmi through Renee Cross at Ray White Elizabeth Bay, whose marketing describes the building as “iconic Seidler”.
There was an initial $1.8m price guide for the 86sq m first-floor, two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for its June 19 auction, which has been revised to $1.7m.
Seidler’s office towers are heritage-listed, including the MLC Centre.
REBEL’S PITCH FOR HOLLYWOOD ‘OFFICE’
Actor Rebel Wilson is not just selling in Balmain, because she has also listed the West Hollywood, California, home she calls her Office House.
It is close to the Hollywood Hills abode she shares with her fiancee, clothing-brand founder Ramona Agruma, and their one-year-old daughter Royce.
The Fairfax District offering has been listed at $US4.15m ($6.24m).
“I love real estate, so I thought, ‘If I need an office, I’ll make it an investment,” Wilson told
The Wall Street Journal last week. She paid $2.95m in 2016, but is now “downsizing” to a smaller office space because apparently she is spending more time at home with Royce.
Built in 2015, the gated holding comes with a saltwater pool, hot tub and an outdoor fireplace through listing agent Tracy Tutor of Douglas Elliman. Wilson, 44, converted the garage into a gym with a pink-neon sign that reads “Rebel Gym”.
The Sydney actor wrote much of her recent controversial autobiography Rebel Rising in her office in the Office House where she displays her navy blue skirt suit from Pitch Perfect in a mounted glass case.
The home also served as a guesthouse for out-of-town family and friends. Wilson paid $2.2m in 2014 for her actual Hollywood Hills house.
Her long-held Balmain investment goes to June 22 auction through her agent Anna Wilson at Cobden & Hayson with $2.3m hopes. Marketed as a house-like apartment on Punch Park, the 130sq m Reynolds St space spreads over two levels.
It comes with striking artwork of the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Wilson stayed in it while renovating her former home in Birchgrove.
She still retains a nearby property after her investment company paid $3.6m in 2022 for a four-bedroom home.
There are also homes in New York and London.
CHINATOWN MARKET ROW GOES TO COURT
The forced internal relocation of many of the Paddy’s Market storeholders means 25 long-time retailers are seeking compensation in a Supreme Court hearing that starts on Monday.
They were told to move to the rear of the historic marketplace in Chinatown to make way for Doltone Hospitality Group, the high-end food and beverage catering company.
Yi Ming Weng is the lead plaintiff against Sydney Markets Limited, the operation managing company in the case before Justice Elisabeth Peden.
Weng had been selling luggage and goods within his prized precinct for 25 years.
Most of the traders forced to relocate from their coveted position to areas with far less foot traffic have engaged Gavin Stuart as their solicitor, with Dean Elliott briefed as their barrister.
The matter is scheduled for a three-day hearing, where Sarina Roppolo is the solicitor representing Sydney Markets.
The traders have John Sanidas from JSA Retail Valuers as their valuation compensation specialist.
Sydney City Council gave approval late last year for the $9.8m Doltone proposal to turn a 2910sq m section into an authentic European food precinct.
The market dates back to a decision in 1834 by NSW Governor Richard Bourke.
PARTY SHIFTS TO NEW ADDRESS
Socialite Tiffany Tilley has bought an apartment in the Rockwall Gardens, Potts Point complex for $3.58 million, securing the deceased estate of Fleming grocery family matriarch Lois Fleming through Vicki Laing of Laing Real Estate.
It cost $2.75 million in 2015 when sold by The Block’s Gavin Atkins and Warren Sonin.
Tilley has sold in Woollahra to Fiona Brown, the co-founder of Dicker Data, for $4.8 million.
DUO LOOKING TO SCORE WINDFALL
Sporting power couple Luke Egan and Jessica Yates have listed in Burraneer.
The Woolooware Rd home on 1210sq m comes with a $3.6 million to $3.8 million guide for its June 29 auction.
Egan, a former pro surfer, and Yates, a Fox Sports presenter, spent $3.5 million on the tightly held Morris family home, which sold for the first time in six decades in 2022 for $3.5 million.
The mid-century house has knockdown approval.
BEACH BEAUTY AVAILABLE AGAIN
The Markopoulos family has listed its Palm Beach retreat, which was bought from actor turned children’s book writer Sophie Lee.
The retro, Hamptons-style three-bedroom house is set on a beach and boasts a boatshed.
The Barrenjoey Rd home has $7.5 million hopes with Dennis Kennelly at LJH Palm Beach.
Lee, who bought it from Collette Dinnigan, sold it early last year for $5.75 million.
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Originally published as The Sell: Nothing fake about this $8.26m Byron Bay buy
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