Bronte home of late TV boss Maureen Kerridge sets new $25m high

Bronte is fast establishing itself as one of Sydney’s most expensive locales, after a parkside house long owned by the late Seven chief executive Maureen Kerridge sold for about $25 million.

Taking the keys to the designer two-storey residence overlooking Bronte Park are baby sleepwear entrepreneurs Hana-Lia and Gavin Krawchuk, who sold a majority stake in their company Love to Dream two years ago to Quadrant Private Equity.

The Bronte Road residence designed by architect Virginia Kerridge sold for $25 million.Credit: Fairfax Media

The off-market sale comes on the heels of a slew of sales in the $20 million-plus range in Bronte and Tamarama, and tops the recent high of $23.833 million set by the sale of a beachside house to returning Singaporean expats and blockchain start-up co-founder Dorjee Sun and Joanne Way Yee Huynh.

Kerridge (nee Plavsic), who was Australia’s first female network television boss, died a year ago after a battle with cancer, and was posthumously made a Member of the Order of Australia this year for her significant service to the television industry, and arts and charitable organisations.

The sale by her widower, investment banker and cattleman Keith Kerridge, is understood to be tied up in gag orders but is rumoured to have been sold by buyer’s agent Carli Skurnik and Jayden Hurvitz.

Sources say the property was being quietly offered to buyers with a guide of $30 million by Ballard’s James Ball and Sotheby’s James McCowan. Ball declined to comment for this story, and McCowan was uncontactable.

Hana-Lia Krawchuk, chief executive and founder of Love To Dream, has bought in Bronte for $25 million.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The Bronte Road residence overlooking Bronte Park was designed by Keith Kerridge’s sister, acclaimed architect Virginia Kerridge, on a 530 square metre block. It was completed in 2006.

At $25 million, the sale equates to $47,000 per square metre.

Meanwhile, records show Mr Kerridge has already bought replacement digs on the eastern beaches, paying $10.55 million for a clifftop house in South Coogee at auction a week before Christmas last year.

The Maroubra-based Krawchuks also bought a South Coast weekender, Lands End, in Gerroa last year for $2.45 million.

Maureen Kerridge died a year ago after a battle with cancer.Credit: Fiona-Lee Quimby

Until recent months, Bronte and the neighbouring Tamarama and Bondi oceanfront neighbourhoods had never recorded a house sale in the $20 million-plus trophy home range.

However, high-end values have soared in recent years. There were 10 sales of more than $10 million from 2006 to 2019 in Bronte, and already more than a dozen at that level in the past two years.

Tamarama’s high-end sales record has been equally bullish, with a house owned by psychiatrist Greg McLean and respiratory specialist associate professor Janet Rimmer selling in November for more than $25 million, just weeks after a rundown block of apartments on the oceanfront reserve at Tamarama also sold in November for $29.2 million.

Prestige valuer Paul Donovan, of Pontons, said earlier this week that the runaway success of the eastern beaches market is indicative of a generational change in what constitutes a prestige suburb.

“People who grew up in Bellevue Hill don’t necessarily want to live there now,” he said. “They often want more of a lifestyle by living in North Bondi or Bronte.”

Bronte’s median house price has soared in the past year, up 55 per cent in the 12 months to October to a median of $5.3 million, according to the latest Domain figures.