Lyndon Terracini set for tree change as home goes under the hammer

No sooner has Opera Australia’s artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, announced his departure from the national performing arts company, than he has put his grand Victorian terrace in Redfern up for sale.

This is the three-level terrace on a leafy street that Terracini purchased for $1.525 million in 2010, soon after he moved to Sydney to take up Opera Australia’s coveted job.

The 1890s-built terrace of Lyndon Terracini goes to auction on May 28.Credit:

The former opera singer has weathered a controversial time since announcing he would not renew his contract when it expires at the end of next year.

In April, bullying claims prompted some cast members of the Sydney production of The Phantom of the Opera to threaten not to perform over the treatment of one of the show’s stars. Days later, a leaked survey showed one in three staff members believe bullying and harassment is a problem.

According to title records, Terracini was already hatching plans for a change of scene early this year when he sold his long-held restored Queenslander estate near Lismore for $1.46 million.

Lyndon Terracini purchased the house in 2010 for $1.525 million following his appointment to Opera Australia.Credit: Anthony Johnson

Belle Property’s James Perlowski and BresicWhitney’s Michael Kirk have a $3.25 million guide for the arts doyen’s 1890s Redfern home ahead of a May 28 auction. Sources say there’s a tree change on the horizon, given plans to buy a bolthole in Sydney and spend more time at the 1870s-built bluestone homestead near Orange bought in 2019 for $1.25 million.

Roxy’s mum buys ‘in-betweener’

It took bikini designer-turned-rich lister Erin Deering all of two weeks to sell her North Bondi pad, thanks to Doreen Davis-Jacenko, neighbour and mother of publicity queen Roxy Jacenko.

Belle Property Double Bay’s Peter Starr was gagged from confirming the result or buyer’s identity, but was no doubt happy to take the rumoured offer of more than $8.5 million ahead of next week’s scheduled auction.

Doreen Davis-Jacenko rents a property in Rebel Penfold-Russell’s development in North Bondi.Credit:

Roxy Jacenko (left) and her mother Doreen Davis-Jacenko in 2018.Credit: Mark Stanley

The four-bedder is expected to be an “in-betweener” for Davis-Jacenko while she spends the next few years undertaking a mammoth knock-down-rebuild of the Vaucluse house she bought in 2020 for $5 million.

The Vaucluse digs are across the road from Roxy and husband Oliver Curtis, for which she has lodged a DA to build a four-level residence designed by Smart Design Studio at a cost of $7.8 million.

Not that Davis-Jacenko is unfamiliar with her new North Bondi address. She already rents in the Coast development of film producer Rebel Penfold-Russell, alongside the likes of Hugh Jackman and billionaire Sam Prince.

Two for the price of $16 million

Daniel Sze, a director of one of China’s largest bedding manufacturers, clearly has a penchant for Point Piper’s Kilmory Estate. Having already purchased in the exclusive converted mansion two years ago for $7.5 million, he has done so again.

The original stables and caretaker’s cottage of Point Piper’s Kilmory Estate is now a luxury residence.Credit:

Sources say Sze has paid more than $8.5 million for the estate’s converted caretaker’s cottage, owned by retired handbag purveyor Larry Bergman and his wife Jill, to be used as accommodation for visiting family from Hong Kong.

Christie’s Darren Curtis, who was offering it to buyers with his former colleague Martin Ross, declined to confirm the talk, saying only that he had a guide of $8.5 million to $9.3 million before it sold.

Trade relations hit a high point

China-Australia trade specialist Christian Wang joined the ranks of Sydney’s trophy home owners late last year when he bought a Vaucluse residence for almost $25 million, and he has done so again, buying for about $27 million.

The four-level residence of Julina Lim made a capital gain of $2 million each year since it last traded in 2015.Credit:

Not bad given corporate records indicate he is trading up from a two-bedroom pad in Chatswood.

Wang’s latest purchase is the Vaucluse mansion on prized Queens Avenue of Julina Lim, matriarch of the Oceania Property development family.

Lim did well from the deal, more than doubling her money on the house she bought in 2015 for $12.85 million from former investment banker and venture capitalist John Grant.

The sale was shrouded in secrecy by Laing+Simmons Double Bay’s D’Leanne Lewis and Sotheby’s Walter Antonelli, and settlement will confirm the bullish result.

Wang, who heads up China-Australia trade company and specialist infant formula manufacturer Australink with Yejian Wang, first appeared on trophy records last November when he agreed to buy the nearby home of recruitment businessman Duncan Thomson and his wife Verity for close to $25 million.