Point Piper mystery buyer reveals secret trophy home sale

The mystery behind the recent $17.35 million purchase of adjoining apartments in Point Piper has unravelled, revealing not only the downsizing plans of prominent business executive Jillian Segal and her husband, property magnate John Roth, but also the sale of their Darling Point trophy home.

The couple’s big-ticket property play goes back to late last year, when Kiwi billionaire Sir Bob Jones listed his long-held pad in Point Piper with 1st City’s Brad Caldwell-Eyles and a guide of $6 million, only to see it sold under the hammer for $7.35 million.

The Point Piper apartment sold by Sir Bob Jones had a guide of $6 million but sold for $7.35 million.Credit:

It settled to a trust fronted by high-net-worth tax lawyer David Lechem, who more recently secured the apartment next door for $10 million in another trust company.

Tracing the ultimate ownership of the two apartments has been left to plans before the building’s body corporate that reveal an intention to consolidate them with a third apartment that Segal and Roth already own in the building, to create a luxury super-spread overlooking the harbour.

Lechem and Roth declined to respond to calls this week, so plans for the super-spread will be left to the body corporate, but it coincides with a caveat on the title of Roth and Segal’s Darling Point home, indicating that it has sold.

The paperwork on title of the Darling Point property says it sold to “an undisclosed confidential entity” represented by Kosmin & Associates.

Prominent business executive and UNSW deputy chancellor Jillian Segal has downsizing plans in play.Credit: Louise Kennerley

It will be left to settlement – whenever that eventuates – to reveal the sale price, but expect this to rank among Sydney’s top sales given the property consists of two residences set on a double block, totalling some 1500 square metres of prime waterfront.

Roth and Segal, the deputy chancellor of the University of New South Wales, have owned the first of the two Darling Point houses since 1986.

Five years ago, they bought the waterfront mansion next door, known as Edgewater, for $30.2 million, bringing the two lots back into single ownership for the first time since they were subdivided in 1970 by developer Tibor Balog.

Following their purchase of Edgewater, however, the couple didn’t opt to consolidate the block. Instead, they lodged a $15.7 million DA to renovate Edgewater and demolish their home behind it to make way for a five-storey block of luxury apartments designed by Tzannes architectural firm.

Despite gaining approval, work is likely to be left to the new, mystery buyer.

Olympian buys in Bondi

James Magnussen and his partner Rose McEvoy are moving to North Bondi.Credit: Hanna Lassen

Olympic medallist James Magnussen sold his Drummoyne home this week amid talk that he and his partner, Rose McEvoy, have bought in North Bondi for about $2.8 million.

Sources say Magnussen has bought into developer Richard Scheinberg and Alex Pope’s Morado redevelopment of six townhouses that was being marketed by Ray White Double Bay’s Craig Pontey and Warren Ginsberg.

The Drummoyne apartment of James Magnussen sold this week for $1.75 million.Credit:

The couple’s purchase price remains undisclosed, but not so the $1.75 million sale price of his two-bedder in Drummoyne.

Magnussen had paid $935,000 for the Drummoyne digs in 2012, just months ahead of his silver and bronze medal wins at the London Summer Olympics. It was sold pre-auction by Ray White IW’s Chris Wilkins.

Mosman’s Miriam for sale

The 1906-built house Miriam was the long-time home of renowned theatre couple Hayes and Helen Gordon.Credit:

The Mosman home of the late theatre couple Hayes and Helen Gordon is up for grabs for the first time in more than three decades.

Hayes Gordon is credited with bringing The Method acting technique to Sydney in the 1950s.Credit: Fairfax Media

Hayes, who was renowned in Sydney’s theatre circle for establishing the Ensemble Theatre in Milsons Point in the 1960s, and Helen purchased the Federation-era home in 1991 for $557,500, and it soon became a creative retreat where he conducted lessons and scene workshops until he died in 1999.

Helen died in March, prompting a July 7 auction to be set for the couple’s long-held home. Ray White Lower North Shore’s Bernard Ryan has a $4.7 million guide.

Meanwhile, the nearby waterfront Mosman home of parking meter entrepreneur Phillip Verity returns to the market this week four years after he bought it.

The Beauty Point home of parking meter entrepreneur Phillip Verity is for sale.Credit:

The Beauty Point residence last traded for $12.5 million in 2018 when sold by RAMS Home Loans co-founder John Kinghorn, who at the time was downsizing to his $10.22 million spread in the Watermarque building on Mosman Bay.

Verity has commissioned a redesign by designer du jour Blainey North, but the work was never done before it was listed with Tim Foote at his new outfit Pello.