Would you pay $20 million for this house? Someone just did

Manly’s Fairy Bower has long been referred to as the “Point Piper of the Northern Beaches” as a flattering reference to how expensive it is compared to its neighbours, but that took a big step closer to reality this week when a 1950s brick house sold for just shy of $20 million.

This is no waterfront mansion hidden behind a fairly humble facade. Instead, the two-storey house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage is set to be knocked down by the new owner and rebuilt into something far more glamorous.

The four-bedroom house on 950 square metres sold for just shy of $20 million.

Unlike many of Fairy Bower’s most expensive homes, the 950 square metre property does not back onto oceanfront reserve or the popular Marine Parade walkway that links Manly Beach to Shelly Beach.

Instead, it backs onto Bower Street Reserve, but with a north-facing view back to Manly Beach.

Clarke & Humel’s Cherie Humel declined to reveal the exact figure, confirming only that the house sold, no doubt leveraged off the $23 million sale earlier this year of the near-neighbouring house owned by Andrew Swan, of British investment giant Man Group.

The Catholic Church leasehold last traded in 2016, when purchased by Singapore-based expat Greg Unsworth for all of $4.55 million.

The four-bedroom house was quietly snapped up before it could be launched next week.

As the Catholic Church has softened its rules and terms over its leasehold properties in recent years – allowing a 20- to 30-year lease extension – prices have soared and Bower Street has become increasingly populated by cranes undertaking major rebuild works.

The houses of Fairy Bower have dominated Manly’s record sales since 2018, when former Vocation chief Mark Hutchinson sold his designer house on oceanfront reserve for $16 million to specialist laparoscopic surgeon Craig Taylor.

The same house previously traded for $7.25 million in 2014, when sold by motorcycle legend Wayne Gardner.

The following year, outdoor advertising boss Ray Balcomb sold his house above Shelly Beach for about $17.5 million, which remained the record until the $23 million high of earlier this year.