The Bachelor mansion that once sold for £5000 listed with $40m hopes

One of Hunters Hill’s most prominent residences, the heritage-listed mansion Clifton, is set to hit the market for the first time in more than three decades amid anticipated price expectations of $40 million.

The landmark sandstone house is best known for wooing viewers of The Bachelor reality television series a decade ago when Perth real estate agent Blake Garvey was breaking hearts amid the rose-festooned gardens. But beyond Clifton’s ratings pull, it also offers a history of prominent owners.

The Hunters Hill property Clifton is set to hit the market for the first time in more than 30 years.

The seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom residence dates back to 1890 when it was built to a design by architect Walter Liberty Vernon on behalf of Sydney Stock Exchange chairman John Rider Jones.

The late Michael Grace of the family that ran Grace Bros until the family sold out of the business in the 1980s.Credit: Dallas Kilponen

Only a few families have owned it since. In 1930, it sold for £5000 to Sydney Lord Mayor Sir Archibald Howie and remained home to three generations of Howies before it was sold to the late retail dynasty heir Michael Grace in 1973.

Grace, of the family who founded Grace Bros, purchased it for $400,000. In his almost 20 years in residence, his net worth soared to land him on the rich list of the now-defunct BRW magazine, only to fall a few years later.

Clifton was sold by Westpac in 1993 for $2.75 million.

Clifton is set on 5125 square metres with a tennis court, swimming pool and private pontoon.

Since then, it has been owned by senior obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Simon McCaffrey and his wife Felicity, who have shared it with their 11 kids and renovated throughout in recent years.

Set on 5125 square metres, its headline features include a gymnasium, cellar, self-contained apartment, tennis court, swimming pool, pontoon and a berth for a 15-metre boat.

Clifton as it was in 1993 when it was sold by Westpac to the McCaffrey family.Credit: Fairfax Media

Spectre Real Estate’s Christian Ziade is yet to set an official guide, but his early expectations are $40 million.

A sale at that level would double Hunters Hill’s current house price high of $20 million set in June by McGrath’s Tracey Dixon for the non-waterfront home of telecom entrepreneur Tony Hakim, and would put it within coo-ee of the north shore’s all-time highest house sale of $42.2 million by Lavender Bay residence Idlemere.

Neighbourhood watch

Freight tycoon Clive Thomas has returned to Sydney’s high-end property market, buying a sub-penthouse in the Quay West building at The Rocks for $7.35 million.

Thomas’s purchase ends 30-plus years of ownership by the Luppi family, headed by US-based Italian businessman Frank Luppi, whose corporate interests purchased it in 1993 for $2.35 million.

Freight industry boss Clive Thomas has bought the sub-penthouse next door to his in the Quay West building at The Rocks.Credit: Domain

Following the apartment’s sale by Ray White’s Michael Lowden, it may well be set to be consolidated with the sub-penthouse next door, which he bought in 2012 for $5 million.

Thomas’s interest in the building has also extended to a three-bedroom apartment downstairs purchased recently for $3 million.

Consolidations are nothing new in the Quay West. Property magnate Jackie Waterhouse owns level 25 in the building, having purchased first in 2006 for $4.5 million and adding the pad next door last year for $10 million.

Thomas, owner of C. T. Freight, is best known to property watchers for owning the Bayview trophy home La Joie de Vivre, which starred in season one of The Bachelor in 2013.

Justice gets served

The penthouse investment apartment owned by Justice Michael Lee goes to auction on September 14.

Legal luminary Justice Michael Lee became something of a rock star among his judicial peers in May after his pithy turns of phrase captured the many minds (if not hearts) who had tuned in to watch the Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson defamation case in the Federal Court.

Justice Michael Lee presided over the Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson defamation trial in May.

So it is in light of that celebrity moment that shoppers may like to check out the judge’s Woolloomooloo investment penthouse that hit the market this week with a $3.25 million guide.

BresicWhitney’s Jeremy Brink said Justice Lee has long leased out the three-bedroom apartment in the Edo building, which he purchased in 2008 for $1.4 million. It is currently expected to rent for $1800 to $2000.

It goes to auction on September 14.

Incidentally, long before Justice Lee sat through the detailed evidence of Seven’s former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach in the high-profile defamation trial, he might have taken a moment to reflect on his own happy dealings with Seven’s Ryan Stokes. Lee’s wife Penelope sold their former home in Darling Point to Stokes eight years ago for $15.75 million.

Going Dutch colonial

In Woollahra, the Dutch colonial-style residence Roslyndale returns to the market a couple of years after Sandy Wiesel and her photographer husband Richard Wiesel bought it for $15.1 million.

The 1850s-built residence Roslyndale was for decades owned by the Sydney dancing man Frank McAlary.

It was for 40 years home to the late barrister Frank McAlary, who was immortalised in the iconic image of the end of World War II as Sydney’s dancing man.

Before it was listed with Forbes’s Ken Jacobs, the 1850s-built residence was approved for a Hancock Architects renovation and extension. The guide is $18 million to $19.5 million.