$100m tag for Gary Wolman’s Point Piper waterfront jewel
Gary Wolman, the former Cinqplast Plastop packaging entrepreneur, has listed his luxury Point Piper beachfront abode for sale.
Gary Wolman, the former Cinqplast Plastop packaging entrepreneur, has listed his luxury Point Piper beachfront abode for sale. He “dreams” of securing $100m for the dress circle Wolseley Rd property.
The as-yet unsold listing was the most expensive Sydney home offering featured on Luxe Listings Sydney, the entertaining Amazon Prime docu-reality series that has now aired on the streaming service around the world.
The impressive home listing was revealed in the series’ final episode for those Sydneysiders who binge-watched all six shows over the wet lockdown weekend.
The low-key Wolman, who is part owner of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, makes no appearance on the show. And his last mention in the business pages came in 2013, given his shareholding in the float of packaging manufacturer Pact.
The low-key family has featured twice in the top sales lists since their initial arrival on the pricey peninsula with a $5m non-waterfront Wolseley Rd acquisition in 2001. That first property had for many years been the home of the former dual French Open tennis champion Lesley Bowrey, nee Turner, and her tennis champion husband, Bill “Tex” Bowrey, complete with its Plexipave-surfaced tennis court on its 1140sq m holding, and it remains one of four Point Piper houses with courts.
With his wife Janine, Wolman upgraded in 2004 to the 1320sq m double block with triplex Federation apartment, which cost $15m when bought from the late antique dealer Peter Cook.
At the time the highest priced Wolseley Rd waterfront had been the nearby $15.15m purchase a year earlier by Ron and Odetta Medich from acclaimed restaurateur Wolfie Pizem, who once made headlines when he tried to turn Sydney’s priciest suburb into an LA-style gated community.
The Wolmans then built their four-level house, which has its own beach and jetty, along with two apartments, keeping one and selling the other after their completion in 2012.
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In the limelight
Cohen Handler buyers’ agent Simon Cohen was given the first tour to inspect the Wolman home by the Ray White TRG listing agent Gavin Rubinstein.
When it came to pricing, the low-balling Cohen suggested Rubinstein would probably need to throw in the four Porsches, the Ferrari and Lamborghini parked in the Wolman’s garage at the nominated price.
Their filmed banter saw plenty of optimistic boasting.
“It’s so busy man,” Cohen advised.
“We’re at a point where now out of the top six billionaires in Australia four of them are signed up working with us,” claimed Cohen.
No sign yet of Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar, Anthony Pratt and Harry Triguboff, who make up the top six on The List – Australia’s Rich 250, published annually by The Weekend Australian, purchasing on what Rubinstein dubbed “billionaires’ row”.
The show did star Cohen’s wacko would-be buyer clients amid the bluff and bluster when it came to actually consummating any pricey deals in the glare of the in-your-face cameras and drones overhead.
The no-nonsense D’Leanne Lewis, another of the featured agents, did advise she’d received a $71m offer on an undisclosed Point Piper property, but no sale has yet to emerge.
The featured listing of Point Piper’s so-called Copper House did see an eventual sale, after estate agent Alex Lyons beat off the listing pitch from Rubinstein.
The home’s moniker is a reference to the vaulted copper ceiling on the top floor of the Wingadal Avenue house, which was designed for lawyer Sarah Cooke.
Rather than achieve the touted $55m to $60m for the south-facing harbourfront, the delayed settlement sale price is tipped to emerge at just $35m.
And there’s currently some
pre-settlement legal argy-bargy over its foreshore access entitlement.
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Greek island paradise
Paul Franklin, whose company Eureka Productions made the series, calculated they visited “something like a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of properties”.
They included an off-market Vaucluse listing with $50m hopes. It is the Greek island-style abode of Pengana Capital chief executive Russel Pillemer and his wife Carole.
They have reputedly knocked back $42m.
The South African-born executive had paid $8.5m in 2013 before the stunning makeover to what had once been the home of Joe Brender, the co-founder of the Katies women’s retail clothing chain and his wife Gerda.
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Breakaway
Gavin Rubinstein’s office was established after he and his loyal team broke away from the long-established Ray White Double Bay office. There was no mention of their dramatic departure in 2019, which insiders suggest was triggered by his preparedness to offer prospective vendors cut-price commissions – something that upset the agency’s team synergy.
The Ray White TRG group disputes this.
His new office has thrived.
“While it’s been a phenomenal year, and everyone has done well, we still have not captured enough of these, the waterfronts,” Rubinstein told his team at their 2020 Christmas cruise on Sydney Harbour.
They were filmed aboard MV Quantum, the 120-foot yacht rented out by Steve Burcher.
“To try and step up that process, next year I will be bringing in some new agents,” Rubinstein added. There’s been no sign yet of any appointments.
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Brisbane boilover
Away from the screen, the nation’s top weekend sale was in Brisbane when a $10m deal saw Brian White, the Point Piper-based patriarch of the real estate group, and his wife, Rosemary sell their longtime Ascot home. It went to a local buyer pre-auction after interest from four buyers.
“We ran an extensive print, digital and social media campaign,” said Matt Lancashire of Ray White New Farm, who sold it in conjunction with Dwight Ferguson of Ray White Ascot.
Brisbane agents secured a 70 per cent weekend clearance rate, according to realestate.com.au. The city’s strong tally was actually the weakest of the major capitals, with Canberra the strongest at 94 per cent, followed by Adelaide on 88 per cent. Sydney, despite the pandemic misery, was at 86 per cent and edged out Melbourne on 79 per cent.
A tight contest for the nation’s cheapest sale saw a one-bedder $210,000 at Belconnen, ACT just edged out by a three-bedroom Mount Warren Park, fringe Brisbane unit sale at $206,500.
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Cliffhanger finale
It was a phone call from Brian White to Rubinstein that was used as the hook in the Luxe Listings cliffhanger finale, an age-old television production device to keep interest rolling into the next series.
No clues on what was behind the urgent summons, but maybe it was to discuss Rubinstein’s grand plans to position his office as the “Goldman Sachs” of real estate, as outlined by his brother Jarryd Rubinstein, who describes the overall calibre of the industry as “dog shit”.
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