$14m for a mansion with history: the Paltos palace Gwandalan in Bellevue Hill

Bellevue Hill saw the nation’s top weekend house sale when about $14m was paid pre-auction for the Victoria Rd mansion, Gwandalan.

Gwandalan, on Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill, sold for around $14m pre-auction.

Bellevue Hill saw the nation’s top weekend house sale when about $14m was paid pre-auction for the Victoria Rd mansion, Gwandalan.

The four-bedroom home last sold at $860,000 in late 1985, three months after the pre-dawn raid and arrest of Dr Nick Paltos at the hillside abode.

Paltos, a former superintendent of casualty at Sydney Hospital, subsequently pleaded guilty to importing 5.5 tonnes of cannabis resin worth $45m from Lebanon, then credited as Australia’s biggest drug bust.

Paltos had gambling debts owed to another member of the syndicate.

The pair were photographed and bugged by Australian Federal Police while meeting in Melbourne’s Fawkner Park in mid-1985. The smuggling operation featured on the second series of the hit television show Underbelly.

Paltos, who was released from jail in 1994 and died in 2003, had first come to public prominence after the 1977 publication of a photo taken by the NSW Consorting Squad showing him sitting between Yowie Bay SP bookie George Freeman and the chief stipendiary magistrate Murray Farquhar in the members stand on a midweek race meeting at Royal Randwick.

Paltos had bought the home for $400,000 in 1981.

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Henley on a high

Sydney’s top weekend auction result came when Ray White agent Robert Cassidy sold 3 Dick St, Henley for $7.85m. The six-bedroom waterfront on 935sq m attracted 20-plus registered bidders.

And nearby, overlooking Woodland Bay at Longueville, $7.415m was paid for a five-bedroom house. There were six bidders seeking 12 Lucretia Avenue, an imposing three-level home on an 860sq m block that last sold for $5.535m in the previous market peak of 2017.

There was also a $8.57m sale when three parties competed pre-auction for the five-bedroom renovated 1990s house at 8B Beatty Street, Balgowlah Heights. Some 10 parties had taken contracts for the home with access to Forty Baskets Beach. Its boathouse has operated as an Airbnb.

Sydney’s preliminary auction success rate sat at 82 per cent from 1100 offerings, slightly above the prior week’s 78 per cent preliminary clearance rate, which was revised down to 74 per cent by CoreLogic after final results.

Housing economist Dr Andrew Wilson calculates that the 2888 properties taken to auction across the capital cities was a record volume for a June weekend.

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Hawthorn haven

Melbourne had the weakest result of the east coast capital cities at 71 per cent.

Its top reported sale was $5.555m in Hawthorn for a 1920s Edwardian-style five-bedroom home.

15 Rae Street, Hawthorn.

It was initially listed with $4m vendor expectations, and then received a pre-auction $4.5m offer from a buyer’s agent.

Marshall White Boroondara agent Chris Barrett contacted the interested parties and brought forward the auction by a week to Saturday morning, when six buyers competed.

A $700,000 renovation was approved in 2009 for the Rae St home which had previously sold at $900,000 in 2001.

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Back in Black

Black Rock had Melbourne’s second priciest sale when $3,741,000 was paid for a knockdown timber cottage.

There were five registered bidders for the 1141sq m Potter St offering.

The price guide from Buxtons agent Romana Altman was $3.05m to $3.2m.

Melbourne’s next priciest advised sale was nearby in Brighton where $3.38m was paid for Avalon, a four-bedroom 1925 Californian bungalow. The Hodges Real Estate price guide for 163 Were Street was $2.85m to $2.95m.

The back yard of the 696sq m property came with his and hers workshops.

Brighton also saw an undisclosed weekend auction sale, understood to be $7,025,000. The 980sq m property at 20 Head Street came with a knockdown three-bedroom, single-level brick home. It was offered with a price guide of $6.25m to $6.5m, having last sold at $531,000 in 1994.

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Buoyant Brisbane

Brisbane recorded a 79 per cent preliminary success rate which beat Canberra – the market leader for much of the year – sitting at 78 per cent.

Brisbane’s top weekend sale was $4,022,000 at Camp Hill, when a five-bedroom home at 154 Watson Street sold through Place Estate Agents.

Camp Hill has had a 9.4 per cent annual spike in its median, according to the latest REIQ data, to $1,033,000.

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Nyrambla sold

Ascot has been a Brisbane hotspot.

Last month Nyrambla, one of Brisbane’s grand Victorian residences, sold soon after the 1885 home was passed in at its conjunctional Ray White and Spinks & Co auction.

The top bid had been $8.6m, and it was sold soon after to the top bidder at a slightly higher price.

Set on 2608sq m in the heart of Ascot, the imposing home was designed by early Brisbane architect James Cowlishaw for Australian Joint Stock Bank manager Henry Abbott.

The estate, which had not traded for 100 years, was listed following the death last year of Brisbane socialite Andree Daws, the widow of artist Lawrence Daws.

Next month the Ray White chairman and patriarch, Brian White and his wife, Rosemary, have their Ascot estate scheduled for July 17 auction.

Brian White’s Brisbane estate at 32 Sutherland Avenue in Ascot. Picture: Tara Croser

Raising their three sons, they lived at the Sutherland Avenue home from 1975 to the mid-1990s when they relocated to Sydney to expand the Ray White network.

Set on 3035sq m, the four-bedroom 1930s Queenslander features a north-south tennis court and 12.5m swimming pool.

The couple will retain their Point Piper, Sydney harbourside mansion and a Sunshine Coast holiday house.

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Coast capers

There are whispers of two big off-market beachfront sales at Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

There’s reportedly been a $34m deal for a fan-shaped home on a 2015sq m Webb Rd, Sunshine Beach to an interstate buyer.

The other unconfirmed sale was reportedly $22m for the luxurious home at 2 Belmore Terrace. It last traded when bought by Sonya Evans, the wife of Melbourne businessman David, for $14m in 2018.

The house is on a 1258sq m lot with 41 metres of ocean frontage.

It is five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a 23m pool.

The REIQ recently advised the Sunshine Beach median house price was up 23 per cent over the past year to $1.95m.

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Jockeying for position

Not quite the same pace at Broadbeach where jockey Glen Boss has listed an investment apartment.

But the Gold Coast location has seen its apartment median rise by a healthy 10 per cent to $630,000, according to the REIQ.

Boss’s two-bedroom investment in The Oracle has a $599,000 asking price through Harcourts Coastal.

It has ocean glimpses.

The complex comes with owners’ lounge, private wine lockers and gold class movie theatre. He bought it in 2015 at $530,000.

Boss sold another in the complex in 2019 at $498,000 after 520 days on market. It had been bought for $505,000 in 2015.