$50m hopes for bayside trophy home Teychel; Antony Catalano lists St Kilda West home

A beachfront on Brighton’s bay trail – a prized Melbourne trophy home – is among the 2022 spring selling season’s limited stock.

Antony Catalano’s home in St Kilda West has been listed.

A beachfront on Brighton’s bay trail – a prized Melbourne trophy home – is among the 2022 spring selling season’s limited stock.

Teychel, the tightly held 4578sq m holding, last sold in 1971 at a then record $205,000 when bought by the late property developer Bruce Terry.

This time around there’s $46m to $50m price guidance from Ross Savas at Kay & Burton for the Moule Ave offering, so a likely doubling of the known Brighton record of $25m.

“It is the most significant property to be offered for sale in the bayside market in the past 50 years,” Savas said. “It will create strong interest from local, national and international markets, especially with the Australian dollar at these levels.”

There’s $46m to $50m price guidance from Ross Savas at Kay & Burton for the Moule Ave offering in Brighton.

Back in 1971 the advertised auction sale terms were encouragingly flexible, requiring a $40,000 deposit within 90 days, with the balance paid $3750 per quarter at 8 per cent interest. The residue was payable within five years, with a right to pay it all off any time in between. The Victorian land title documents show Terry made his $185,000 final payment in 1973.

Its 1971 result prompted headlines in the Melbourne Herald the day after its onsite auction, written by John Sorell in the On The Spot column.

“It is undoubtedly one of the best blocks in Melbourne,” Sorell wrote, given its views across Port Phillip Bay.

He reported the former used car salesman turned property developer had arrived at the auction in an all-white Rolls Royce, having already commissioned the acclaimed architect, designer and landscaper Noel Coulson to design a colonial style house with tennis court and pool.

Its 1971 vendor was Gray Staley, the founder and longtime chairman of hosiery company, Holeproof. AG Staley had formed the company in the early 1920s as Staley & Staley with his uncle, Dan, and they formed an association with US-based Holeproof Hosiery Company in the late 1920s, and eventually took the same name.

Staley had bought the house for £8000 in 1943 from manufacturer Henry Kinnear.

“He got it cheap because of the fear Japanese submarines would infiltrate Port Phillip Bay and shell the beachfront,” Sorell wrote.

Terry’s thinking, likewise, appeared well ahead of the times.

“The price didn’t matter at all … nothing is expensive if you want it badly enough.

“I’d have paid a lot more for the place,” Terry proclaimed to Sorell.

Meanwhile, the Brighton rumour mill is in overdrive with suggestions Patricia Ilhan, widow of Crazy John’s founder John Ilhan, has sold her beachfront on Seacombe Grove off market to Ross Voci, the property developer.

Voci once published a book titled Turn Your Backyard Into Cash.

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Cat’s domain for sale

Just 7km along the bay, closer to the CBD, the St Kilda West home of regional media player Antony Catalano and his wife Stefanie, has been listed with a November 15 expressions of interest marketing campaign.

Catalano, the well-connected former CEO of Domain Group, who now heads Australian Community Media, is off to the $30.5m penthouse at the nearby Saint Moritz project by Gurner, while spending much of his work from home time in Byron Bay.

It seems its David Hicks-customised decor fit-out will be concluded late this year, following its December 2018 off-the-plan purchase through Christie’s International agent Sean Cussell.

It had 650sq m internal space, plus 175sq m terracing with pool on purchase, but now comes with 810sq m internal space and 275sq m of terracing after project reconfigurations.

Their vast, redundant four-level terrace on nearby Beaconsfield Parade has been their home for most of the past decade, during which valuations on the tightly held promenade have soared, especially after a $11.7m home sale in 2020.

The price guidance is $15.5m to $16.5m from Oliver Booth and Nicole Gleeson at Kay & Burton.

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Manly marvel

The nation’s top declared weekend auction sale was in Sydney’s Manly, where a five-bedroom, two-bathroom house fetched $21.5m as it sold for the first time in more than 40 years. That was between the $19m anticipated price and the $23m suburb record.

A vascular surgeon, who turned up in a red Ferrari, outbid eight registered buyers for the original-condition, three-level home overlooking the beach and its Manly Life Saving Club.

The nation’s top declared weekend auction sale was in Sydney’s Manly, fetching $21.5m.

The Reddall St house, set on 400sq m, last traded for $300,000 in 1981.

It was sold by the Landau family through Lisa Novak of Novak Properties.

Despite a rise in the preliminary clearance rate to 61 per cent, Sydney’s auction withdrawal rate among its 667 offerings last week came in at 18 per cent.

Melbourne saw its lowest preliminary clearance rate in five weeks, with 63 per cent of the 572 results collected so far by CoreLogic returning a successful result.

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Buyers baulk

Brisbane’s priciest offering did not sell. Rivadere, a three-level Brisbane riverfront estate at Yeronga, was passed in on a $7.5m bid through Christine Rudolph at Ray White New Farm. The opening bid was $6m, followed by a vendor bid of $7m.

The home was initially sold in 2017 for $7,825,000 after the building block cost $4m in 2006. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom home sits on a 2725sq m Ormadale Rd holding with a 43m river frontage. The European Renaissance-inspired home came with a 5000-bottle wine cellar with tasting room, a surround-sound theatre and a self-contained studio. Some 1170sq m of space overall.

Brisbane was the busiest market among the smaller capitals, with 162 auctions, of which 49 per cent found buyers, including 39 Glenrosa Rd, Red Hill at $3.53m. The Queenslander-style home was relocated from Dickson Terrace, Hamilton many decades ago.

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Revealing statistics

At halfway through the spring selling season, Louis Christopher at SQM Research undertook research for Competing Bids into the level of price disclosure after auction.

Over the past six weeks, Adelaide had the highest sale price advisory, with 80 per cent of sales having a price reveal.

Canberra was the poorest, with just 51 per cent of results coming with their sale price, although there was no hesitation to reveal the weekend’s top sale when the five-bedroom 2006-built house at 85 David St, O’Connor sold through Blackshaw Manuka agent Luke Revet at $4.05m.

It was a 60 per cent reveal for Sydney sales, 67 per cent for Melbourne and 71 per cent for Brisbane.

Christopher says timely price results are especially important in volatile markets.

“Auctions are public events and of course eventually all sales are reported,” he said.

With higher levels of properties selling prior to auction there would be less disclosure, but “in times of uncertainty” disclosure needed to be higher.