$6.5m paid for barrister’s Woolloomooloo haven
The Woolloomooloo harbourfront apartment of barrister Richard Cobden has sold after being passed in at a weekend auction, becoming the nation’s highest notified weekend sales result.
The Woolloomooloo harbourfront apartment of barrister Richard Cobden has sold after being passed in at a weekend auction, becoming the nation’s highest notified weekend sales result.
Stone Real Estate agent Julian Rowe had placed a $6.6m vendor bid after a single buyer bid at $6.1m.
The post-auction negotiations secured $6,537,500 for the barrister, whose intellectual property clients over recent years have included Microsoft, Seven West Media and the Australian designer Katie Jane Taylor, who while selling clothing under the trademark Katie Perry became involved in the celebrated court stoush with the American singer of that name.
The three-bedroom Wharf Terraces apartment, with office, cost $2.55m when it was bought in 2006 by the former Mardi Gras president with his partner Gary Leeson, who was bought out in 2022 at $2.305m.
It is one of the 34 Lincoln Cres residences with leases running until 2097, set in the 1998-built Walker Corporation complex overlooking the restaurants on the Woolloomooloo Wharf.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless noted Sydney’s preliminary weekend clearance rate came in at 73.8 per cent, just below the 74.4 per cent national result, which has held above 71 per cent throughout this year.
Anschau unsold
Sydney’s priciest listing, the Anschau House, a trophy home marketed as one of Sydney’s most iconic houses due to its clifftop cantilevering over Middle Harbour, has failed to sell.
Nathan Tse at The Agency Northern Beaches noted the waterfront home on Seaforth Cres was designed by architect Martyn Chapman with a five-year build by Kevin Anschau of Lendlease in the late 1980s.
It comes with jetty, pontoon and 15m, four-post deep berthing facilities.
Some $11m was being sought by vendor Tora Adams.
Adams and her retired pilot husband Laurie Shears bought it after she admired the house while kayaking.
Some 583 homes were taken to auction in Sydney last week, according to PropTrack, with 780 this week and then 906 in the first week in May.
Queenslander top sale
Brisbane’s preliminary clearance rate was 75 per cent, with its top sale a dual-gabled Queenslander at Camp Hill on Brisbane’s southside which fetched $3.82m through Ray White agent Brandon Wortley.
Bidding opened at $3m for the two-storey Henderson St home.
“It ran really quickly up in $100,000 bids, all the way to $3.7m, then it was called on the market at $3.8m,” auctioneer Haesley Cush said.
“We had two local families bidding against each other.”
It attracted more than 7000 page views on realestate.com.au during its marketing.
The home was the work of LAK Constructions builder Luke Kruberg and his wife Kirstin, who purchased in 2012 for $760,000 but only undertook the major renovation during the pandemic, when they resided in a rental next door.
The five-bedroom home, with a media room and study spaces, comes with polished concrete flooring, dark wood tones and brass accents. The lower floor contains a butler’s pantry, the laundry and a mudroom.
Its outdoor kitchen comes with a barbecue and a beer tap.
The family are off to an acreage in Brisbane’s western suburbs.
Terrific terrace
Essendon Football Club director Andrew Muir, the former chief executive of retailer The Good Guys, secured the nation’s second-highest price in a post-auction sale in Carlton.
The modernised four-bedroom 1864 Drummond St terrace, listed with a $6m to $6.5m guidance, passed in at $6.05m and sold soon after.
The property has a mezzanine library and study, courtyard with a built-in barbecue, a separate studio and an underground four-car garage.
It remains a mystery as to whether it set a record price for the inner Melbourne suburb.
Nelson Alexander selling agent Charlie Barham marketed it as one of the suburb’s best homes.
Carlton’s record sale came when 22 Pitt St sold for $6.33m in 2021, four years after Muir bought Drummond St for $5.46m, which was more than $1m over reserve.
The unrenovated terrace had traded in 2003 for $1,125,000.
It traded four times in the 1980s, jumping from $144,000 in 1980 to $328,000 in 1985 and four times also in the 1970s.
The Drummond St offering sits in the Lothian Buildings row, which Heritage Victoria suggests was an early, unusual form of the terrace row in Melbourne, with Renaissance Revival styling.
Leura fails to sell
Melbourne’s priciest listing failed to sell, with Leura, the 1912 six-bedroom, two-bathroom Kooyong house, now coming with a $7.25m asking price.
The 1323sq m Moralla Rd offering had been listed with a $7m to $7.7m price guidance through Michael Armstrong at Jellis Craig.
It was a $2000 a week rental offering early last year.
It last sold in 1994 for $811,000 when bought by cataract specialist Dr John McKenzie and his wife Sally-Anne.
In its first three decades, Leura was the home of Dudley Austin, whose family owned the Austin and Baillieu warehouses on Flinders Lane. Austin’s brother-in-law Sam Spry was its second owner in the 1940s.
Online sensation
The most-viewed residential listing on realestate.com.au auctioned on the weekend was 22 Charming St, Hampton East, which fetched $3.25m at its Sunday auction.
It featured in the 2023 Channel 9 series of The Block, when the 632sq m, five-bedroom residence sold for $4.3m, some $1.05m over reserve, to LMCT+ founder Adrian Portelli.
It attracted more than 68,000 page views on realestate.com.au during its recent re-marketing, with a $1 gimmick reserve advisory.
It ignited competitive interest, as there were nine on-site registered bidders, plus about 200 online hopefuls.
It sold at just above the price guidance of $2.9m to $3.2m being given by its Ray White selling agents Aaron Hill and Marin Durkovic. The house has two entertaining zones, a wood fire, a designer kitchen and a pool house.
Busy Melbourne
Melbourne hosted the most weekend auctions, with 898 homes going under the hammer, according to PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty.
It jumps to 981 this week and then 1125 in early May.
The relisting of the 1891 Italianate style Victorian home, Comaques on Glenferrie Rd, Kew, this Saturday is under instruction from the mortgagee.
There is $5.3m to $5.5m guidance from Mark Fletcher and Aaron Zhao at Fletchers. There was $7.8m to $8.2m price guidance last June. It was up for sale in 2022 with $9.5m to $10.45m guidance.
It last sold in 2010 at $4.97m, with an internal family transfer in 2017.
A caveat by CampaignAgent, the fintech company specialising in property vendor funding, was withdrawn from its title earlier this month.
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