Auction wrap: Jimmy and Nadia Bartel sell St Kilda West home for $3.9m

The St Kilda West home of former AFL footballer Jimmy Bartel sold for $3.91m.

The matrimonial St Kilda West home of the former AFL glamour couple Jimmy and Nadia Bartel has been sold for $3.91m.

They had bought the 1904 Federation brick home for $3.76m in 2017, shortly after Bartel pulled the curtain on his 14-year career at Geelong.

There’s been no obvious renovation to the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home on its 640sq m block during their ownership. So after their $206,000 purchasing stamp duty, along with the conveyancing and marketing expenses, there will be a small loss taken on the home.

It comes with pressed metal ceilings, full height fireplaces and original William Morris wallpaper.

The home was listed in mid-July with a guide of $3.7m to $4m but private inspections have only recently resumed given COVID-19 restrictions.

The Bartels split in the middle of last year after five years of marriage.

The marketing of the house began shortly after the nearby $4m sale of the 1899 terrace Aberdare, which had been bought for $3.75m in 2015. There had also been the pre-auction sale of the former house of fashion designer Alannah Hill. Having transformed the Mary Street terrace, Hill pocketed $2.475m in 2017. It was onsold just before its scheduled July auction at an undisclosed price after being marketed with a $2.4m to $2.6m price guide.

The suburb’s last big sale was in July with the $3.67m online auction of the former local council kindergarten site to the neighbour Nicholas Heine.

According to realestate.com.au, based on five years of sales, St Kilda West has seen a compound growth rate of 5.8 per cent.

Canberra cleans up

Canberra recorded the nation’s highest preliminary clearance rate of 79 per cent across 78 auction results, including the nation’s cheapest sale.

It was $215,000 for a 1960s one-bedroom unit in Curtin through Anthony McCormack and Mikaela Chan at Hayman Partners. It had last sold at $77,000 in 1991.

The 47sq m Waddell Place offering is currently leased at $350 a week, reflecting an 8 per cent rental yield before costs including annual $1969 rates, $2480 annual land tax and quarterly $1600 body corporate fees, which currently include window replacement costs.

All the auction action

There were 1090 homes taken to auction over the past week across Australian capital cities, still significantly lower than the 2000 homes at the same time last year.

Of the 822 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 71 per cent were successful, up from last week’s preliminary figure of 69 per cent, which was revised to 64 per cent at final collection.

Melbourne saw 60 homes taken to auction, while Sydney was host to 754 auctions, with a 73 per cent preliminary success rate.

Sydney’s Point Piper saw a $13.03m sale in the tightly held harbourfront Cliff Towers, Wolseley Road triplex apartment through Sotheby’s International.

Melbourne’s top result was $4.9m for 10 Torresdale Road, a four-bedroom 1930s home via a Marshall White online auction. Last sold at $130,500 in 1978, the 595sq m development site was offered with a $4.5m to $4.8m price guide.

It was bought by home builder Gary Simonds.

There was also an online Kay & Burton auction at Portsea which saw a near $3.4m sale of a five-bedroom classic 1970s beach house on Driver Street. It last sold at $1.75m in March 2018, with a $45,000 pool installation in the interim.

Mornington Peninsular auctions have gone “nuts”, Kay & Burton agent Michael Gibson notes. The Portsea price was 20 per cent over reserve. with “unprecedented demand” from buyers heading down to the coast from Melbourne.

The waterfront view from Cliffs Towers, Sydney.

Melbourne’s back

New listings have surged in Melbourne following the September 28 easing of the coronavirus shutdown restrictions on home inspections.

Housing economist Andrew Wilson, from My Housing Market, calculated the number of new home listings increased by 178 per cent during the first week of October compared to late September.

And Dr Wilson calculated Melbourne sales also increased sharply over the past week — up by 46 per cent.

“The prospects of a sustained Melbourne market revival — similar to other capitals — are on the rise,” he said.

One of the latest listings is Toorak’s historic Miegunyah Cottage, part of the famed estate of the industrialist Sir Russell Grimwade and wife Mabel.

The cottage was originally the stables on the estate, which in 1947, eight years before his death, were converted into an abode off Lambert Road. A 1990 extension was designed by architect Allan Powell, which saw a floating cantilevered dining room added to the four-bedroom home.

Some $4.5m to $4.95m is expected by RT Edgar Toorak agents Warwick Anderson and Jeremy Fox.

Toorak’s historic Miegunyah Cottage.

Coast has the most

The coastal weekender market has seen the strongest sales activity during what’s typically the seasonal winter hibernation.

Kristen Anastasiou, wife of Peter Anastasiou, the executive chairman at the biopharma company Immuron, has secured the couple’s upgrade on Victoria’s Phillip Island.

They paid $8.15m just before stage four lockdown in August for Trevantin Park at Ventnor and have also secured the sale of their redundant nearby weekender.

They pocketed $5m for the 2013-built Smiths Beach oceanfront property, which was bought for $1.4m in 2009, before the new build.

The Trevantin Park sale through Christie’s International Prestige Homes of Victoria agent Sean Cussell was almost double its $4.25m sale price in 2008.

There’s talk on the island the 33ha Trevantin Park will soon have a helicopter landing pad.

Legal precedent

Saturday’s kerbside Paddington auction of the so-called Regent Residence, redesigned by architect William Smart, was all over in four minutes.

There was a snappy $6.5m opening bid, then a $6.9m vendor bid, with no further offers from the three registered parties at its Regent Street auction on Saturday.

The Agency’s Ben Collier had given a $7m guide.

It was listed by the upsizing lawyer power couple Grant Marjoribanks and Rebecca Gilsenan who paid $2.34m in 2008 for what was then a dark unrenovated 1890s terrace.

The plans took three years to get through council and two years to build, ahead of its 2016 completion.

Mullumbimby marvel

The power of a looming auction date on the intending buyer’s disposition, even in localities not generally accustomed to the practice, was obvious when Cedar House, in the northern NSW town of Mullumbimby, found its buyer last week.

It sold just days before its scheduled Saturday auction to a buyer who’s quitting Sydney, having been for sale for 18 months.

Some 12 contracts had been issued over the last month with its consistent price guidance of $1.8m to $1.95m.

Dalley St, Mullumbimby.

The Dalley Street home was the childhood home of Byron Shire Real Estate agent Todd Buckland. The 1908 home was built with local red cedar for the wealthy Finnish property developer William Back. It features cabinetry salvaged from the SS Wollongbar shipwreck off Byron Bay.