Ai Group’s Innes Willox sells redundant Toorak pad for $4.315m

Australian Industry Group head Innes Willox no longer has the conundrum of his two homes in Toorak and a beach house at Aireys Inlet.

Innes Willoxand his partner, marketing consultant Jane Devereux, sold one of their homes in Toorak for $4,315,000.

The head of the Australian Industry Group, Innes Willox, who has ramped up his opposition to more working from home for Melbournites during the pandemic’s third winter, no longer has the conundrum of his two homes in Toorak and a beach house at Aireys Inlet.

He’s finally managed to find a buyer for his redundant Toorak abode, and is now at home in his $6m acquisition of mid-last year that was just three doors away.

Willox and his partner, marketing consultant Jane Devereux, had an initial price guide last September of $5.35m on their former five-bedroom townhouse with home office in the basement. By late spring they were seeking $4.95m, and after relisting it earlier this year, the couple had dropped their hopes to $4.6m-plus.

It was settled earlier this month with Yun Bai paying $4,315,000.

The couple had bought it for $3.4m in 2015. They also briefly contemplated selling their beach house over summer for $3.9m, but this listing no longer appears on websites.

Meanwhile, despite the continued upbeat office market occupancy forecasts being issued by the big commercial property estate agencies, Willox’s recent pandemic response urgings came with the admission that the major capital cities “remain very quiet”.

Further ­restrictions would be “a hammer blow for their recovery”, he suggested.

However, his Christopher Doyle-designed home, marketed as Chateau Monomeath, does come with a handy study, complete with a 4.7m long office bench that easily accommodates two.

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Dural delight

The nation’s top weekend sale was among Sydney’s 506 results with $9.5m paid on auction eve for a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Dural estate on Sydney’s metropolitan fringe. The 2.1ha Pellitt Lane offering from the Dingwall family was an architecturally designed 2010-built home being offered for the first time.

11 Pellitt Lane, Dural, was the nation’s top weekend sale, fetching $9.5m pre-auction.

The home, with a bushland backdrop and a pool, tennis court and golf driving range, had come with a $9m price guide. The price included a golf buggy and 200 golf balls.

It was the priciest residential sale in the semi-rural precinct since last November’s offering by former Myer boss Bernie Brookes, which fetched $11.1m when bought by Kirsten Baker, from Beasy, the site remediation company that is directed by Bret Baker.

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Pricey peninsula

Victoria’s top sale amid 538 results was also pre-auction, and on Melbourne’s metropolitan fringe, with $6.9m secured for a 20ha Mornington Peninsula property.

Baigong Park, the Cape Schanck estate, had been listed with $7m to $7.5m guidance through RT Edgar Flinders agents Paul Armstrong and Samantha Moffat. The Boneo Rd price fell just short of the $7m paid by Alias Mae shoe maker Thomas Kirkhope in June last year through Black Fox agent Robbie Emond, but well short of the $11m record paid earlier this year by former St Kilda AFL coach Grant Thomas and his wife Kerry for a vast 2011-built home adjoining The National golf course. Competing Bids has gleaned that the deal by Thomas was actually done in late 2020 with longtime Commonwealth Bank Hong-Kong based expatriate banker Peter Fancke.

This 1890s house in Northcote fetched $3,595,000.

Melbourne’s next priciest sale was when a graceful 1890s house on Heidelberg Rd, Northcote which was saved from bulldozing and fetched $3,595,000 through Nelson Alexander agent Tom Alexiadis.

Its price guide had been $2.7m to $2.9m. The five-bedroom Queen Anne style home on 1063sq m previously traded unrenovated at $2.1m last November, at $2.01m in 2017 and at $1.9m in 2015.

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Cheap as chips

The cheapest sale across the capitals was $396,000 at Brunswick East in Melbourne when a two-bedroom apartment was offered via online auction.

The third floor 360 Lygon St apartment had previously sold at $515,000 in late 2012 off the plan, representing a $119,000 or 23 per cent loss, through its Ray White selling agent Angela Criscione. The recent losses in the Stratus complex were at $105,000. Stratus caused controversy with its development application as it was above Moreland City Council’s height guidelines.

Sydney’s cheapest sale was $400,000 paid pre-auction for a one-bedroom apartment at Ryde. It reflected a loss, too, as the 1970s Price St unit had sold in 2017 at $415,000.

The second-floor apartment had crisp white interiors with new carpet, its Belle agent Sabrina Haddad advised.

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Market softening

Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane hosted the most auctions with 155 homes under the hammer, followed by Adelaide’s 124 and Canberra with 84 offerings.

As the market softening spreads, Adelaide again recorded the highest clearance rate, with 69 per cent sold, followed by Canberra at 64 per cent and Brisbane at 44 per cent.

Despite four of the six registered bidders being active at the auction, Brisbane’s top listing failed to sell through Ray White with at Holland Park West.

This Holland Park West property was passed in.

The Kneale St property that passed in at $3.45m was a new modernist-style home built by Tim Black of Black Developments with two master suites across separate levels.

After 14 months in the design and construction phase, the tri-level home now sits amid $120,000 worth of landscaping on its 587sq m block that cost $1.24m in January last year.

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Historic home

Hotelier Joel Fisher and wife Alexandra have emerged as the $11.5m buyers of ­Laurel Park, the renovated 1886 trophy home in Burradoo’s Golden Triangle.

It was snapped up after just 31 days on the market, having been listed with $12m hopes.

The home on the 1.18ha battleaxe estate was ­designed by John Sulman for the Honourable John Macintosh, on what is now one of Burradoo’s largest remaining land holdings. Macintosh spent 16 years on Sydney City Council, eight years in the NSW Legislative Assembly and then 28 years in the Legislative Council until his death in 1911 at his Darling Point estate, ­Lindesay.

The now modernised six-bedroom, four-bathroom Osborne Rd residence last sold for $3.23m in 2014 when bought by Denielle Campey after 470 days on market.

Its TRG selling agent Cae Thomas was called “The Undisputed King of Burradoo” by his then colleague, Evan Williams after its recent sale.

Thomas boasted that the successful sale of a Vaucluse home – he took on after another agent failed to sell it – had then led to his “unexpected” Burradoo listing from the impressed buyer. It was a reference to Campey’s $14m purchase of the six-bedroom Vaucluse home of downsizers, Steven Coppola and his wife Nicole, who have operated Coppola Home in the Supa Centa Moore Park.

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Clearance sale

Last week’s national preliminary clearance rate was down to 56 per cent of the 1285 results collected so far by CoreLogic, marking the sixth consecutive week below the 60 per cent mark.

Auction volumes should rise this week after the passing of school holidays in some states.