Alexander the Great... seller of rare books
Despite no Highlands property sale for John Alexander, the former Fairfax and Crown executive offloaded ‘one of the finest’ collections of books in Australia.
There has been no NSW Southern Highlands property sale for John Alexander, the former John Fairfax Holdings executive turned former Crown chairman, but he has secured the sale of the bulk of his collection of rare books documenting the settlement of Australia.
Bookseller Peter Arnold described the weekend offering as “one of the finest collections in the country”.
Some 122 of the 172 lots were sold, with the top price being a 1823 privately published edition of explorer Gregory Blaxland’s A Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains in New South Wales at $300,000.
Manuscripts on WA were especially popular.
French navy officer Louis de Freycinet’s 1826 annotated copy of explorer Phillip Parker King’s Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia soared above its $40,000-$60,000 estimate to fetch $190,000.
The journal by William Smith, surgeon superintendent on the 1866 voyage of the Belgravia, transporting convicts to WA, fetched $90,000.
An 1831 first edition of The Sydney Herald fetched $14,500.
“John is now moving overseas so the return of his books to the market provides his fellow collectors with a rare opportunity,” Arnold advised.
Another auction is planned for 2025, focusing on natural history books.
Alexander and his wife, photographer Alice Pagliano, listed their 38ha Robertson property, Paloma, in February seeking an as-yet-unobtainable record price. The modernist-inspired house was designed by New Zealand architecture firm Fearon Hay, amid gardens by Myles Baldwin including a perennial meadow.
“Similar estates have sold above $35m,” Monique Napper, the Wollongong-based agent, advised at the time of its listing, adding the property “boasts sculptures, artefacts and artworks that can be negotiated with the purchase”.
“These pieces alone are valued in the millions.”
Tech veteran Daniel Petre and his wife, Carolyn, hold the Robertson record after paying $12m in 2022.
Noosa’s $15m buy
The nation’s top weekend auction result was a $15m sale at Noosa Heads. Lumiere, a dual-occupancy holiday home at Little Cove, without any ocean views, sold through Chris Miller of Tom Offermann Real Estate.
The mid-day Friday auction attracted three registered bidders, with it knocked down after about an hour of negotiations after bidding started at $10m.
The 889sq m Bayview Road offering has five bedrooms with en suites, available from $4000-plus a night, plus a self-contained, two-bedroom guest apartment.
It comes with two pools.
The home, which once featured in the Courier-Mail’s Best Homes column, is the work of builder-developer Glen Watson and his wife, interior decorator Deborah, who also created the rainforest home next door, Coco Prive. It sold in 2021 for $13.5m to the Pellicano construction family from Melbourne.
City sets the pace
Sydney had 984 auctions, the first time in four weeks the volume dropped below the 1000 mark. The preliminary clearance rate came in at 68 per cent, according to CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless, which was the strongest of the capital cities. The national preliminary clearance rate was 65 per cent. The national tally has averaged 66 per cent during the spring season to date.
Sydney’s priciest listing was a five-bedroom, four-bathroom Darling Point harbour-front apartment that was passed in on a $16m vendor bid through Ray White Double Bay agents Kate Smith and Elliott Placks.
Auctioneer James Keenan declined a $12m offer, noting there were four registered parties who had been given $15.5m guidance ahead of the breezy Sunday afternoon onsite auction. The whole-floor, 314 sqm north-facing space is on the ground floor of the Salacia complex on Yarranabbe Road.
The updated 1960s building, designed by Peddle, Thorp and Walker, was named after the Roman goddess of salt water.
Randwick had the next priciest Sydney weekend offering, which resulted in $13.56m being paid for an upgraded 1896 home.
All five registered bidders participated at the Saturday morning Dick Street auction. It came with an $11.2m buyers’ guide.
Sydney’s upper north saw the Saturday twilight auction sale of the 2214sq m Fieldhead estate at Lindfield.
Ray White agent Lisa Davies declined to reveal the price, but advised it did sell above the $11.5m-$12.5m guidance. Three of the five registered bidders competed to take on the renovation of the 1913 heritage listed Nelson Road home. It comes with hand-carved sandstone double-arch facade and leadlight windows.
Launch locks in $600m
No sign of affordable housing supply, but off-the-plan sales in Mirvac’s Harbourside Residence hit $600m at its weekend launch. The $2bn Harbourside Residences comprises 263 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments across 48 floors at Sydney’s Darling Harbour. There was a $25m sub-penthouse sale. The 140 sales kicked off at $1.7m.
Auctions warm up
Melbourne was the only market to hold more than 1000 auctions over the week, with 1111 homes going under the hammer, returning a 65 per cent preliminary clearance rate, just below its average 66 per cent preliminary clearance rate of the spring season to date.
Melbourne’s top advised sale was in Hawthorn East when $4.53m was paid for a contemporary home behind a Federation facade. May Zhu from Bekdon Richards had given $4.4m-$4.8m guidance. The Cowper Street house attracted 3200 pageviews on realestate.com.au.
There was no price disclosure on the sale of the nearby Norman Day-designed house at 7 Constance Street, Hawthorn East, which had come with a $3.7m-$4.05m price guidance.
Rounding up the rest
Across the smaller cities, Canberra was the weakest market. There were 91 auctions held in the city, with a 52 per cent preliminary clearance rate.
Brisbane had 233 homes going under the hammer, the highest volume of auctions since the week leading into Easter. Brisbane returned a 56 per cent preliminary clearance rate.
Of the 15 auctions held in Perth, 66 per cent sold, including the three-bedroom un-renovated home at 31 Webster Street, Nedlands for $2.7m.
It had 12 registered bidders, although just four were active when offered by Vivien Yap at Ray White Dalkeith. It sold to a local family.
Some 143 auctions were held across Adelaide, with its preliminary clearance rate of 66 per cent the lowest this year.
The highest notified sale was 55 Symonds Place, Adelaide, for $1.96m against its $1.85m reserve.
The four-bedroom 1860 Adelaide CBD house comes with an eccentric facade featuring vermiculated quoins. It was the longtime home of the colonial plasterer Charles Vernon.
Ray White agent Andrew Downing saw bidding from two of six registered bidders. It sold to buyers returning from Melbourne. It last sold in 2017 for $960,000.
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