Annabelle Shamir’s portfolio facing fresh legal tests

The twists and turns surrounding the financing of an impressive Sydney residential property portfolio seem set to continue, as the number of auctions across Australia rises.

The twists and turns surrounding the financing of the impressive Sydney residential property portfolio of Annabelle Shamir, the wife of Adam Blumenthal, the former chairman of boutique stockbroker EverBlu Capital, seem set to continue into spring.

Friday saw a fresh caveat lodged on the title of their luxury Bellevue Hill abode.

It was from Vega Funds, pursuant to an unregistered mortgage “dated on or about 3 October 2023”.

The caveat sits behind four earlier registered mortgages and another loan facility caveat.

Last Thursday the non-bank lender Millbrook Funds was in the NSW Supreme Court pursuing a possession application, arising from its loan facility over the portfolio.

Justice Tim Faulkner granted leave for Millbrook to serve its motion for summary judgment against Shamir, who is to file her evidence in reply by September 12.

The Millbrook civil possession list hearing has been set for September 19, scheduled to run for around three hours.

Shamir, who married Blumenthal in 2017, recently secured the exchange of her Rose Bay penthouse investment. The apartment had a $14.5m price guide, having hit the market last September with $18m expectations. The 626sq m space was bought off the plan for $11.5m in 2021 with Bureau SRH then commissioned to fit out the four-bedroom-plus-study residence.

The penthouse was bought in the same year Shamir bought the couple’s Bellevue Hill abode for $30m from food blogger Stephanie Conley Buhre and her venture capitalist husband Oskar Buhre.

NAB heads the four registered mortgages on Shamir’s Victoria Road title, followed by Millbrook Funds, First State and Secured Lending 2.

Millbrook’s 2022 memorandum notes Blumenthal’s Goblin Trading as its borrower, with an advance of $8,625,000 guaranteed by Shamir.

The One Pacific Capital Partners caveat was lodged in January, pursuant to its September 2023 loan agreement with Shamir as guarantor and Pacific Continental Holdings as the borrower.

Blumenthal has suggested the home is now worth $50m-plus and says the amount being litigated is “not a material amount”. Blumenthal has said the dispute is related to the extension of a loan facility secured at low interest rates, which Millbrook is trying to unwind. He not only expects to win, but to get costs and even compensation.

Blumenthal’s outgoings jumped recently after an investigation by ASIC into market rigging with ASX-listed Creso shares.

The Federal Court in April ordered Blumenthal to pay a penalty of $850,000 and be disqualified from managing corporations for five years. Federal Court Justice Angus Stewart also ordered Blumenthal pay $100,000 towards ASIC’s costs.

Brilliant Bronte

The nation’s top weekend sale was $13m at Bronte for a five-bedroom, four-bathroom hillside house which had a $10.5m reserve.

The top weekend auction price was in coastal Bronte at $13m.

The Macpherson Street house last traded at $375,000 in 1993.

It was sold by executors of the late Denise Jago, the widow of sheep classer Dick Jago, who worked at the acclaimed Haddon Rig station for four decades after starting as a jackaroo. He died in 2022.

The couple had married in 1962. At the time, Mary Coles’ Social Roundabout column in The Australian Women’s Weekly said the wedding had been timed to fit around the wool sales timetable.

Alexander Phillips at PPD had seven registered bidders with the opening bid at $10m.

“It was the most popular house sold this year,” Phillips said.

“There has only been one house sold on that strip in two decades.”

He noted most of his other eastern suburb listings had one or two buyers.

Sydney saw 807 homes with a steady 74 per cent preliminary clearance rate, according to CoreLogic.

Talarno on top

Melbourne’s top listing, Talarno, the Federation Queen Anne home at 18 Kintore Street, Camberwell, fetched $6.18m after just two bidders competed for the keys.

It had been listed with $5.3m to $5.8m guidance through Mark Josem at Jellis Craig, who announced that the five-bedroom home on 803sq m was on the market at $6.01m.

It last sold for $2,685,000 in 2014. Buyers agent Mal James calculates an 8 per cent annual compound growth rate, which reverted to 4 per cent after taking into consideration its renovation costs.

James recalled its 2014 auction attracted seven bidders.

Melbourne’s 889 auctions saw a 68 per cent preliminary success rate.

Broadbeach bonanza

Queensland’s top sale came Friday afternoon when the six-bedroom, five-bathroom, 2010-built home at 127 Monaco Street, Broadbeach Waters, fetched $7.88m through Kollosche agent Marco De Vincentiis.

The house had been kept in the same family since the 1960s.

There were seven registered bidders after 79 groups attended its open house sessions.

The triple-floor home on 1055sq m with 66m main river frontage had been held by the Burke family for three generations since 1965. The smaller auction markets are showing a consistent pattern, according to Tim Lawless at CoreLogic, with Adelaide leading the clearance rate at 79 per cent, followed by Brisbane at 67 per cent and Canberra at 56 per cent.

Perth’s damaging wind alert triggered cancellations including the luxury offering at 8 Aruma Way, City Beach by Vivien Yap at Ray White.

Sacred ground

The top price revealed in Adelaide was $50m as private treaty negotiations by McGees Adelaide’s James Juers and Simon Lambert secured the sale of a 1.9-hectare North Adelaide Lutheran Church site to four different buyers. It included the $15m sale of a near 5000sq m building block proposed for a single dwelling, which ranks as the most expensive sale in the City of Churches.

The Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand has sold its 104 Jeffcott Street, North Adelaide holding.

Chris Diamantis’s Genworth Group acquired multiple parcels, with four different projects being mooted.

An undisclosed Sydney-based purchaser of the Hebart Hall building will transform it into a residence. The school was opened by John Whinham in 1882, becoming known as Angas College in 1900 and then Immanuel College in 1922.

“God has blessed us with the outcome of this sale, which has exceeded our expectations,” church chief executive Brett Hausler said.

Settlement will come between July 2025 and July 2026.

Meanwhile a stately five-bedroom 1900 sandstone villa on 3865sq m at Unley Park has been listed with $12m to $13m hopes through Jamie Brown at Booth Real Estate.

A record $12.5m was recently secured opposite by Helen Rule from the Imatech Group.

Auctions rising

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty calculates auction levels will rise to 2960 offerings in the last week of winter, up from 2395 last week.

The newly constructed red Hill home is among the early spring offerings in the ACT.

The early spring auctions include the new five-bedroom, three bathroom home at 22 Pelsart Street, Red Hill in the ACT. The two-level Classic Constructions home features dark Enseam vertical cladding with touches of timber and bricks. Belle Property Canberra agent Louise Harget offers guidance of $4.5m-plus.