Auction wrap: $9.3m cold comfort for William O’Dwyer after Ralan collapse
The $9.26m paid for the Bellevue Hill home of William O’Dwyer, founder of the collapsed Ralan Group, was the nation’s highest weekend auction result.
The $9.26m paid for the Bellevue Hill home of William O’Dwyer, founder of the collapsed Ralan Group apartment construction empire, was the nation’s highest weekend auction result.
It had been listed with a $8.5m price guide through Michael Pallier of Sydney Sotheby’s, who announced it was on the market at $8.8m after taking his auction reserve instructions from O’Dwyer.
Set on 682sq m with city views, the Fairweather Street home last traded in 2007 at $5.7m. O’Dwyer owned 1 per cent of the property while wife Joanne had 99 per cent.
The four-bedroom residence is mortgaged to NAB and with a second to Wingate Property, Ralan’s main financier until the developer collapsed in mid-2019.
Elsewhere in Sydney there was a $9m pre-auction sale in Hunters Hill. The 860sq m Sea Street riverfront with a four-bedroom brick house sold through Claire Ward at Ward Partners, having been owned by the Anderson family since 1952. With a jetty, pontoon and deep water mooring pen, it ranks as the suburb’s highest declared sale so far this year.
Record results
“Super Saturday delivered record-breaking results for the supercharged home auction markets,” Archistar chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson has advised.
He noted “the current seemingly insatiable demand for property” as all capitals reported clearance rates above 80 per cent despite the traditional pre-Easter spike in listings.
CoreLogic calculated there were 3791 homes taken to auction across the capital cities last week, the busiest week since pre-Easter 2018.
Realestate.com.au noted Canberra had the highest weekend success rate at 98 per cent, followed by Sydney at 92 per cent, Melbourne on 88 per cent and Brisbane securing a stronger than usual 80 per cent success rate. Adelaide was at 75 per cent.
Struggling sector
Melbourne’s top advised sale was in Malvern East. The $4,715,000 sale was at 64 Central Park Road.
Kevin O’Brien at Jellis Craig secured the parkside sale, having given a $4.3m to $4.55m pre-auction price guide for the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house. It had previously traded at $3,382,000 in 2014.
A studio apartment in a Box Hill student accommodation complex was the nation’s cheapest auction listing, highlighting the struggling sector’s worsening state given the pandemic’s interruption to student attendances.
It was sold pre-auction for $122,500 by its Vermont South investor, slightly above its $99,000 to $108,000 price guide.
But the 17.5sq m studio space had previously traded at $182,000 in 2009 soon after its completion. The $59,500 drop over the past 12 years reflected a 32 per cent collapse.
However, it was not the first time there had been a price drop. The prior was just $4000 on its initial pre-GFG 2007 off-the-plan sale to a Glen Waverley investor at $186,000 in the complex of 58 studios.
“This airy and spacious student studio apartment presents an ideal entry to property investment,” the recent marketing suggested.
The apartment had access to a communal laundry and lounge.
Other studio apartments at 5 Archibald Street have sold this year for between $135,000 and $140,000.
Brisbane beauty
Brisbane’s top weekend result was in Wooloowin when SkyNews commentator Peter Gleeson sold under the Ray White auction hammer for $1.9m.
There were nine registered bidders for the renovated 1920s five-bedroom home equipped with two home offices.
The family plan to move back to the Gold Coast.
“It ticks all the boxes and we have loved our time here but we miss the beach,” Gleeson told the local press.
The family had paid $1.38m in 2015 after its substantive makeover.
Brisbane’s next priciest result was $1.5m in Grange where Ray White agent Alistair Macmillan sold 78 Carberry Street after the 12 registered bidders fought it out.
There were 100 groups who’d inspected the freshly painted house which last traded at $1.19m in 2018.
Capital capers
Canberra’s top sale was on one of Narrabundah’s best known tree-lined streets. The contemporary home fetched $2.41m, not quite double the suburb’s $1.33m median house price.
The 871sq m Finniss Crescent block came with a 2018 Tanamar home with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a saltwater pool. It had 268sq m living space.
Rates were advised as $5098 per annum, and if rented out it would attract $8286 land tax.
It sold through Kate Yates at Luton Properties. Realestate.com.au calculates, based on five years of sales, that Narrabundah has seen a compound growth rate of 6 per cent.
Corrigan clears out
The Bondi Beach penthouse of Valerie Corrigan, wife of former Patrick Stevedores tycoon Chris Corrigan, has been sold off market for around $12.5m.
It has not been well used over recent times since Chris Corrigan was among the business leaders to head overseas after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, later to be followed by Valerie.
Their extended settlement sale was secured pre-Christmas to the dental technician Thomas Deutsch and his wife Christine, the Vaucluse-based parents of F45 gym chain founder Rob Deutsch, who have since sold their Vaucluse home which they bought at $180,000 in 1979.
The Corrigan’s penthouse last traded at $7.3m in 2012 when bought from funds manager Wayne Peters.
Set atop what was known as the Bondi Diggers Club before its conversion into prestige Cadigal apartments, the penthouse first sold for $5,875,000 in 2006 at what then represented a record price for Bondi Beach, at $24,100 per square metre for the 244sq m three-bedroom penthouse with 100-plus sq m of balconies.
The recent $20.1m Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach sale by James Mayo to the online gambling review website pioneer Joshua Chan was at $66,000 a square metre.
Chris Corrigan has been back in Sydney during March, spotted completing a 33km bike ride early Saturday morning in 1 hour 32 minutes.
They have had a longtime home in Switzerland, at Pontresina, Grisons, near the Italian border, where Corrigan enjoys riding Julier Pass in the Albula Alps.
Court serves it up
Former tennis champion Margaret Court has her oceanside City Beach, Perth home priced at $2.9m through Realty Lane. The two-storey home features five bedrooms and three bathrooms.
Court paid $680,000 in 1996.
One of the two studies has a painting hung of former WA Premier Charles Court, the father of Barrymore Court, the tennis champion’s husband of more than 50 years.
Galloping off
Geoff Gallop, the Sydney-based academic who was the 27th premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006, has listed his Clovelly house.
It is a Tom Rivard-designed home with ocean views from an innovative sequence of alfresco living spaces.
He bought the house for $4.15m in 2010 with his wife Dr Ingrid Van Beek, two years after it was completed, and soon after they married.
The couple have a Pyrmont investment apartment and a weekender at Bundeena.
Herd mentality
The 80-year-old economist, emeritus professor and tax reform pioneer Bob Officer has listed his Meadow Creek Valley Wagyu cattle enterprise, set at the foothills of Victoria’s northeast alps.
Moyhu Wagyu is listed at $12m on a walk-in, walk-out basis. It is an 847ha farm aggregation, with its six-bedroom farm homestead designed by the architect Guilford Bell.
The herd consists of about 1300 head.
Officer, who was made a member of the Order of Australia for his work advocating for the imputation system of dividend taxation, established the wagyu venture in 1997 as a hobby farm.
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