Auction wrap: Peninsula weekender sets Ruslan Kogan back $13m
Online retailer Ruslan Kogan has spent $12.9m on a Mornington Peninsula weekender.
Online retailer Ruslan Kogan has spent $12.9m on a Mornington Peninsula weekender, taking ownership just in time for the state’s latest COVID-19 lockdown.
Peninsula Sotheby’s agent Rob Curtain had marketed the Flinders retreat as one of the finest inland estates to be offered on the peninsula.
The stately manor designed by Stephen Akehurst traded for the first time since the 5.2ha Musk Creek Road holding sold in the early 1980s to the Coady family.
The home has five bedrooms, three designed to be the main, as well as a home cinema and an indoor lap pool. There’s even heated garaging for four cars.
Curtain described the grounds as “a garden wonderland”. The estate will be Kogan’s getaway from his $38.8m Toorak home base, which sits on 2600sq m.
Halstead deal done
Halstead, the Dutch colonial-style Toorak home on 3278sq m, sold last week after sustained marketing attempts since 2018.
Weast Real Estate agent James Liu secured the sale of the 1916 Lansell Road home.
It comes with a rusticated stucco exterior designed by architect Walter Butler for Francis Clements, best remembered as the chairman of the State Electricity Commission after he pioneered the introduction of electricity services into Victoria.
Last listed with $23m to $25m hopes. The mansion has five bedrooms plus a large office.
It last sold in 2014 at $12.5m and in 2007 at $11m. Its prior owners have included business leaders Wayne Sidwell and Michael Heine.
Montagna beats rush
AFL commentator Leigh “Joey” Montagna can relax after finding a buyer ahead of his lockdown weekend auction.
The retired St Kilda AFL star and wife Erinn accepted a midweek pre-auction offer for Byrona, their two-bedroom Albert Park home.
Having paid $1.24m in 2011, Marshall White agents Nicholas Hoo and Oliver Bruce gave a $1.75m to $1.85m guide, but no sale price was revealed following the deal on the 1900 Kerferd Road home.
Meanwhile Melbourne agents with weekend auction listings were left scambling to convert them from onsite to online events.
CoreLogic calculated that 47 per cent of the successful auctions across Melbourne sold prior, along with unknown high withdrawal numbers.
These withdrawals will increase the already high volumes on what’s set to be the first of Melbourne’s two consecutive super Saturdays.
The Real Estate Institute of Victoria noted January’s 560 auctions had been the highest on record, led by Craigieburn with 14 listings, 11 of which cleared.
Resort style for $10m
Melbourne had 668 scheduled weekend auctions, and of the 467 results collected so far, 87 per cent were successful, including a $10.15m Brighton sale. The Park Street resort-style home with pool and a tennis court attracted online bidding from three parties through Scott Xue, from Marshall White Bayside, who had issued a $9.5m to $10.45m price guide. It last sold in 2010 at $6,775,000 when bought by the Jonker family from retired cricketer Shane Warne.
Melbourne’s cheapest result was a pre-auction $122,500 sale at Box Hill. The one-bedroom student accommodation unit at 201/6 John Street had a $110,000 to $121,000 price guide through Ray White agent Steven Yuen.
Its rental had dropped from $240 a week pre-COVID-19 to $200 being sought late last year, thereby reflecting an 8 per cent gross rental yield with the lease running until January next year.
The 52sq m unit first sold in 2009 at $189,000, according to CoreLogic.
Bay over the treetops
Nothing is going backwards on the Mornington Peninsula where the latest vendor is Arthur Charlaftis, the former REA chief operating officer who became the founding chief executive of childcare centre comparison site Toddle.
He and wife Effie are selling Eros, their luxury Portsea weekender.
Bought for $3.5m in 2014 when it was known as Dreamwater, Eros was built in 2002 on 2515sq m to face north, taking in views of Port Phillip Bay over the treetops.
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom Cheviot Road home comes with a home theatre and gym.
It features a 20-metre heated lap pool with spa and cabana, championship mod-grass tennis court and in-ground trampoline.
Kay & Burton Portsea agent Liz Jensen, who sold the home seven years ago, has the listing again.
One of Boyd’s last
The Milne House, one of the last homes designed by the revered mid-century architect Robin Boyd, has been listed. The home, unlike Boyd’s earlier more utilitarian work, is in Toorak, one of few he designed in the blue-chip suburb.
Boyd opted for a single-colour home with skilling roof shapes and bagged brick walls for the home at 1 Glenbervie Road.
Completed in 1970, just before Boyd’s 1971 death aged 52, the now renovated home is split into two wings. The accommodation wing has four bedrooms, one a master with renovated marble ensuite. There’s two living areas and a pool in the rear of the 650sq m block.
Kay & Burton South Yarra agents Michael Gibson and Robert Fletcher have a $3.85m to $4.2m guide after its recent renovations, with offers closing March 16.
It last sold for $2.225m in 2014.
It was designed for pharmacists Ian and Patricia Milne on the former garden of Ingleburn, the long-time mansion of the Guest biscuit family. The Milnes sold in 1974 for $116,000.
Classic Gillespie
Homes designed by architect Wayne Gillespie are far more prevalent around Toorak. The late architect designed houses for several decades until the early 2000s as the go-to architect for Melbourne’s elite.
His designs still resonate with the latest Gillespie-designed Toorak listing coming from Neredah Blake, who runs the family catering company Blakes Feast, and her husband Ant McIntosh.
Kay & Burton South Yarra agent Andrew Smith has a $4.8m to $5.2m guide for the Ross Street home which was initially listed last November.
The marketing suggests the home is “classic Gillespie” with its rooms filled with natural light, amid absolute privacy and a great connection to the outdoors.
The two-level home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. A pool sits in the landscaped gardens.
Blake, the daughter of chef Andrew Blake, was well prepared for the latest snap lockdown as last year she changed the focus from just catering to offering ready-made meals, including Blakeaway home meal packages for Valentine’s Day from her Glen Iris and Portsea premises.
Capital homes clear
Across the capital cities, there were 1529 homes scheduled for auction last week, up from 1304 over the previous week, CoreLogic advised.
Of the 1191 results collected so far, 86 per cent found buyers, higher than that week’s preliminary auction clearance rate of 83 per cent, which revised down to 79 per cent at final figures.
Canberra recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate at 91 per cent, followed by Adelaide on 89 per cent, Brisbane’s 62 per cent and Perth at 42 per cent.
Recording an 87 per cent success rate, Sydney saw 624 homes taken to auction, compared with 447 the previous week and 583 the same time last year, suggesting the shortage of stock is more likely arising from pent-up demand.
There were 14 registered “sea change” bidders when Leap legal software executive chair Richard Hugo-Hamman auctioned his Coalcliff weekender.
Ray White Helensburgh agents Mattias Samuelsson and Simon Beaufils secured $4,715,000 for Hugo-Hamman, who had bought it for $3.35m in 2017 from retailer Mark McInnes, who had added some decking.
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