Auction wrap: Rothschild’s David Acton settles on $11m Mosman buy, Bondi penthouse fetches $20.1m

The Mosman home recently sold by hedge fund boss Rob Luciano has stayed in equity market circles, while a Bondi Beach penthouse fetched $20.1m.

The penthouse at 16/16 Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach, has a 64sq m balcony and sits atop a late 1960s strata block.

The Mosman home recently sold by hedge fund boss Rob Luciano has stayed in equity market circles.

Luciano’s luxury home sale has settled with Rothschild Australia’s David Acton and wife Brooke, who emerged earlier this month as the $11m mystery buyers.

No registered mortgage was required after they sold in Wollstonecraft for $10.7m.

Acton was recruited to Rothschild four years ago, having previously been Goldman Sachs head of equities and its head of hedge fund sales. Between 2000 and 2016, Acton worked at Goldman Sachs in New York, Singapore and Sydney.

Luciano, the head of VGI Partners, and wife Samantha, listed their redundant home on Pretoria Avenue overlooking Balmoral Beach last May after they upgraded to a nearby $18m home.

The price guide for the house had increased from its $10m aspirations during its 180 days on market, having previously sold at $4.4m in 2006.

The pricey municipality recorded its first 2021 house sale over $20m this month when a Hopetoun Avenue trophy home sold to former Goldman Sachs investment banker Chris Barter and his wife Katrina. It had been first listed for sale in November 2019.

Vendor KPMG special adviser Max Donnelly and wife Fiona bought it for $10.4m in 2004, when the suburb’s highest price of the year was secured by UK-based software pioneer Neil Weston.

The Susan Rothwell-designed, three-level harbourfront home on its 1218sq m has direct access to a tidal beach adjoining Chinamans Beach.

A class apartment

The weekend auction of a $20.1m Bondi Beach penthouse ranks as the most expensive apartment ever sold at auction in Australia.

Set slightly above the bustling Notts Avenue, the apartment overlooking the beach was sold by the Point Piper-bound former world champion yachtsman and hardware company director James Mayo.

There were seven registered bidders who helped to more than double the price of the apartment since it traded for $9.8m in 2016 when sold by former Glencore coal executive Vaughan Blank, who had paid $8m in 2009.

The price guide for the four-bedroom, four-bathroom penthouse with 304sq m living space had been $13m to $15m, with the first bid at $14.5m.

The eventual buyer’s first bid was $16.8m at the auction conducted by Ben Collier at The Agency.

The apartment, with a 64sq m balcony, sits atop a late 1960s strata block.

Tycoon James Packer once owned a nearby property on the dress circle strip.

Another Bondi Beach auction saw a one-bedroom hillside apartment fetch $1.32m at auction last week with four bidders.

The 63sq m Edward Street offering had a $1m price guide from its Bradfield Cleary agent William Tsagaris.

It was most recently advertised as an $850-a-week rental in late 2019.

It last sold at $675,000 in 2011 and in 1997 was sold for $300,000 by the Dorigad development entity headed by Packer and Theo Onisforou.

The Australian record house auction price was secured last year when $24.6m was paid for a hillside Vaucluse house.

16 Bowman Street, Aspendale, was Melbourne’s top advised price sale at $4.535m.

Melbourne marvel

Melbourne’s top advised sale price was $4,535,000 in Aspendale.

Melbourne saw 1319 auctions held over the week, and with 1159 results reported so far, some 79 per cent being successful. The prior week saw 1102 homes taken to auction, returning a final clearance rate of 77 per cent, while this time last year 1343 auctions were held and 58 per cent of reported auctions were successful.

The Aspendale beachfront sale of 16 Bowman Street was well above the price guide of $3.45m to $3.7m issued by Stavros Ambatzidis and Kimberley Ferguson at O’Brien.

It was a 1930s residence on a 724sq m block with an outlook onto Mordialloc Pier on Port Phillip Bay, and the distant lights of the CBD.

The home has an undercover alfresco deck, lush lawn, and direct access to Aspendale Beach through a secluded gate.

The beachfront streets have seen at least one sale above $4.4m over the past four years.

The next priciest in Melbourne was in Camberwell where $4.2m was paid for 5 Fairfield Avenue.

Cheapest around

Melbourne’s cheapest sale came two days before its scheduled auction when $255,000 was paid for a two-bedroom Harkness offering.

The 2010-built ground floor unit in the Parkside Apartments complex at 1/9 Petrea Place was offered through Russell Parker at First National Melton with a $250,000 to $260,000 price guide. It last sold at $215,000 in 2011. The 80sq m space first sold off the plan in 2009 at $215,000.

Its last advertised rental asking price, according to CoreLogic, was $240 in late 2019.

The complex’s priciest two bedroom sale was last March when $285,000 was paid for a first floor unit with district views.

A piece of history

Sydney was host to 1048 auctions last week, increasing from 806 over the previous week and 946 this time last year. Despite the severe weather conditions, the preliminary clearance rate came in at 87 per cent, similar to the prior preliminary clearance rate of 87 per cent, which was revised down to 84 per cent.

“Sydney’s final auction clearance rate above 80 per cent for the past six weeks and this week is likely to be no different,” said CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless.

Sydney saw the dilapidated Glebe terrace which was once the childhood home to explorer SirDouglas Mawson sell for $790,000 over reserve at $2.99m.

It drew 15 bidders, with the proposed onsite 285 Glebe Point Road auction rescheduled to the local Ray White office. Saturday’s storm concerns were exacerbated, with the three-level terrace already having ceiling damage.

Built in 1882 as part of the Palmerston Terraces, it was home to celebrated explorer in the 1890s.

“The property was a perfect recipe of history, a tremendous location, and a pulsating property market,” said Ray White agent Matt Carvalho. The buyers were a group of developers who plan on renovating it into a luxury home.

Toorak’s Woodward House is dubbed a ‘brilliant collaboration’ for its design.

Toorak triumph

The latest Toorak offering is an award-winning architectural home dubbed a “brilliant collaboration” for its design by Guilford Bell, Neil Clerehan and Russell Barrett in more recent years.

There is a $5.75m to $6.3m price guide through Kay & Burton agents Jamie Mi and Ross Savas.

The modernised 1964-designed cul-de-sac Wannon Crescent home is set in gardens by landscaper Cameron Patterson. The block is 644sq m. It is called Woodward House, after its commissioning by accountant Geoffrey Woodward and his wife, Jean.

First sold to Hematite Petroleum in 1969 for $59,000, the home has high timber-lined ceilings, vast expanses of glass, George Fethers timber joinery and terrazzo flooring,

The environmentally sustainable home has double glazing, solar panels, solar hot water, hydronic heating, water tanks and grey water irrigation.

It last sold in 2019 at $4,361,000 and before that in 2003 at $1,465,000.

Getting busy

There were 2731 homes taken to auction across the capital cities last week, which ranked as the busiest week since pre-Easter in April last year when 3209 capital city homes were offered, according to CoreLogic.

Despite the higher volumes, the clearance rate held relatively firm at 82 per cent of auctions.

The prior week’s preliminary clearance rate of 83 per cent was revised down to 80 per cent at final figures.

“Over the same week last year which was showing early negative impact from the onset of COVID-19, a final clearance rate of 56 per cent was recorded,” Lawless noted.

Auction volumes are set to increase substantially this week, with over 3800 auctions across the capitals.