Bellevue Hill’s dreamtime mansion Alcooringa sells for $28.5m

Alcooringa, one of Sydney’s most expansive Spanish Mission-style residences, has finally been sold.

Alcooringa, Aboriginal for totemic dreamtime ancestors, comes complete with majestic ballroom and a private chapel.

Alcooringa, one of Sydney’s most expansive Spanish Mission-style residences, has finally been sold.

The seven-bedroom hillside 1930s Bellevue Hill trophy home has been on and off the market since 2015, the longest unsold prestige listing in the eastern suburbs.

It was initially offered with $25m-plus hopes by DrLouis Klein and his wife Claire, and their patience has paid off with an unconfirmed $28.5m sale secured in recent days.

The four-level Victoria Rd home was built for Mary and Hugh Taylor of the pioneer grazier dynasty, when originally named Biscaya after its design by architect F. Glynn Gilling. The trigger for its name change to Alcooringa, Aboriginal for totemic dreamtime ancestors – after the residence became the home of the Tunisian consul Maurice Moubarak who paid £55,500 in 1965 – was not recorded.

The grain exporter turned property developer then sold it in the early 1990s property market downturn for $2.9m to the Kleins, after it had been on the market for 18 months with $10m expectations.

The house comes complete with majestic ballroom and a private chapel.

The keenest buying interest was coming from the food blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre and entrepreneur husband Oskar Buhre, who runs the private advisory business Buhre Capital, which had dabbled in an institutional-grade bitcoin exchange for spot and futures contracts. No confirmation but the deal to secure the sale of the 1560sq m north-facing estate was done through Michael Pallier at Sotheby’s International.

Apparently the couple are close to securing the sale of their home further up Victoria Rd which they bought in 2018 for $17.1m from Richard Scheinberg on his move into Bellevue Hill’s Rona.

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Sydney stunner

Sydney’s top confirmed sale was an $8.5m pre-auction sale in Hunters Hill through Claire Ward at Ward Partners. The home at 3 Wandella Ave, which last sold in 2018 at $6.5m, comes with five bedrooms plus pontoon, mooring piles and city skyline views.

Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate was in the high 70s, with the city’s final auction clearance rate having held above 75 per cent all year, according to CoreLogic.

It took just two days to find the Hunters Hill buyer, highlighting the faster pace of sales in the market.

The realestate.com.au economist Anne Flaherty has calculated the 32-day national selling time average was at a historic low in May. It had been 37 days in April, although Western Australia and Queensland went against the national trend in May.

“We’re seeing properties fly off the site faster than we’ve ever seen,” Flaherty advised.

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$14m Toorak triumph

Toorak had the nation’s priciest weekend auction outcome when $14.24m was secured for Cottingley, the charming classic English-style home.

But the sale of the five-bedroom Albany Rd home did come a week late, allowing it to be ranked Victoria’s most viewed auction listing on realestate.com.au.

Selling agent Antoinette Nido from RT Edgar had seven bidders after the deceased estate auction was delayed due to the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions for onsite auctions.

34 Albany Road, Toorak.

The home features a noteworthy entrance foyer with grand circular staircase. There’s an elegant living room with open fireplace. The dining room has French doors overlooking rear terrace.

There was a rearguard action to have the home heritage-listed by Stonnington Council, which didn’t dampen enthusiasm as Nido had a price guide of $10.5m to $11.5m.

It had last traded in 1991 when bought by the Gale family for $1.22m, having been listed at $1.6m a year prior.

The home was designed by architect Geoffrey Sommers on its 1056sq m holding, part of a 10-lot Eden Court subdivision in the 1940s. The building block was bought by Vera Hill, the wife Normand Hill, of the Sir James Hill and Sons wool brokerage. He was also director of the Commercial Bank of Australia from the early 1950s to the late 1960s, during which time the forerunner to Westpac once announced annual record profits of around £618,000.

The couple had paid £2650 for the land in 1941 and sold in 1957 for £33,250.

Sommers, who died in 1984, worked on commissions for many of the wealthy owners of Toorak. Perhaps his most admired work is elsewhere on Albany Rd: the Hain family’s elegantly designed Georgian Revival-style residence.

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Terrific Teneriffe

Brisbane saw a sale of $4.7m in Teneriffe, which was the highest price among its 98 vendors who secured a stellar 75 per cent auction success rate. The hillside home at 26 Ellis Street had 4100 online views during its marketing campaign.

Its Ray White selling agent Matt Lancashire conducted 83 inspections, which resulted in 12 registered bidders.

The two-title offering has its contemporary three-level home on a 455sq m lot with an adjoining vacant 455sq m lot.

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Clearance rate soars

Adelaide’s top sale was $1.811m in West Beach, when Adelaide’s preliminary auction clearance rate jumped to 86 per cent.

It was the strongest success rate in the nation, followed by Canberra’s 82.5 per cent, according to CoreLogic.

12 Graydale Street, West Beach.

The Ray White agents Samuel Parsons and Anthony Fahey, who sold 12 Graydale St, West Beach, say it went for “hundreds of thousands over the reserve price”

The house was a knockdown, with some developer interest for a duplexes.

“The winning bidder out of the 15 who registered was a family who plan on knocking it down to build their dream home within a stone’s throw of the beach,” Parsons said.

The 751sq m holding was offered to the market for the first time in 34 years. There are views of the Adelaide Hills from the upstairs level of the four bedroom home.

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Bargain buy

The nation’s thriftiest sale was in Melbourne’s Pascoe Vale.

It came auction eve when 7/119 Northumberland Rd fetched $345,000 when bought by a downsizer. Set on the first floor of the 1968 complex, the north-facing one-bedroom apartment had previously sold for $300,000 in 2011.

William Spyrou at Eview Group C+M Residential had a $325,000 to $345,000 price guide.

Based on five years of sales, Pascoe Vale has seen a compound growth rate of 5.4 per cent for units, according to realestate.com.au, to a $650,000 median price.

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Auction boost

There were 1396 homes taken to auction across the combined capital cities over the past week, according to realestate.com.au, which advises there will be an unseasonal spurt in late June auctions following the long weekend dip in numbers.

Auction listings rise to 2990 this weekend, with vendors including INXS founding member Andrew Farriss auctioning his long-held classic 1950s Newport weatherboard house.

Then there will be 3059 auctions the following weekend when listings include a derelict 1850s cottage in Paddington, Sydney.

It last traded for $28,000 in 1976. Empty since 2015, 26 Stewart Street comes with a $1.9m price guide.