Cate Blanchett’s Certificate of Title gets lost in the shuffle

Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton have not only lost their mansion’s first buyer, but the Certificate of Title as well.

Cate Blanchett and her playwright husband, Andrew Upton. Picture: Alex Towle.

Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett and her playwright husband, Andrew Upton,not only lost the first buyer of their $20 million Hunters Hill mansion, the couple also lost the mansion’s Certificate of Title. Under her married name, Cate Elise Upton signed a statutory declaration stating she had no recollection of receiving the mansion’s Certificate of Title nor did she have any recollection of what she did with it. “There has been no break in, theft or report to the police as it is believed that the ­certificate of title has not been stolen but merely mislaid,” according to the publicly available document. The Upton’s solicitorsand their buyer’s agent, Deborah West,also filed statutory declarations. Said Deborah: “It is my belief that if I had collected the Certificate of Title I would have done so at the request of the owners and would have delivered it to the owners. While I do not have recollection of that, I cannot deny that the Certificate of Title was in fact delivered to the owners.” The Upton’s have since requested a substitute ­Certificate of Title. As for the mansion’s eventual buyer, selling agent Ken Jacobs of Christies International remains tight-lipped.

Buyers court Elaine

One of Australia’s finest mansions, the Fairfax family-owned Elaine Gardens, fronting Sydney Harbour at Point Piper, looks set to sell in one line rather than face subdivision. While a marketing campaign was launched in 2014, Elaine was taken off the market for a year while a four-way subdivision of the 7000sq m property was approved. But selling agent Ken Jacobs, of Christies International, says buyers now want the entire New South Head Road estate — pricing around the $80m mark. “The strong interest is from buyers who want a grand estate rather than developing it,” Jacobs says. The landmark has about 43m of frontage to Seven Shillings Beach and a Victorian-style mansion with seven bedrooms and five bathrooms.