Director’s cut: $7.6m for Tasmanian jewel Trial Bay House
The award-winning Trial Bay House on Tasmania’s southern coast has been sold for $7.6m by television director Michael Jenkins and partner Amanda Robinson.
Trial Bay House, the 2010 Australian House of the Year on Tasmania’s southern coast, has been sold for $7.6m by television director Michael Jenkins and partner Amanda Robson.
When the home won the Robin Boyd Award for residential architecture, it was the first time the Australian Institute of Architects national prize went to Tasmania.
Set 30 minutes south of Hobart, the mostly off-grid home was a 1970s country house given an extensive concrete and glass structural makeover by local architect James Jones amid its organic farming acreage.
Jenkins, who produced the hit Heartbreak High, Blue Murder and Wildside television series, had paid $1m for the 17ha waterfront property overlooking Bruny Island on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel in 2002.
Trial Bay House was listed with First National agent Helen Lehane, who took over the $7.9m listing from Forbes Global Properties three weeks ago. It was initially on the market for $9.9m in October 2022.
“Espaliered stone fruit, lemons, apples, raised vegetable beds and established plants produce much more than an average family can consume,” Lehane said.
No rest for sales
The days on either side of Australia Day mark the culmination of summer auction marketing campaigns for what are often tightly held coastal listings.
Seaside Angourie in the NSW Clarence Valley saw the O’Neill family’s three-bedroom holiday cottage, The Rest, fetch $2.76m, having last sold at $4000 in 1968.
The 70sq m cottage sits on its 538sq m Pacific St property that sold through Richard Hunt and Jo Boxsell at First National Yamba.
Set with ocean views from the front porch and its back yard, The Rest was marketed as “in good original condition with 60 years of family living”.
It noted that 9 Pacific St “has been in the one family since Angourie’s inception on a humble weekend lease back in 1966”.
There had been a report that it had exchanged at $2,357,000 in May last year.
The next highest notified sale in coastal NSW was $2.3m at Arrawarra Headland, an hour south of Yamba, through Cinamin Ryan-Frost at Cardow & Partners on Australia Day eve.
The single-story, vendor-built brick home was offered for the first time in four decades having been listed by the Oakley family, which had initially sought$2.5m-$2.7m in September last year.
Coast tops listings
The Gold Coast had the nation’s dearest listings, headlined by the sale of a Main Beach apartment offered at the 30th annual Ray White Surfers Paradise Group in-room auction event. The second-floor apartment at 3565 Main Beach Pde, Main Beach was listed through agent Robert Graham for his vendor, veteran sales colleague Michael Willems and his wife Dayna, who briefly tried to secure $6.95m last year.
It was sold for $6.35m, with interest from six parties.
The couple had paid $4.5m in early 2020 to buy into the luxury M3565 beachfront complex designed by architect Virginia Kerridge.
Among the 100-plus Ray White residential offerings was a property in Runaway Bay with a 76m sandy beachfront facing northeast towards Broadwater with 13.5m jetty. It was passed in, with subsequent negotiations at $8m through agent Jackson Paradise, with five interested parties.
No buyers for trophy
A near-new trophy home at 25 River Crescent, Broadbeach Waters designed by Jared Poole failed to secure a buyer, with the riverfront house now being marketed through Joshua Soineva and Marc Keswell of Amir Prestige with a $5.6m asking price.
Set on 971sq m, the five-bedroom, four-bathroom dwelling comes with cinema, study, lounge and infinity edge pool and a waterside fireplace. There is also an outdoor kitchen equipped with built-in barbecue and fridges.
The land holding last sold for $1.305m in 2013.
It has city skyline views from its multiple balconies.
Broadbeach Waters did see a $4.3m mid-week sale of the six-bedroom, four-bathroom property at 15 Cedar Place, which sold off market by EricLockhart and Kurt Reid from John Reid Real Estate.
It boasts more than 60 squares of living space. It last sold in January 2020 for $2.2m.
The 21st-floor offering at Beaches on Garfield Terrace, Surfers Paradise sold for $3.45m through Harcourts Coastal agent Tolemy Stevens when offered for the first time in 26 years by its original owners. The whole-floor, 236sq m property was built by Mirvac to a design by Henry Pollack.
All calm on waterfront
Historically the Australia Day weekend has been a hive of auction activity at Victoria’s Portsea and Sorrento, but there were none this year.
“The market has moved to private selling and since the high levels of sales during the pandemic, volumes have dropped considerably,” Kay & Burton chairman Gerald Delany said.
“There are now longer periods of time on the market before sales.
“Although values have softened marginally from the pandemic boom, they have held up pretty well against interest rate rises and the land tax issue.
“Even the traditional Australia Day weekend tennis competitions have gone.
“The current generation don’t have the passion for tennis.”
Peninsula action lift
January listings have been on the rise elsewhere on the Mornington Peninsula, especially at McCrae, 30 minutes closer to Melbourne with its weekend results including a boat shed owned by the Owies family for five decades.
Belle Property’s Jarrod Eastwood secured a record $505,000, having listed it with a $430,000-$470,000 price guide based on last year’s sale of bathing box 64 for $450,000.
There were two bidders amid the crowd of 50.
“The buyers own a property locally,” Eastwood said.
The 18sq m boat shed was among the 19 weekend auctions in and around McCrae by Belle Property, including a three-bedroom house at 95 Flinders St, listed with $950,000-$1,045,000 hopes that fetched $1,160,000
Another three-bedroom house at 54 Cairn Rd fetched $900,000, having been listed with $850,000-$930,000 hopes.
It was sold in 1988 for $133,000.
The two-bedroom 195 Bayview Rd offering fetched $726,000, having had $690,000-$759,000 guidance.
Safety Beach, positioned between Mount Martha and Dromana, recorded a $1,190,000 sale of a three-bedroom house at 32 Victoria Crescent, which had been listed with $1,080,000-$1,180,000 guidance.
It last sold at $130,000 in 1991.
Talle Casa auction
The latest Tallebudgera Valley luxury listing has been scheduled for a February 29 auction with the Reece Keil-designed resort-style home given $7.5m-$8.5m guidance by Ray White agent Rebecca Moffrey.
Talle Casa was recently featured in the Inside Out magazine.
Backing onto the Tallebudgera Creek, the single-level, two-wing 451 Tallebudgera Creek Rd home sits on a 7292sq m holding in the southern Gold Coast hinterland.
There are five bedrooms, with a children’s wing, gymnasium, and a home office positioned on one side. The indoor-outdoor section sees a central pool, with its pool filtration and heating controlled by an app.
Sam and Shanna Fairless bought the vacant block in mid-2021 for $1.1m.
Keil did the design of nearby Villa Casa at Reedy Creek, which retired Sydney Swans champion Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin and wife Jesinta bought in late 2022 for $8.75m.
Meanwhile, Kimberley Swann has emerged as the buyer of the Dahlia Estate, the Tallebudgera Valley luxury offering that fetched $11.2m under the auction hammer last month, smashing the suburb record by $5.9m.
The house was built during the pandemic into the side of a hill by Ross and Ashley Hankin, who run the construction company HNKN, complete with a resort-style pool and tennis court.
Dahlia Estate was among the 11 record-breaking sales across Gold Coast suburbs last year, according to PropTrack.
The Armadale-based Swann is the widow of Cygnett technology company co-founder Tim Swann.
