Fugitive Toplace developer Jean Nassif’s Chiswick property fetches an arresting price
Toplace developer Jean Nassif’s waterfront pile jagged the nation’s top weekend result.
The nation’s top weekend result was when the vacated Chiswick home of international fugitive Toplace Group property developer Jean Nassif sold for $12.35m at its Friday evening onsite auction.
The listing under the instruction of administrators of his collapsed $2bn property empire had$9m guidance. There were three bidders after 7300 page views on realestate.com.au during its marketing.
Nassif, who failed to rectify thousands of poor-quality Toplace apartments before his 2022 flight to Lebanon, bought the 968sq m Burns Crescent property with jetty for $4.9m in 2015 with Westpac finance.
The 2019-built home is registered just in his name, although the most recent dealing has been his wife Nisserine lodging a caveat claiming a stake “by virtue of marriage”.
She was the recipient of a $325,000 yellow Lamborghini, gifted on Valentine’s Day 2020 by the then little-known property developer, in an Instagram video that went viral.
Scrutiny by 2GB’s soon-to-retire campaigning broadcaster Ray “The People’s Champion” Hadley, alleging Nassif was a shonky builder, triggered Federal Court defamation proceedings in mid-2020, which lapsed earlier this year.
The developer alleged Hadley portrayed Nassif over eight broadcasts as “disgracefully incompetent and dishonest” to the point “a buyer should have serious concern about purchasing a property from (him)”.
A warrant remains issued for Nassif’s arrest over an alleged bank fraud.
E-commerce duo splash $42m on Aussie homecoming
E-commerce entrepreneurs Olivia Skuza and Heath Wells, who are returning to Australia in the new year, have bought their $42m Bellevue Hill trophy home without any registered mortgage.
The settlement paperwork followed their acquisition of the abode of Annabelle Shamir, the wife of Adam Blumenthal, the former chairman of boutique stockbroker EverBlu Capital.
Quite a reversal since NAB headed the four registered mortgages which came off the Victoria Road title on its midweek settlement. There were also two caveats arising from other loans.
While the six-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion had been listed with $45m hopes, the $42m was still a toppy price since it traded at $30m just three years ago when it was sold by lifestyle blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre and her husband, venture capitalist Oskar Buhre.
Skuza and Wells, originally from Adelaide, founded Nuorder in 2011 as an e-commerce platform for the wholesale fashion industry.
The Monaco-based expats had previously resided in Melbourne’s Prahran where they ran a publishing company specialising in fashion and music titles, including Beat magazine.
Nuorder, that currently works with 3000 brands and 500,000 retailers, attracted early funding from fashion designer Rachel Zoe and New York venture capitalist David Tisch when set up in West Hollywood. It was acquired for $US425m ($665m) by venture capital fund Lightspeed Venture Partners in a cash/share deal in 2021.
The Bellevue Hill purchase ranks as the year’s seventh-priciest Sydney house sale.
Clearance rate down
Some 923 homes went under the hammer in Sydney, down from 1031 the week prior. The 57 per cent preliminary clearance rate was the lowest of the year.
“The last time we saw Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate below the 60 per cent mark was December 2022,” CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said.
Sydney’s priciest listing was pulled on Saturday morning from its scheduled afternoon auction. It was listed by Emma Maas, wife of retired South Sydney Rabbitoh-turned-construction titan Wes Maas, from the ASX-listed construction company Maas Group. The offering had hit the market in October with plans for a redesign by Utz Sanby Architects.
Emma Maas was the recent $34m buyer above Shelly Beach of the nearby waterfront Fairy Bower, Manly designer residence of Smartline co-founder Chris Acret and his wife Justine.
The leasehold holding boasts a tri-level Madeline Blanchfield-designed house.
A newly constructed 9 Beresford Road, Rose Bay, home created by Andrew Tzannes, director of Smith & Tzannes, sold auction-eve at an undisclosed price. The-five bedroom house with Polar Ice marble, Portsea grey limestone along with European Oak floorboards had come with initial $16m price guidance, but is understood to have sold for around $14.6m.
Another Rose Bay offering fetched $10,215,000 at auction at 1 Fernleigh Gardens, the home of the late insurance actuary Mel Gottlieb, who had bought the home for $430,000 in 1984.
Five of the eight registered bidders completed after the opening $7m bid.
Big turnaround
Melbourne’s top advised sale amid the 1207 auctions listings was $4,010,000 for the five-bedroom house at 2 Wright Street, Brighton, through Leanne Potter at Buxton Real Estate. It had come with $3.45m to $3.55m guidance having been held by the same family for 45 years.
A pre-auction offer for 7 Neave Street, Hawthorn East, was undisclosed having been listed with $6m to $6.6m price guidance.
CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless calculated a 67 per cent preliminary clearance rate, Melbourne’s highest level since October. It also ranked as the nation’s top success rate in a rarity for the city this year.
The national 62 per cent preliminary clearance rate sat at the lowest result so far this year.
“The weak outcome for auction markets reflects weaker selling conditions as advertised stock levels rise without a commensurate lift in purchasing activity,” Lawless noted.
The first week of summer saw auction volume winding down with 2597 homes, down from 2,881 a week earlier and well below the spring peak of 3135 auctions in late October.
It drops to 2200 homes this week, then 800 the week after.
Record price
Queensland’s top sale was at Southport on the Gold Coast when $9.05m was paid by a local family for a Bayden Goddard-designed home.
The 14 Biggs Place riverfront offering saw four of the five registered bidders seek the keys for the six-bedroom, five-bathroom house.
“It sold for a record price for a waterfront property in Southport,” said Robbie Graham at Ray White Prestige Gold Coast.
Brisbane, which secured a 57 per cent success rate, saw The Gables at 15 Molonga Terrace, Graceville, fetch $3.62m when offered through Douglas May at Ray White Sherwood.
The five-bedroom 1916 home with a two-storey tower was designed for its 2050sq m block by architect Walter Taylor and his wife Louisa.
Brisbane also saw a 10 bidders register for the deceased estate auction of the Kangaroo Point penthouse in The Point Apartments complex. It fetched $3,125,000 through Josephine Johnston-Rowell and John Johnston, of Johnston Dixon Brisbane. The riverside Bright Street penthouse, atop the tightly held Cottee Parker Architects-designed low-rise, last sold in 1999 for $670,000.
It had been developed by the Leyshon Group, headed by Bob Bryan with its seed capital from the sale of Mt Leyshon gold mine to Robert Champion de Crespigny.
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