Jonathan Chancellor: Sky’s the limit for Gold Coast luxury property

A lavish waterfront Gold Coast mansion that passed in on a $28m vendor bid was the nation’s priciest weekend auction listing.

Knightsbridge Parade East, Gold Coast.

A lavish waterfront Gold Coast mansion that passed in on a $28m vendor bid was the nation’s priciest weekend auction listing.

The onsite auction was only open to the eight registered bidders, but nonetheless the Sovereign Islands street was lined with prestige cars.

The spacious six-bedroom home has a 30m pool on its 4255sq m holding.

Bidding progressed from $10m to $20m, with further offers made post-auction.

Listing agent Amir Mian, of Amir Prestige, said the owner had lowered his expectations since initially listing with $45m hopes last spring.

The house was a $5.3m mortgagee purchase seven years ago by the now Perth-bound civil engineer vendor Riccardo Rizzi.

The Knightsbridge Parade East property was sold in an unfinished state in 2013 after some $21m had been spent on the construction and consolidation of the four blocks.

Queensland’s longstanding house price record stands at $27m.

There was a 60 per cent auction success rate in Queensland, according to realestate.com.au, including the nation’s cheapest result when $300,000 was paid at Mount Nebo.

The marketing by Ray White Samford agent Edward Singleton for 16 Bateson Rd suggested buyers could “renovate or detonate. The two-bedroom, two-level home was semi-renovated, coming without ceilings.

Garden blooms

Garden House, a former Pettit & Sevitt display home in Canberra’s Weston, sold at auction for $1,005,000.

The home, designed by architect Ken Woolley, is one of seven former display homes on Gray Place, set 15 minutes from the Parliamentary Triangle.

Belle Property agent Amy Wilson had been expecting in the low $900,000s. There were eight registered bidders.

Pettit + Sevitt, best remembered for its Lowline design, was a project home building company that built 3500 affordable architecturally designed homes in the 1960s and 70s across Sydney and Canberra.

The mid-century modern-influenced Garden House has been sympathetically renovated and extended.

Last traded for $645,000 in 2015, the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home has floor-to-ceiling windows that look out onto native gardens on its 1188sq m block.

Pettit+Sevitt recently launched new designs developed in collaboration with architects PopovBass with four pre-designed homes.

“These new designs will give today’s home buyers the benefits of an architect-designed home, with the affordability of a high-end project home — very much in keeping with the original Pettit+Sevitt concept and spirit,” said director Val Sevitt.

Prices start at $950,000.

The firm has been led since 2009 by Ron Sevitt’swidow, Val and their children, Colin and Carol.

Canberra’s top reported sale was $1.66m in Yarralumba. The five-bedroom Mueller St house sold through Peter Blackshaw agent Mario Sanfrancesco. It last sold at $1.12m six years ago, which was a drop on its $1.23m sale in 2007.

Among the capitals, Canberra recorded the highest weekend clearance rate of 83 per cent, according to realestate.com.au.

Auction action

The combined national capital city auction success rate improved after 1134 homes were taken to auction, up only slightly from the 1084 auctions held in the prior week.

Of the 878 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 72 per cent found buyers, higher than last week’s preliminary figure of 71 per cent, which was revised down to 66 per cent.

Over the same week last year, a 72 per cent success rate was reported across 1955 auctions, with the big drop in activity due to Melbourne auction restrictions.

Sydney continues to make up over 60 per cent of all auction activity.

CoreLogic calculated 707 homes were auctioned, down from the 751 held over the week prior. Of the 560 results collected an initial clearance rate of 76 per cent was achieved. Last week, Sydney’s final clearance rate sat at 67 per cent and this time last year it was 79 per cent across 727 auctions.

Sydney’s top sale was a residential building block at Pymble that fetched $6m through Jing Peng at LJ Hooker. It was last sold at $3,425,000 in 2015. With a newly concreted driveway, the 3979sq m holding at 3 Graham Ave attracted four bidders, all of whom had plans for a single dwelling.

No bids for Weiss home

There was no sale when Doris Weiss, the widow of the philanthropic fashion leader Peter Weiss, sought to sell their Woollahra cottage at a weekend auction. There were no bids when auctioneer Damien Cooley put the home for auction although there was apparent interest from a property aficionado family from Bellevue Hill.

It had been listed by The Agency’s Ben Collier with a $5m guide.

The couple had paid $3.75m in 2015 when it was bought from the late composer Peter Sculthorpe.

It sits on a 302sq m Holdsworth St block diagonally opposite the Lord Dudley Hotel.

It was a three-bedroom home on purchase, with the installation of a lift to help Weiss around triggering the reduction to two bedrooms.

Holdsworth Street, Woollahra, NSW

Melbourne market

Melbourne saw 188 homes taken to auction, up on the 59 auctions last week and the largest number in two months. Of the 143 results collected so far by CoreLogic there was a 65 per cent clearance rate.

The top result was in South Melbourne where a three-bedroom Ferrars Place terrace fetched $2,253,000. The two-storey unrenovated home on a 190sq m block had a price guide from David Wood at Hockingstuart of $2.2m to $2.4m, after being initially listed with a $1.95m to $2.1m guide.

There were six registered online bidders after 135 inquiries and 45 inspections once restrictions were lifted in late September. Eight parties undertook repeat inspections.

It was last sold at $53,000 in 1978, according to CoreLogic, when bought by the now 100-year-old vendor, who is a Rats of Tobruk veteran.

One year ago, 915 Melbourne homes were auctioned with 73 per cent selling.

Activity will increase after the announcement permitting real estate auctions with a maximum of 10 people, plus the required staff, along with mask-wearing, social distancing, cleaning and record-keeping requirements. Presumably surplus buyers will go online and attend digitally.

Rogers transfer

One recent off-market transaction in Victoria has seen the Bellbrae holiday home of Rosemary Rogers, the former chief of staff at the National Australia Bank, transferred solely into her husband’s name, Anthony.

They had been joint proprietors of the 2ha property on the Surf Coast that had been subject to a restraining order by authorities since late 2018.

Rogers, who pleaded guilty in February, awaits sentencing for participating in an invoicing scheme that saw her corruptly receiving benefits.

The 2010-built home had $468,000 worth of renovations, which triggered one of the 38 charges laid against Rogers.

It had been bought for $995,000 in 2013.

Court documents lodged at the Victorian Land Registry earlier this month show the property was released from its freezing order after Rogers agreed to pay $4.35m in an unexplained wealth order obtained by the NSW Crime Commission.

Former NAB chief of staff Rosemary Rogers. Picture: AAP