Melbourne’s Shrublands nets $29m as stately homes come back into vogue
The top end of Melbourne’s mansion market is sailing away from the rest of the city and even parts of northern rival Sydney as the property boom gathers pace.
The top end of Melbourne’s mansion market is sailing away from the rest of the city and even parts of northern rival Sydney as the residential property boom gathers pace.
In one of the latest big moves businessman Ali Ali has emerged as the purchaser of Canterbury mansion Shrublands with his $29m buy signalling the start of a new era for the historic home.
The grand residence was bought from the Williams family who had overhauled the home and then put it on the block last year with a price tag of $42m-$46m, a near record for Melbourne.
Only the Stonnington Mansion in Malvern, which sold for $52.5m in 2017 to a Chinese purchaser, would have topped it at this level.
The Shrublands purchaser is yet to reveal his plans for his just-acquired historic home that could not only serve as a classic residence but also a business headquarters.
The price on settlement shows a significant discount to its initial pricing hopes but still shows just how hot the market is running with other properties in nearby Kew also expected to test longstanding suburb price records.
The Shrublands sale certainly represents a record for Canterbury and that demonstrates the historic estate’s unique standing in the heart of one of Melbourne’s most sought-after suburbs.
The Weekend Australian revealed that the home had quietly sold in January but the buyer had been kept under wraps and the sale itself was just the third time the property had traded in its storied history.
The home, built in 1863, ranks among the city’s finest and sports 42 rooms. It was modernised by Anne and Michael Williams in a $10m project after they bought it in 2003.
While the eye-catching landscaped grounds are a key feature it is the mansion’s historical dimensions that set it apart from later properties. First owner Ernst Carter, dentist and later vigneron, bought into the area and the home was designed by John Flannagan.
Carter set up a vineyard on the site producing Shrublands-labelled wine in the 1860s and 1870s, when Boroondara was one of the state’s top winegrowing regions.
An 1889 extension by architect William Wolf added Tuscan and Ionic pilasters. Shrublands was donated to the Church of England in the 1920s and it became the St John’s Home for Boys until 1996, when it was bought by developers. But their hopes of converting it into townhouses were dashed and they exited in 2003.
The property was sold by Jock Langley, director of Abercromby’s Real Estate, and RT Edgar director Nick Walker.
Grand homes are coming back into vogue and an old-world Tudor mansion in Kew at 71-77 Sackville Street is tipped as the next record breaker.
The restored mansion sports parquetry floors and timbers imported from Europe, treated to fit in with the look of the period.
Outside, the expansive 2327sq m block has manicured gardens and a full-sized tennis court set on a separate title.
The 1924 residence includes an obligatory character-filled library where the buyers can ponder the return of the Marvellous Melbourne era of mansion buying.
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