Mystery buyer’s land grab in Point Piper; Andrew Forrest’s beachfront buy-up continues

The intrigue has intensified on Sydney’s pricey Point Piper peninsula over what looks increasingly like a stealthy $99.5m Wolseley Rd site consolidation.

42A Wolseley Road, Point Piper, which sold for $32.5m.

The intrigue has intensified on Sydney’s pricey Point Piper peninsula over what looks increasingly like a stealthy $99.5m Wolseley Rd site consolidation.

It all depends on who is the latest mystery buyer, namely Patricia Jenkins.

Jenkins emerged in last Friday’s settlement documents as a $32.5m buyer of an 823sq m harbourfront holding, using Castle Hill solicitors Puleo Lawyers.

The 42a Wolseley Rd property had been sold by Seven Network commercial director Bruce McWilliam and his wife, mediator Dr Nicky McWilliam, who held it as an investment after their $10.6m purchase in 2013. Speculation has been rife since its extended settlement exchange in boomtime March last year, through estate agent Brad Pillinger.

There was the first clue last month when the adjoining 740sq m vacant block was settled in the name of millennial entrepreneurs Alexandra and Gabriel Jakob at $27m. Interestingly they also used the same Hills district lawyers.

The Jakobs’ initial purchase was in 2020, a home that shares the same battle-axe driveway. It was bought for $40m from former Westpac director Steve Harker, using Puleo Lawyers too, according to the settlement paperwork lodged at the NSW Land Registry.

The three sites combined would equate to a 2400sq m compound.

Sydney’s previous costliest consolidation was in 2016 when Leon Kamenev, who made $470m from the sale of Menulog, spent $80m on four properties totalling 4215sq m in Vaucluse.

The Jakobs’ wealth stems from property, childcare and technology investments.

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Twiggy’s terrain

Site consolidations are not just a Sydney thing.

Andrew‘Twiggy’Forrest’s beachfront Cottesloe buy-up continues with his purchase of Le Fanu, an 1890s Queen Anne-style home.

It had been restored by local miner Steve Wyatt, who had paid $4.25m in 2009.

Le Fanu, Salvado Street, Cottesloe.

Le Fanu was built in the 1890s as a grand beachside residence for Henry Diggins Holmes, the general manager of Western Australian Bank, which merged with the Bank of New South Wales four years before his death in 1931.

Listed after its $10m-plus renovation in 2019, Le Fanu was recently sold by Vivien Yap of Ray White.

Forrest and his wife, Nicola, now own the entire Marine Parade dress circle promenade between Salvado and Rosendo streets, some 7200sq m, including historic Tukurua which cost $16m in 2015.

There was a $5.5m buy of the property between the heritage homes last year.

The couple retain the 1890s Pine Lodge, their nearby longtime hillside Queen Anne bungalow with grand turret.

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Trophy home unsold

There was no bid when Sydney’s priciest weekend listing – a Woollahra trophy home – went to onsite auction. It was very well attended by buyers’ agents, who were perhaps just keeping up appearances on the auction circuit.

5 Wellington Street, Woollahra, failed to sell at auction.

Auctioneer Damien Cooley tried to coax a $16m bid from the crowd at the Wellington St home until Ray White agent Randall Kemp closed proceedings with a $16m vendor bid. The Dang family had bought it in 1995 for $2.25m from cotton farmer David Farley.

The listing is two along from the home sold in August last year for $22m by television star Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

Sydney’s top result was on nearby Ocean St, Woollahra, when $5.05m was paid two weeks prior to the scheduled auction.

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Deals delayed

Withdrawn and postponed auctions remain the big Sydney trend.

There was a three-week postponement of a newly designed offering at South Coogee, which has $7.5m hopes through Augusto Gerocarni at Ray White. Ditto a three-week delay for a Raglan St Mosman auction offering.

ALindsay Little & Associates-designed Killara home, with $7.5m hopes, saw its auction postponed a fortnight by Glenn Curran at McGrath.

Withdrawal rates across Sydney sat at 23 per cent, compared with 8 per cent among the 671 results in Melbourne.

Sydney had 695 auctions last week, down 10 per cent on the prior week.

Of the 562 results collected so far by CoreLogic, 60 per cent were successful, up from the previous week’s 57 per cent preliminary clearance rate, which dipped to 51 per cent at final figures.

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Malvern star

Melbourne’s top advised sale was at Malvern when $4.58m was paid for a five-bedroom house on 977sq m.

The 1960s Robinson St home last sold in 2015 at $3.5m, when bought by Dominik Kucera, a chief financial officer with turnaround management expertise.

The price guide from Marshall White agent Rae Tomlinson had been $4m to $4.4m.

The second-highest sale came when $4.04m was paid for a three-bedroom, single-storey brick house at Motherwell St, South Yarra through Andrew Hayne at Marshall White.

“It was a very competitive auction with six bidders against a reserve of $3.1m,” Hayne advised Competing Bids.

“It was testimony to the quality of the house and the location, in addition to the potential on offer, with not a lot of good quality homes on offer,” he added. It last sold in 1997 at $658,500.

There were unconfirmed suggestions that 30 Howard St, Glen Iris sold for $4.715m, with the Marshall White agency refraining from any website price reveal.

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Institute offloads

It appears somewhat disconcerting but the Australian Property Institute (API) offloaded its Melbourne office premises on Friday. They got $4.76m for their nest egg, some $260,000 above its reserve, but below the reported $5m-plus pre-auction guidance.

Founded in the 1920s as the Commonwealth Institute of Valuers, the 8000-member institute has owned the two-storey Victorian era premises at 10 Beach St since paying $723,000 in 1991, after they sold their 1860s Wellington Parade, East Melbourne premises for $406,000.

It appointed WBP chair Greville Pabst as adviser on the sale of the 385sq m property through Colliers International. The buyers will use it as an office and may add two storeys.

The API will use the funds for training purposes, its boss Amelia Hodge has advised. The institute has certainly moved with the transitory times, as they are now tenants at the co-sharing workspace Hub Australia on Flinders St.

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Adelaide’s Ambers

Adelaide’s 70 per cent was the strongest preliminary clearance rate, followed by Canberra on 66 per cent.

4 Blairgowrie Road, St Georges.

Adelaide saw the $2.9m sale of The Ambers, a four-bedroom house at St Georges, 7km from the CBD. The renovated 1950s Blairgowrie Rd house, now adorned with pendants by international designer Jonathan Adler and local gallery Aptos Cruz, had 450sq m of living space.

“It was a great result,” selling agent Kris Casey at Harris Real Estate said.