Not for rent: Triguboff’s take on apartments at Barangaroo

Having developed more than 75,000 residential units on the eastern seaboard, Harry Triguboff is more than capable to comment on the state of the nation’s apartment market.

Having developed more than 75,000 residential units on the eastern seaboard, multi-billionaire Harry Triguboff is more than capable to comment on the state of the nation’s apartment market. Over a private lunch in his double-storey penthouse overlooking Sydney’s CBD (and the many apartment towers he has built over the past 60 years, including World Square) talk turned to Barangaroo and how it was faring given mainland Chinese buyers had temporarily left the market. Asked if he would invest in the James Packer or the Lend Lease-developed towers at Barangaroo, the apartment mogul was nonplussed. “At Barangaroo I would only buy to live there or to onsell. The rents don’t justify the sales prices,” Triguboff, founder of Meriton Apartments, quipped. Indeed apartment prices in Packer’s One Barangaroo Crown Residences, which is fast taking shape, start at $9.5m for a two-bedder. All up there are 82 residences in the luxury 77-level tower, which is being marketed by Knight Frank.

Brighton on the move

A Melbourne retiree has forked out around $4m for an off-the-plan apartment in the up-market suburb of Brighton sealing the suburb’s second-highest sale this year. The project at 10-12 Lindsay Street was designed
by Paul Conrad, of Conrad Architects, landscaping was by Jack Merlo and interiors by Miriam Fanning,of MIM Design. The selling agent, Leonard Teplin, who is a director of Marshall White, said construction is underway and anticipates residents will move in by Christmas 2021.

Jackie O hits the high notes

Broadcaster Jackie O led the big-ticket Eastern Suburbs sales in Sydney this week with her $11m purchase of a contemporary mansion in Woollahra, through Ben Collier, of The Agency. Designed by star architect Nick Tobias,the four-bedroom house overlooking Cooper Park hit the market days earlier. The vendor was stockbroker Angus Aitken and wife Sarah who listed it on June 19. The ultra-contemporary house is a departure from Jackie O’s previous Vaucluse abode, which had a white picket fence. That Cambridge Avenue, Vaucluse, property sold for around $6.5m back in March with Jackie O having purchased it for $2.7m eight years ago. Back in Woollahra, Jackie O’s purchase was developed on a 405sq m parcel and features wide contemporary spaces and a fireplace. Tobias said it was wonderful that Jackie O had chosen the suburb as her forever home.

Hayman back on the map

Mulpha chief executive Greg Shaw is moving to restart the sales program for his four Kerry Hill-designed contemporary residences on Queensland’s Intercontinental Hayman Island. Shaw, the Australasian head of the Malaysian conglomerate that has poured $150m into renovating the Whitsunday Island, closed the resort earlier this year due to COVID-19. But now that it is reopening on September 1, Shaw said this week he will restart marketing the properties, which include private pools and buggies to get around the island. Hill, the late Singapore-based architect, designed the residences that were fitted out by ­interior designer ­Blainey North. Mulpha has the capacity to ­develop 21 houses on Hayman ­Island, in Queensland’s Whitsundays. The four villas have butler’s pantries, private pools, four bedrooms and four ensuite bathrooms.