Pass the $20m parcel for Patricia Ilhan’s Brighton beachfront block; Alison Leslie lists Nirvana

The Brighton golden mile beachfront block that Patricia Ilhan sold off-market had no sooner settled last week than it was onsold, and the late Jim Leslie’s Nirvana is on the market.

The Grey St terrace Nirvana, longtime East Melbourne home of the late corporate leader, James (Jim) Leslie, which has been listed by his widow, Alison.

The Brighton golden mile beachfront building block that Patricia Ilhan, widow of Crazy John’s founder John Ilhan, sold off-market had no sooner settled last week than it was onsold.

Her redundant beachfront on pricey Seacombe Grove was sold for $20,000,999 to Ross Voci, the Brighton-based property developer who once published a book titled Turn Your Backyard Into Cash.

But Voci immediately onsold for $22m to the Mt Eliza-based modern day retailer, Sean Senvirtne, the founder of the MyDeal online marketplace which Woolworths bought in September in a $200m-plus deal. MyDeal was in the news last month after a cybersecurity breach.

Ilhan retains her longtime neighbouring home, with pool and tennis court, which was bought in 1999 for $6.5m by her husband, the Mobileworld Communications boss who died in 2007. The adjoining 1700sq m block was bought in 2003.

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Nirvana now

The longtime East Melbourne home of the late corporate leader, James (Jim) Leslie has been listed by his widow, Alison.

The Grey St terrace, Nirvana, was last traded in 1980 for $150,000 when they made the move from Canterbury.

The Kay & Burton agent Monique Depiere is quoting $3.6m to $3.75m as her price guide.

Alison Leslie, the former president of the board of management at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, has recently moved to single-level living in an apartment complex elsewhere in East Melbourne.

Leslie, who joined Mobil Oil Australia in 1941 and went on to be its first Australian managing director, died 10 years ago, aged 89.

He was chairman of Qantas for the 1980s decade, after assuming the role from top ranking Canberra mandarin Sir Lenox Hewitt.

He was succeeded by Bill Dix, the chairman of the Ford Motor Company of Australia.

It was during Leslie’s tenure that the Qantas board accepted the “Spirit of Australia” brand marketing pitch from the Monahan Dayman Adams advertising agency.

Phillip Adams recently suggested the airline no longer reflected that image, given its treatment of customers during the pandemic. Adams once referred to Leslie as a “CEO with soul’’.

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Freshwater’s finest

A pre-auction deal in Sydney’s Freshwater was probably the nation’s top sale as F45 gym co-founder Adam Gilchrist offloaded an original bungalow, with makeover, which had been listed with $8.5m hopes.

There was no price disclosure.

The view from the Freshwater bungalow, which was sold pre-auction.

The three-bedroom cottage on 405sq m with views over the surf had been bought apparently sight unseen for $5.4m in 2017, $1.3m over the reserve, setting a new record for the suburb. In 2018 he again set a record, paying $14m for his neighbour’s house, but he offloaded it for $14.2m in August after abandoning his occupancy plans.

Now Matthew Kapp, the executive chairman of the web personalisation start-up Ozmota and his wife Joanna Kapp-Cales have their nearby Walter Barda-designed five-bedroom, five-bathroom home listed with $15m hopes at November 5 auction.

There’s 560sq m of living space. Its kitchen and scullery comes with three dishwashers, three ovens and three fridges.

The 463sq m Undercliff Rd holding has a heated magnesium pool with waterfall plus Marengo outdoor hot/cold shower. The block cost $4.8m in 2015.

There were 639 auctions in Sydney last week, down about 4 per cent on the previous week, with the clearance rate steady at 61 per cent.

Tim Lawless at CoreLogic noted the recent lower volume of auctions ‘‘lines up with a broader trend where the number of new listings added to the market remains remarkably low for this time of the year.” “Many prospective vendors are staying on the sidelines through the downturn,” he suggested.

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Canterbury sales

Melbourne’s Canterbury had the nation’s highest under-the-hammer outcome when $8.4m was paid for a 1630sq m holding with an early 1970s three-bedroom, two-bathroom modernist residence with tennis court.

The Jellis Craig agent Geordie Dixon‘s price guide had been $7.8m to $8.2m for the Victoria Ave property, which was listed following the death of the Austin Hospital’s former head of anatomical pathology, Joseph Xipell, a year after the death of his wife Thecla. They owned the 2002 Caulfield Guineas-Victoria Derby winner, Helenus.

The next priciest reveal was $4.93m for the Edwardian home on Maling Rd, Canterbury. It had last sold in 2007 at $2,925,000 when bought by gastroenterologist Simon Zanati and his wife, Justine. It had been renovated by architect Peter McIntyre. The price guide had been $4m to $4.4m.

Melbourne’s Canterbury had the nation’s highest under-the-hammer outcome when $8.4m was paid for a three-bedroom house on Victoria Avenue.

Actor Sigrid Thornton and her husband, film producer Tom Burstall’s North Melbourne stables conversion home was passed in on a $3.9m vendor bid, after guidance of $3.8m to $4.1m. They bought the stables in 1977 for $30,000, then the terrace next door in 1991 for $153,000.

The rush to get in before the distraction of the big spring racing weekend included the Brighton townhouse of former top jockey Gary Willetts and his wife Raewyn.

Willetts, who rode almost 1500 winners in his career, including Battle Heights in the 1974 Cox Plate, had bought the four-storey Meek St home in 2017 for $2.26m. It had a $2.45m to $2.65m price guidance, but no sale price advisory.

It was Melbourne’s first so-called Super Saturday of more than 1000 auctions this spring, which resulted in a preliminary clearance rate of 64 per cent from 968 results collected so far by CoreLogic. The benchmark auction measurement has sat above 60 per cent for its seventh consecutive week.

There were dozens of non-disclosed prestige results after their public auctions with just seven of the 33 priciest inner and middle ring Melbourne sales having price disclosure.

Some were kept secret out of embarrassment at the sale price, others in the desire for short-term secrecy until mandatory registration, while other prices were withheld by selling agents to encourage prospective buyers to directly seek out the details and declare their interest in the local market place.

That way their name, number and email details can be added to agency databases.

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Red Hill on top

Brisbane’s top sale came when 46 Abraham St, Red Hill sold under the hammer for $2.4m, some $200,000 over reserve through Ray White Ascot agent Nick Kouparitsas.

There were 14 registered bidders, with five active before it sold to a local.

Abraham Street in Red Hill.

The agency had over 100 groups through the home during its four week marketing campaign.

Across the smaller capital cities, Brisbane was the busiest auction market last week with 148 homes, followed by Adelaide (131) and Canberra (83).

Adelaide recorded the strongest preliminary clearance rate at 75 per cent, followed by Canberra on 57 per cent and Brisbane at 48 per cent.