Point Piper penthouse’s $16m sale clinched just before auction
A Point Piper penthouse ranked as the nation’s top weekend sale — on the eve of its scheduled auction — when a $16m-plus offer was accepted.
A Point Piper penthouse ranked as the nation’s top weekend sale — on the eve of its scheduled Saturday auction — when $16m-plus was accepted by its patient vendor, Yetta Hendler.
It is one of just four whole-floor apartments in the tightly held Wentworth Place block.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment with views over Sydney Harbour to the Bridge and Opera House, had been initially listed in late 2019.
Last time Ray White and its Sotheby’s selling agent Michael Pallier cautiously suggested it would easily go for more than the block’s prior top sale, $13.5m in 2016.
The Wentworth Street penthouse, which has 300sq m of internal space plus 300sq m rooftop terracing on the title, went unsold. It last traded 28 years ago at $3,325,000.
Set in the prestige Winten project, it had first sold at $3.85m in 1989, a reminder that prestige prices can fall.
Hendler, who died in 2011 at 80, Yetta and sons Gary, Michael and David emigrated from South Africa in the early 1980s, then securing the rights to sell Reebok goods as the fitness trend took off. Michael runs the family business.
Bidders push past $7m
Michael Pallier went on to secure a $7.15m under-the-hammer Saturday result in Bellevue Hill. There was a $4.5m opening bid from one of the four bidders.
The five-bedroom, three-bathroom house on 469sq m last sold in 1998 for $1.3m.
The sale price of the 20 Rivers Street offering was some 40 per cent above the $5m price guide, buyers agent Rodney McLoughlin noted.
Hamptons style
Mosman had the nation’s highest reported under-the-hammer sale result, when $7.35m was secured for a five-bedroom house.
The newly built Hamptons-style home replaced a single storey Federation home which had sold in 2016 at $3.3m. Cordell Connect reports the replacement Metricon home came after an $854,000 development application in 2019.
The next highest Sydney sale was at North Bondi when 31 Reina Street, North Bondi, sold for $6.1m, some $900,000 above its reserve price.
Apparently former cricket captain Michael Clarke took a look during its marketing but did not turn up to the auction which secured a suburb record for a semi-detached home, by more than $1m.
The auction was brought forward by a fortnight such was the buyer interest with some 250 groups having gone through the home on 340sq m during the Ray White marketing. There was a nearby 409sq m unrenovated freestanding deceased estate sale at $6.55m last week which set the scene.
There were 15 registered bidders with it sold to a young family from Bondi.
Sydney was host to 844 auctions over the past week, much lower than this time last year when 1087 homes were taken to auction across the city.
The preliminary clearance rate came in at 88.9 per cent this week, according to Tim Lawless at CoreLogic.
Historic home on top
Melbourne’s top weekend sale was in Hawthorn when five bidders competed for Tavemille, an 1890s four-bedroom home which fetched $6.55m. The sale price for 62 Kinkora Road was $1.25m over the top end of the $5.3m Jellis Craig price guide.
The home on 910sq m came with a conservatory-style extension, having previously traded at $655,000 in 1990. It was modernised in the mid-1970s by its then architect owner, then again in the late 1980s.
Melbourne also saw a pre-auction sale in Kew where 108 Sackville Street sold, having been listed with $4.8m to $5.2m guidance.
There was a $4.41m sale at 10a Tyrone Street, Camberwell, of a modern four-bedroom, three-bathroom house designed by Domoney Architects.
But bidding stopped at $5.31m when 22 Wheatland Road in Malvern went unsold after the price guidance had been $4.95m to $5.4m.
CoreLogic advised 1273 Melbourne homes were taken to auction last week, compared with 1612 this time last year.
Of the 1091 auction Melbourne results collected so far by CoreLogic, 77.7 per cent were reported as successful.
Off-market strength
One of the key reasons for the reduced Sydney auction activity is the rise in off-market sales.
And no more so than on Sydney’s northern beaches, fresh from a lockdown.
Agents report that up to 70 per cent of sales at Palm Beach and Whale Beach are being secured off-market, from the agency data base, up from the typical 30 per cent off-market levels.
The LJ Hooker Northern Beaches Group, which has offices in Palm Beach, Newport and Avalon, advises its off-market sales have never been stronger.
There was a $10m-plus sale of an undisclosed Whale Beach beachfront in mid-February.
And AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda has bought again on the oceanfront strip at Palm Beach, buying off-market from adman Mike Hale.
Channel 7 boss James Warburton and wife Nikki are the latest buyers at Palm Beach.
The property was sold off-market too when offered by veteran yachtsman and property developer Syd Fischer, with the listing attracting investors and owner occupiers as the low-maintenance property had been yielding lucrative investment returns.
The Winten-built offering last sold at $3.25m in 2006.
LJ Hooker Palm Beach has however been running a traditional marketing campaign for Matthew Grounds, the former local head of the Swiss banking giant UBS, who has been seeking $7.5m.
It is a four-bedroom contemporary weekender bought on Palm Beach Road by Grounds and his wife Kimberley for $4.3m in 2005.
Offers by expressions of interest closed Friday, with no result notification as yet.
Capital clears well
Across the smaller cities, Canberra recorded the highest preliminary clearance rate at 84 per cent, followed by Adelaide at 82 per cent and Brisbane at 79.
Brisbane’s sales included a Camp Hill home offloaded by AFL Brisbane Lions player Ryan Lester. The Princess Street home fetched $931,000 after attracting nine registered bidders through Ray White agent David Treloar.
Some 151 groups came through the home over the campaign.
“All of our auction campaigns at the moment are only running for two weeks, because of the insatiable demand from buyers,” Mr Treloar said.
“We are seeing interest from local, interstate and international buyers.”
The underbidder was an expat from Hong Kong.
Lester, his wife Emi and their son Romeo are thinking they might now rent rather than buy back into the market.
Queensland’s top weekend sale was $3.7m on the Gold Coast. Jackson Paradise from Ray White Prestige had eight registered bidders for the four-bedroom Main Beach sub penthouse.
The Lennie Avenue apartment sold to a couple from Sydney who flew up to see their desired holiday home property last Friday.
Record territory
One of the six homes on Towers Road, Toorak, headlines the autumn listings.
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home, last traded for $11.2m when bought by the Spargo family in 2008.
They are seeking $24m through Ross Savas and Michael Gibson at Kay & Burton.
It sits next door to the former Melbourne record holder, which Danielle and Daniel Besen sold for $26.25m in 2016.
The offering is the smallest block on the Towers Road strip at 1427sq m.
Its earlier owners included Pamela Myer and Cecil Rhodes-Smith, the managing director of Felt and Textiles of Australia.
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