Retail entrepreneur Nelson Mair asking $4.4m for Merricks Beach retreat
Tusmore, the luxury Merricks Beach, Mornington Peninsula retreat of retail entrepreneur Nelson Mair, has been listed with $4.4m hopes.
Tusmore, the luxury Merricks Beach, Mornington Peninsula retreat of retailing entrepreneur, Nelson Mair, has been listed with $4.4m hopes through Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty. The listing follows the collapse of Mair’s co-owned luxury lifestyle group, Luxury Retail No.1, along with shoe retailer Sneakerboy last year.
The four-bedroom home sits on a dress circle 3466sq m overlooking Western Port Bay.
It cost a record $4.075m in December 2020 when bought by Mair’s Flinders Investment Holdings, which is not in administration.
It had been the longtime retreat of Melbourne society doyenne and philanthropist Lady Primrose Potter, widow of Sir Ian Potter, along with her daughter, Primrose Krasicki. They had paid $365,000 in 1995 and built in 2001.
Mair was once the chief operating officer at Country Road.
Flagging a deal
Tech entrepreneur Nick Bell and wife Fei Chen were among the buyers on the Mornington Peninsula last year. The couple secured a Balnarring Beach estate for $6.2m, which sold through Marshall White who’d listed it with a price guide of $6.3m to $6.8m.
The five-bedroom single-level 1995 Fasham Johnson-built home sits under an Australian flag. There are six paddocks with water troughs, two dams, machinery shed, vegie patch and 150 olive trees on 10.55ha bordering Merricks Creek at the back of the hamlet.
Bell, who gained celebrity status assisting Lord Alan Sugar on Celebrity Apprentice Australia, resides in Brighton, a 65km trip away. Bell, who sold his digital marketing agency in 2019 for $39m, had cashed in his $8.6m Sunrise Beach, Queensland retreat in January 2020, before the pandemic-prompted boom. Apparently the couple had visited only twice in their last year of ownership.
Realestate.com.au puts Balnarring Beach’s median at $1.85m, after 13 per cent compound growth over five years.
The sale was one of 19 above $2m over the past three years with prices peaking at $7,515,888 last April. It was purchased by Fleur Tibbitts, the Worcestershire, UK-based director of the Karndean vinyl tile flooring company.
The second-highest sale of a Mason-Smith Rd compound at $7.15m highlighted the dress circle’s price growth as the home had last sold in 2018 for $4m.
Love the lemonade
The Mornington Peninsula’s top listing failed to secure a buyer bid at its weekend auction. A $3.6m vendor bid was placed for the modern Sorrento home, amid slim pickings.
However, attendees did get an impressive car show in the garage, including a red Ferrari with number 1 plates. The garage comes with in-built fridge. The price guidance had been $3.7m to $4m for the home, last sold at $2.55m in 2017 when bought by a discretionary investment trust associated with smash repairer David Deicke.
Marshall White auctioneer Andrew Hayne suggested building costs and land would now sit at $4.5m. Just along Collins Pde entrepreneurial children were holding a $2 lemonade stand for passers-by in the 30-plus degree-heat.
There was a sale when Penzance, a mid-century modern timber home on 900sq m within walking distance of the bustling Sorrento village, fetched $2.01m.
It was called on the market at $1.855m. The Ossett St home attracted four bidders.
It last traded in 1973 when bought by estate agent Jack Smith and his wife, Ivy, for $2950.
Off the blocks
The Blairgowrie retreat of 2012 The Block contestants Dan Reilly and Dani Wales has been sold for $3.25m to Nick Sims, the founder of Edge Loyalty.
The couple, who own an interior design and construction business called Manna Made, had listed the contemporary Sinclair Street home with a $3m-$3.3m price guide. It was a collaboration with Bellhaus Design. The two-storey home sits on a 716sq m block that cost $570,000 in 2017. There was a $320,000 development cost, according to council paperwork, which yielded four bedrooms, two bathrooms, multiple living areas and a heated plunge pool.
Cliff peak
Blue Bay, on the cliff at Sorrento, is set to be summer’s priciest offering on the Mornington Peninsula. The Point King precinct home was part of the Baillieu family Merthon estate. The pricing is expected to be $20m-plus through Kay & Burton veteran Gerald Delany. It last traded in 2011 at $6.63m when bought by Jeff Browne, who fronted New York law firm Sullivan and Cromwell in Australia. Architect Rob Mills designed the Tuscan-style house at a $6.7m cost in 2012 on its 3336sq m Point Nepean Rd holding.
Adelaide leads
Back in the capital cities, Adelaide continued its 2022 success, having the nation’s highest preliminary clearance rate at 76 per cent on the weekend. It was followed by Sydney at 71 per cent, and Melbourne at 68 per cent, Brisbane on 59 per cent and Canberra at 52 per cent. CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless advised December sat at 54 per cent. Lawless noted the late January preliminary clearance rate had come in relatively strong last week, and the 1300 auctions to be held this week across the capitals “will provide clarity on whether buyer confidence has increased”.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty noted “Australia’s property market remains largely on holiday”, although Sydney’s west was the setting for the keenest of early bird activity, with McGrath West Group offering 67 properties for auction.
“Thirty-three properties sold under the hammer, and 14 had been sold before,” McGrath West Group principal Kon Stathopoulos told Competing Bids. The sales yielded $54m with a 70 per cent success rate. There was a 7am breakfast meeting led by company founder John McGrath before the team dispersed for their auctions.
Sales included High Wycombe, the two-storey brick home at 72 Weston Street, Harris Park that fetched $2.48m. Selling above its $2.3m reserve, four of the 12 registered bidders participated and it sold to a family from the inner west who were looking for more space. The vendors of the 1936 four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on 1069sq m sold through McGrath Parramatta agent Rowan Thredgold are off to Queensland. It last sold at $180,000 in 1986.
Biggest deal
There were 10 registered bidders for the redesigned Queenslander at 118 Reeve St, Clayfield, which at $4.66m was the nation’s highest notified weekend sale. There’s 650sq m of living space at the property 6km from the Brisbane CBD. The house sold through Jason Adcock and Elisa McMahon at Adcock Prestige, with 10 registered bidders. The house, with 24m lap pool plus a spa, had attracted 320 inspectees.
The bidding stopped at $4.98m on another Adcock auction listing, a modern five-bedroom, five-bathroom home at 29 Couldrey St, Bardon. The three level home took 2½ years to build, and boasts grandstand views of Brisbane. The project, by Consol Project builder Gavin Rawlings, was designed by Ryall & Smyth Architects.
There was a $6.2m top bid on Kirkston, the 1889 Windsor home of oral surgeon Frank Monsour, which went to Sunday afternoon auction, with negotiations continuing.
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