Retail Zoo co-founders Janine and Jeff Allis buy $14.5m slice of paradise at Bilgoa Beach
The entrepreneurial Retail Zoo co-founders, Janine and Jeff Allis, have spent a record $14.5m to buy at Bilgola Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The entrepreneurial Retail Zoo co-founders, Janine and Jeff Allis, have spent a record $14.5m to buy at Bilgola Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches. They have bought a four-level contemporary home boasting some 720 sqm of living space.
The price easily exceeded the coastal suburb’s $8.3m record, set earlier this year for a non-beachfront home.
They bought it from Mark Lochtenberg, the former Cockatoo Coal executive chairman, who secured it in 2018 for $8.1m from Lou Zivanovic, the 1980s Panthers NRL player-turn-property developer. Set on an elevated position with a pathway to the beach, the home was designed for Zivanovic by Nick Turner, of Turner Architects.
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Mad Maxxed out
The Allis family, who have been highly active traders of property over the past year, sold their Fairhaven beach house on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road last week for $10m.
Known as Mad Max’s Beach House, the 3008 sqm property was bought for $1.1m in 2000. It was a set location of the 1970s Mad Max movie, with the shack undergoing extensive renovations into a five-bedroom, six-bathroom house that was featured on the cover of The Weekend Australian’s Mansion magazine in September.
The price guide had been $10.8m to $11.8m when listed initially in March by the Boost Juice empire founder. It is one of only two homes on the ocean side of the small coastal village having views towards the Split Point Lighthouse.
The couple had previously offloaded their five-bedroom, five-bathroom Toorak mansion in March for $22m to Heloise Waislitz, partner of Noiseworks frontman Jon Stevens, and sister of Visy’s Anthony Pratt. Designed by Wolf Architects, the Whernside Ave home was sold the day after three offers came from the initial open for inspection.
They also sold their picturesque Surf Coast horse stud, Epona Park, with 38ha at Winchelsea South, last year for $2.1m.
The couple, who have four children, initially planned to stay in Melbourne but living close to the beach in Noosa Heads during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic changed their minds.
The couple are busy building at Noosa Heads having spent $3.5m earlier this year on a site adjacent to the National Park. It came after selling their adjacent holiday home for $5.2m last December to the Fredman family from Brighton who bought it after two FaceTime inspections through Rebekah Offermann at Tom Offermann Real Estate.
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Ambitions lowered
The Pittwater rental recently vacated by Janine and Jeff Allis has been listed for sale. There’s been no takers at its ambitious $11.5m expectations, so now McGrath agent James Baker has revised the price guide to $9,750,000 to $10.5m for the Hudson Pde, Clareville Beach offering. The vendors are Mark Britt, the former chief executive of iflix, the video streaming platform, and Mikaela Lancaster, who was the company’s marketing executive, and who is now at music streaming platform Spotify Australia.
They paid $5.75m in 2017, well down on the $8m hopes held by its vendor, Alexandra Clausen, wife of Switzerland-based tech entrepreneur Simon Clausen. The deepwater jetty is a popular diving platform for the local children.
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Consolation prize
Melbourne’s Albert Park saw the nation’s top weekend auction result, for consecutive weekends. It was The Elms, set on St Vincent Place South, which fetched $11.15m.
The restored six-bedroom 1880 home was owned from 1874 to 1897 by Thomas Guest, the biscuit manufacturer, and his wife, Jemima, who had 13 children. It was later owned by a string of doctors.
It sold after a marketing campaign that drew over 13,000 views on realestate.com.au. Simon Gowling and Greg Hocking of Greg Hocking|Jellis Craig described it as one of the finest homes on St Vincent Place, complete with a tower offering 360-degree views. There had been a buyers’ guide of $8m to $8.8m issued in September for the 361 sqm property, which was announced on the market at around $9m.
It last sold in 2001 for $2.75m.
There were three bidders, with the buyer being the underbidder at last weekend’s $11.11m auction of a four-bedroom home on 506 sqm on St Vincent Place North. The buyer only inspected The Elms midweek having previously indicated it did not suit his buying wishes.
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Back in fashion
A $6,785,000 sale in Brighton was Melbourne’s second-priciest weekend sale, set one door from the beach. It was the John Baird-designed home that had last sold in 1980 at $200,000.
The classic example of mid-century modernist architecture featured in Australian Home Beautiful in the late 1960s, as a testament to “modern living” after it was commissioned by William and Nella Paynter.
The home, first sold in 1975 at $145,500, had a $4m to $4.4m price guide through Marshall White agent Ben Vieth.
“The Paynter House has withstood the test of time, retaining all the hallmarks of modernism, and offers a perfectly comfortable domicile to ponder the property’s future,” Vieth advised. “The property’s inspiring location will no doubt see its next incarnation, whether restored or rebuilt, making architectural history again.”
Across Melbourne, 1556 homes went under the hammer this week, up 11 per cent, with a small rise in its preliminary clearance rate to 74 per cent, according to CoreLogic.
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Sydney slide
Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate fell for the fifth consecutive week, with a 75 per cent success rate for the 1086 results recorded so far. Sydney reported its highest withdrawal rate since mid-August at 13 per cent. Its top reported sale was when $8.65m was paid at North Curl Curl. The four-bedroom Molong St home was an Ian Bailey-designed home came with a guide of $7.2 to $7.9m.
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Expectation gap
With the smaller capitals having record auction volumes, clearance rates fell. Both Canberra, at 79.9 per cent, and Adelaide, at 77.8 per cent, saw their preliminary clearance rate slip below 80 per cent for the first time in nine and 10 weeks respectively.
Brisbane recorded an 80 per cent success rate, although Ray White Queensland chief auctioneer Gavin Croft detected the gap between seller expectations and the buyers was starting to widen.
He said there were still “excellent results across the state”, pinpointing the restored mid-century modern home sold at The Gap for $1.5m through local agents Angela and Harry Mastrapostolos. There were 29 registered bidders with the buyers from their Sydney office.
“We have seen a massive influx of interstate buyers,” Ms Mastrapostolos said.
A Sydney family also paid $1,676,000, some $376,000 over reserve, for a modern two-storey home at Fairfield, 6km south of the Brisbane CBD, by fending off 23 other registered bidders.
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