Robin Boyd fans buy iconic post-war Australian residence at Bacchas Marsh
After a decade on and off the market, the 1964-designed Boyd Baker House outside Melbourne has finally been sold to well-known devotees of the architectural icon.
After a decade on and off the market, the 1964-designed Boyd Baker House near Bacchus Marsh about 45km northwest from Melbourne has finally been sold by the Mitrakas family, the well known devotees of Robin Boyd’s architectural legacy.
The mid-century modernist Long Forest house was designed for the mathematician academic Dr Michael Baker and his wife Rosemary, who purchased the 12.5ha holding for £6500 in 1963, two years after they arrived from England.
They sold it to the Mitrakas family in 2006 for $1.665m.
The price guidance for the heritage listed property in the recent marketing by Nathan Cleeland and Patrick Kerr of LAWD was $2m to $2.2m.
Often described as one of the most important post-war Australian residences, the square, five-bedroom dwelling comes with Boyd’s signature internal courtyard.
Apparently the house was inspired by their mutual love and understanding of geometric calculations.
Some of its local stone finishes are circular, reminiscent of water tanks in a reference to the traditional Australian farmhouse layout.
The estate, surrounded by a nature conservation reserve, also comes with the Roy Grounds-designed library building, which was constructed after Boyd died in 1971 at 52.
It has been a $1500-a-night airbnb offering.
Peter and Mary Mitrakas once said the key driver in the purchase had been their “absolute awe” for the organically designed buildings.
Red brick unit sold
A ground-floor Newport apartment on Sydney’s northern beaches first sold after its 1964 construction has fetched $1.175m through Nick Scarf of RE/MAX.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom Ocean Avenue apartment is one of six in the building which “wears its red brick DNA as a badge of honour”, as Scarf advised in the marketing.
The 90sq m apartment with a balcony last sold for $430,000 in 2008.
Its first sale was for £6900 in 1964, followed by $80,000 in 1986.
Across town an Ashfield apartment in another red brick 1964 complex has fetched $960,000 prior to its scheduled auction.
Located at 13/8 Tintern Road, the two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit was first sold on its completion by the family run H.H. Dening construction firm for £5650.
The apartment, which features a balcony overlooking the shared lawn, last sold for $250,000 in 2014.
It sold through Michael Simpson of Ray White after two weeks on the market.
“This property has stood the test of time and offers solid construction,” Mr Simpson advised buyers.
Towering achievement
A whole-floor apartment in the 1964-designed Mt Eliza cylindrical complex in West Perth has been sold for $1.2m through Mack Hall agent Richard Self after 47 years of ownership.
The 180sq m space has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
When constructed close to Kings Park by Harold Krantz, it was Perth’s tallest residential building, rising 16 stories.
The prices of the 25 luxury apartments ranged between £29,000 to £36,000.
It is nicknamed the Thermos Flask with its finned circular design by Krantz & Sheldon, one of Australia’s first circular apartment buildings.
Krantz’s innovative building practices included include prefabrication and slip-form construction.
A two-bedroom, one-bathroom 89sq m mid-rise half-floor Bellevue Terrace apartment recently fetched $730,000 through Craig Gaspar of Duet Property Group.
Clearance down
The national weekend preliminary auction clearance rate eased to 71 per cent last week, according to CoreLogic. The Sydney success rate fell to 68.9 per cent, its first week below the 70 per cent mark this year.
A 1908 mansion in Manly was passed in on an $18m vendor bid by Max Walls International agent Anthony Walls. The Addison Road harbour front home had been listed with $19m to $20m guidance.
The nation’s top advised under-the-hammer weekend result was $3.9m at Teneriffe when a local buyer bought an apartment on the Brisbane River through Ray White agent Nick Mogridge.
The ground-floor Vernon Terrace apartment in the 1995 Baulderstone Hornibrook-built Carson Place development had interiors by Alexandra Ponting from AP Design House.
It had last sold in 2005 for $1.3m, having been initially sold for $520,145 in 1997 in the final complex of Baulderstone Hornibrook’s $100m Teneriffe Wharves urban renewal project at the former woolstore precinct.
The next priciest was $3.64m in North Fitzroy for an unrenovated four-bedroom home on 515sq m.
There was a pre-auction $4m sale on the Gold Coast of the waterfront home of the late
Niecon property development patriarch Bill Nikiforides and his late wife Maria through First National Surfers Paradise agents Russell and Bob Rollington.
The Viking Court, Surfers Paradise house, set on a 742sq m block just off Point Position, came with a blue-and-white exterior in a nod to the family’s Greek heritage.
Auction action
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty calculates there are 2300 homes scheduled for auction across Australia this week, an 18 per cent rise from the same time last year.
Auction offerings remain elevated at 2200 into late July as the winter school holidays come to an end.
Adelaide had a 42 per cent spike with listings this week including a 1964-built house at Salisbury East, north of the CBD, through Justin Irving and Jake Flavel of Ray White.
Set on 596sq m under a flat roof, the Jacaranda Drive home has four bedrooms and one bathroom which was the sanitary norm for the times.
“A living room for family fun from watching TV to sewing” was the marketing pitch for the suburban housing estates at the time.
The house last sold for $190,000 in 2012.
An updated 1964-built Garnet Drive, Salisbury East house with four bedrooms and two bathrooms recently sold for $935,500.
PropTrack calculates the median four-bedroom house price as $620,000, up 16 per cent over the past 12 months after 40 sales. Salisbury East has seen an annual compound growth rate of 22 per cent for houses over recent years.
Punchbowl’s finest
The national L.J. Hooker group reported 1964 was a brisk year for the then dominant agency, adding there were buoyant conditions, but no boom.
Its net sales tally was £45m for the year, up 22 per cent on the prior year’s £37m in sales.
In Sydney’s Punchbowl a tightly held property which has been held by the Iordanidis family since 1964 has been scheduled for July 27 auction through Simon Keremelevski at L.J. Hooker Bankstown Moorebank.
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom Dudley Street dwelling is constructed of brick and tile and set on a 687sq m block which last traded at £5725.
Its concrete driveway leading to a two-car garage allows space for up to seven cars.
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