SBS director of sport Ken Shipp puts Greenwich home on market

SBS director of sport Ken Shipp is selling his family home in the leafy lower north shore Sydney suburb of Greenwich.

Former AFL player Tony Smith’s old house in Mermaid Beach, which new owner Dean Pask is planning to demolish and develop for luxury apartments. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

SBS director of sport Ken Shipp is selling his family home in the leafy lower north shore Sydney suburb of Greenwich with price expectations of around $3m. Set on nearly 900sq m, the spacious Valleyview Crescent house has four bedrooms and two bathrooms and will be auctioned on September 5 through James Bennett and Baxter van Heyst of Belle Property Lane Cove. The sprawling property has a master suite with walk-in robe as well as three double bedrooms and a large Caesarstone kitchen. Outdoor, there’s an alfresco entertaining area and parking for two vehicles. The Shipp family are planning to downsize. They purchased the property 10 years ago for $1.325m, according to CoreLogic records.

$25m house faces demolition

Opinion is divided about plans to redevelop former AFL footballer and BreakFree founder Tony Smith’s2 Heron Avenue site on the Gold Coast’s Mermaid Beach, which he recently sold for $25m in what is Queensland’s most expensive house sale. The buyer, Dean Pask, is now looking to demolish the Hamptons meets Bali-style house on 2112sq m to develop around eight luxury apartments. Plans for an apartment complex prepared by Queensland architects Bayden Goddard are before the local council. Some locals are up in arms about the planned apartment complex and want instead for the existing coastal beach house to be retained. Smith and wife Simone are not commenting. Dean Pask is the son of the late property billionaire developer Nev Pask.

Luxury buyers have deep pockets

Despite COVID-19, luxury buyers are still out in force in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs with a knockdown fronting 7 Wolseley Road, Point Piper, selling for $7.7m to Sydney resident Min Zhang. The vendor, long-term Hong Kong resident Xiaoguang Wang, had high hopes of reaping as much as $8m for the older-style house, which sold at auction last week through LJ Hooker Double Bay agents Lee Trakosas and Mark Meyer. The four-bedroom house was designed by high-profile architect Peter Muller in 1963 and was then known as the Green House. Zhang is expected to knock down the property and build a two-level mansion on the 651sq m site. Wang had been renting out the house, which comes with an enormous deck, for several years. Zhang is presently renting a three-level penthouse in Harrington Street, The Rocks, which last traded for $10.1m in 2006. Trakosas would not comment on the buyer’s identity but said he had more than 130 inquiries and 68 people through the Wolseley Road house. The auction attracted five cashed-up buyers. “It was a strong campaign as you could live in it, renovate or knock it down. There were people who wanted to live on Australia’s most prestigious street. There was quite a lot of inquiry as it appealed to a lot of people.” Elsewhere in the Eastern Suburbs, Trakosas is marketing 43 Hardy Street, Dover Heights, with a price guide of $5.5m. The contemporary split-level duplex has garaging for four cars, an internal lift and views of Sydney Harbour from its decks.