Superyacht-style mansion aground as site fails to land buyer
It is situated in the blue-ribbon Melbourne suburb of Toorak and has approval for a five storey ‘superyacht-style’ mansion, but the St George’s Rd site only received one bid and that wasn’t enough.
A Toorak home site with approved plans for a five-storey mansion resembling a superyacht on the Yarra River failed to sell at its onsite St Georges Rd weekend auction.
Marshall White Stonnington agent Justin Long secured just the one bid at $6.9m after opening the auction with a $6.8m vendor bid.
“Close to 100 people have been through,” Long told the crowd.
The recent price guidance had been $7.4m to $8.1m during the renewed marketing campaign that attracted 41,000 page views on realestate.com.au.
The millionaire businessman vendor, Howard Armitage, secured Stonnington Council permission for the new house at 100 St Georges Rd last July.
It had been initially listed late last year with the hope of achieving $10.5m to $11.5m and came complete with the plans for a five-bedroom nautical-themed mansion designed by architect Rob Mills.
Set on 1365 sqm, the north-facing project would involve the existing home being replaced with the ship-like trophy home featuring a rooftop spa and bar, lower deck pool along with internal garaging with a turntable on its middle level – And of course a Yarra River jetty, as it’s one of the two dozen or so properties in Toorak with river frontage.
Armitage, who was an early investor in the personal loans fintech Symple, bought the property for $7.85m in late 2021.
Last week the neighbouring property on the coveted strip was listed with a $7.4m to $8.1m guidance through RT Edgar agent Jack Edgar.
The 1930s family residence on 1276 sqm has long been the city base of the Morrison farming family of Wooriwyrite at Terang. Its marketing advises it features a secluded, graceful garden on the river.
Closer to MacRobertson Bridge is another property for sale which it’s hoped will achieve a reduced $21m to $23m.
The four-level house, with a floor area of 914 sqm, is set on 1736 sqm and was bought
in 2013 by stylist Lauren Millay and her husband, music promoter Richie McNeill, for $5.35m from businessman Andrew Abercrombie.
The 1965 Guilford Bell-designed house set in gardens by Edna Walling, was turned into a modernist riverfront home by Raidstudio architect Nicholas Ruljancich and landscape architect Jack Merlo.
Long initially was seeking $23m to $25m last October.
Melbourne’s top earner
Melbourne’s top advised weekend price was $4m at Black Rock.
The five bedroom, three bathroom Spanish Mission home has a rear two-level extension on its 922 sqm holding.
There had been a $3.8m to $4m guidance from its Buxton Sandringham selling agents Romana Altman and Adam Saunders. It attracted 2800 page views on realestate.com.au.
At nearby Sandringham, a five bedroom, three bathroom updated-1910 Edwardian home has been given a $4.3m asking price post-auction.
The 15 Sims St home had been listed with a guidance of $3.9m to $4.29m by Samuel Jay of Marshall White Bayside.
It was last traded at $4.22m in September 2021.
PropTrack noted last week that prices in Melbourne continue to be 3.39 per cent below their March 2022 peak and is lagging behind that of Sydney and Brisbane, where prices had fully recovered from 2022’s falls over the past year.
Nonetheless, Melbourne’s weekend preliminary clearance rate rose to 71 per cent which was slightly higher than last week’s 69.8 per cent result, CoreLogic calculated.
The result was on the back of a large volume of 1026 auctions held – the first 1000-plus week of auctions since the week before Easter.
Nation’s clearance rate improves
The national preliminary auction clearance rate rose to 73.5 per cent across the combined capitals, up from the previous week’s 72.9 per cent, according to CoreLogic.
Adelaide continued to record the highest clearance rate of 84.8 per cent across 130 auctions.
Adelaide’s top sale was 13 Kent St, Hawthorn – a four bedroom, two bathroom 1900 home sold through Ouwens Casserly agent James Robertson for $2,001,000. It was last sold in 2011 for $1m having been extended in 2008 by architect Pauline Hurren.
Auction results across the ACT were soft, returning a preliminary clearance rate of 58 per cent which CoreLogic advised was the lowest since February.
Canberra’s top sale was a four bedroom, three bathroom property at 1B Hunter St, Yarralumla which sold before auction for $3,608,800 through Kevin Bi and Sam Pearson of Ray White Canberra.
The newly constructed architect designed semi-detached home came with warranty from local builder Classic Constructions.
It was designed by DNA Architects and all three levels were serviced by an elevator
Its expansive floor-to-ceiling glass looked on to the landscaped backyard featuring ornamental Japanese maples.
The basement level has garaging for five vehicles, including provision for electric car charging.
Sydney continued to stand out with a strong preliminary clearance rate of 78.1 per cent.
Clayfield Brisbane’s best price
Brisbane’s top advised sale was a Clayfield home with twin-gabled roof for $2.77m through Tom Lyne of Ray White.
The double storey, five bedroom 2014-built house was designed by architect James Russell for the 402 sqm elevated block of the vendors Kate and David Evans.
The Christian St house came with a 15,000l underground tank, 6kW of solar power and a carport with a Tesla ChargePoint.
A Bardon home sold under the hammer for $1.94m having attracted 20 registered bidders, but only six placed bids.
Listings on the rise
The national volume of newly listed properties, both auction and private treaty, is up, according to Tim Lawless of CoreLogic.
The national rolling four-week count of new listings added to the market sits nearly 23 per cent higher than at the same time a year ago, and 12 per cent above the previous five-year average.
PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty noted that the past week had been the busiest for auctions since before the Easter break, and this week would be slightly busier with a total of 2799 homes
It reflects a 43 per cent rise from the same week last May.
Melbourne will have the most homes auctioned this week at 1195 (up 54 per cent), followed by Sydney at 869 (up 37 per cent).
Real Estate Institute of Victoria president Jacob Caine said Melbourne vendors were taking advantage of sunny autumn conditions to sell before winter.
“Despite the high number of homes heading to auction, clearance rates are holding up well and have steadily improved over the past five weeks,” Flaherty said.
Fahour splashes out
Dionnie Fahour, the former wife of the Melbourne-based and one-time Latitude Financial chief Ahmed Fahour has spent $7.03m on the Gold Coast.
The five bedroom, five bathroom Bundall waterfront property sits on a 1600 sqm holding with
775m of living space, plus secure garaging for 12 cars and a 45 sqm sandy beachfront with two pontoons.
It sold through the Amir Prestige Group.
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