Mott Leader newspaper trail behind $8m sale

After just a week on the Melbourne market, 25 Monomeath Avenue, Canterbury found a bullish buyer midweek.

Joe Dolce’s Natte Yallock property for sale

After just a week on the Melbourne market, 25 Monomeath Avenue, Canterbury found a bullish buyer midweek. The Chinese vendor secured $8.18 million, having done little to the house that cost $4.8m in 2013. The 1868sq m battleaxe block with an early 1990s brick home sold to a buyer from Macau through Louis Lin at Auv Real Estate. The avenue is lined mostly now by European chateaus, rather than the Edwardian-era homes built when its beautiful oaks were planted after the road was built in 1911. The sold property does not come with noteworthy political links, such as the Hamer and Peacock clans. But it was the home of John Mott, whose family founded the Melbourne newspaper chain Leader Associated. Mott bought the home shortly after the 1986 sale of his stake in the Herald & Weekly Times. The avenue’s record of $13.18m was set in 2015 with a purchase by Qiuying Sun. Several other sale prices also came with the lucky number eight. There was also a $12.08m sale when Yi Qian purchased a three-level Phillip Mannerheim-designed trophy home.

It’s a not so bad

Joe Dolce, writer and performer of Australia’s biggest-selling single, the 1981 hit Shaddap You Face, has reduced his price hopes on his weekender in Victoria. It is the former Natte Yallock Uniting Church. The property, 200km northwest of Melbourne, has been under the ownership of the singer and his artist wife Lin van Hek for the past 23 years, and cost $32,000.

The former Natte Yallock Uniting Church.

They were initially seeking $385,000 last year, and now they’re happy to take $345,000 through Elders Avoca agents Elizabeth and Heathcliffe Teal. The property was built from handmade bricks in 1904 by the locals.

Well orchestrated

Rod Pilbeam, deputy chair of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, has emerged as the latest buyer at Mermaid Beach. Pilbeam, who as a founding partner of AEG Ogden has been involved in public event venues for more than 35 years, paid $3m to buy on Albatross Avenue. It is the two-level Tiana penthouse once owned by US motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who bought it from former rugby league player turned developer Jarrod McCracken and his wife, Michelle. Meanwhile, a beachfront house on the so-called Millionaires’ Row has sold for $12m to Clive Palmer by the developer John Potter.

Hewitt eyes net result

Leyton Hewitt will be interested when the undisclosed sale price emerges for a nearby Toorak spec home currently under construction. The midweek sale was a Christopher Doyle- designed home with five bedrooms across three floors. The 723sq m holding on completion will have five car spaces in the basement. The home was sold through Marshall White for Chinese-born developer Nick Lee. Davis Cup coach Hewittand wife Bec spent $12.7m on a similar new-build residence on one of Toorak’s finest boulevards in 2017. Their Georgian-style home was by Peter Johnston’s Royale Constructions.

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