Trophy homes: Hawthorn manor yours for $40m

Avon Court in Melbourne’s Hawthorn has been listed for sale after being offered privately earlier this year.

33 Little Victoria Street, Fitzroy.

Avon Court in Melbourne’s Hawthorn has been listed for sale after being offered privately earlier this year with $45 million-$50m price hopes. The nine-bedroom mansion on a 4250sq m holding last sold for $19.8m in 2014 to the Du family. The marketing laws introduced by the Andrews government last year necessitate its disclosed asking price on any formal listing. It comes with a $40m asking price. The 18-20 Shakespeare Grove offering has been described by RT Edgar agent Helena Chow as “one of Melbourne’s finest”. Autobarn boss Garry Dumbrell paid $20.25m in 2009 when it was sold by the former Richmond Football Club president Clinton Casey and his wife Leslie. The property shares a fence with ex-Australia Post boss Ahmed and his wife Dionnie Fahour’s mansion, which was listed with a $40m-$44m price tag earlier this year, without success, through Marshall White. The couple recently separated.

Warehouse goes from shell to sell

Bookseller Mark Rubbo, the founding chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival, and wife Wendy have sold their Fitzroy warehouse conversion. They had $2.8m-$3m hopes for the property they bought as a shell in 2004. They commissioned architect Maggie Edmond to adapt the property. The Little Victoria Street property began life as a drill hall in the 1930s. Nelson Alexander agents Peter Stephens and Sonya Laferla handled the marketing, securing a $2.92m top bid last weekend, then selling it soon after for an undisclosed price. It has three bedrooms and a kitchen adjoining the open plan living space, which flows to a north facing terrace.

Beach pad on the block

The Mount Martha holiday home of the late sports broadcaster Drew Morphett has been listed for sale with $1.3m-$1.35m price hopes. The 715sq m property, set 100m from Birdrock Beach, southeast of Melbourne, has been listed by his widow, Kaz. The three-bedroom Morrisons Avenue home was set to become their permanent home before Morphett’s sudden death last year at age 69. The Morphetts paid $475,000 for the property in 2005 and installed a pool. One Agency Peninsula has the listing.

Contentment has a price

Santosha — which translates to contentment — on Paradise Point has been sold for $5.275m by Gold Coast equestrian couple Ken Dowsett and Linda Spratley. The Sovereign Islands house, designed by architect Paul Clout, came with initial $7.2m hopes. The luxury house on Knightsbridge Parade West had previously traded at $5.1m in 2015 after Angelo and Francina Cantatore built the three-level resort-style home in 2009. It was sold by Vertullo Real Estate agent Chris Moyer who’d been marketing the home on its 746sq m holding since January, when there were 24 homes for sale on the parade. There are still 24 for sale, though 12 sales were completed during the year.

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