Melbourne’s prestige market defies the chill

Big home sales have become a feature at the top end of the Victorian capital’s market this year.

The sale of Avon Court in Hawthorn’s up-market Shakespeare Grove was confirmed at $41m.

The top end of Melbourne’s property market is running hot with the sale of Avon Court in Hawthorn’s up-market Shakespeare Grove confirmed at $41m and more sales in the wings.

The Victorian capital is defying the traditional winter slowdown with a combination of local and international buying helping to set the premium end of the residential market alight.

The rapid-fire sale in Hawthorn, to a neighbouring home owner, Anna Egorova, came just six days after the mansion’s listing in March, and prompted speculation that an offshore buyer was behind the deal.

While company searches did not reveal any local interests, Ms Egorova and her partner, Curve Finance chief executive Michael Egorov, own the neighbouring Verona mansion.

Kay & Burton’s Grant Samuel and Ascend Real Estate’s Sun Chen brokered the sale. Mr Samuel said the sale showed the strength of the residential property market at the moment.

The deal was struck at the top end of the asking range of $38m-$41m, and left Avon Court’s vendor, Chinese businessman Chongqing Du, well up on his 2014 purchase price of $19.8m.

The home was not occupied much in the intervening years, neighbourhood sources indicated, and the reported jump in value was ahead of initial market expectations.

The sale also broke records in the prestigious neighbourhood, which had been held by former Australia Post boss and Latitude Financial chief Ahmed Fahour’s sale of another historic home, the renovated Invergowrie, which went for $40.5m in 2021 to Trajan Scientific and Medical co-founders Stephen and Angela Tomisich.

Avon Court’s past owners include high-profile types such as former Richmond president Clinton Casey and late Autobarn co-founder Garry Dumbrell, but the mansion’s buyers may follow the vendor in maintaining a much lower profile.

The strength of the market is set to be further tested at the very top end with other large estates also hitting the block in nearby Toorak.

A Clendon Rd mansion in the blue blood suburb which is owned by Arvin Lourdenadin, son of Malaysian entrepreneur Sir Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin, has just come on to the market with expectations of $42m to $46m.

The Spanish Mission style home was built in 1925 and has been fully restored. It sits on a 4715sq m block with the house comprising five bedrooms and five bathrooms, as well as a guesthouse with another bedroom. It sits next to an estate held by former Essendon chairman Paul Little.

Selling agents Kay & Burton’s Andrew Sahhar and Marshall White’s Marcus Chiminello have high hopes for the property.

“That international market is very strong at the moment,” Mr Sahhar said. “There are a lot of people relocating back to Melbourne.

“That is really driving the pricing of these upper end homes.”

The late former Melbourne lord mayor Ron Walker’s estate is also in the market in a premium pocket of Toorak, with $55m to $60m price guide.

The home, Huntingfield in the exclusive suburb’s Albany Rd, was bought by the tycoon and Formula One Grand Prix promoter in 1981, and he made it into a grand European estate. In each of the five bedrooms in the home there is an ensuite, and there is also another bedroom with its own quarters.

Kay & Burton executive director Gowan Stubbings, who is handling the sale alongside the agency’s chairman Gerald Delany, has called Huntingfield a once-in-a-generation opportunity for buyers.

The luxury market is certainly primed for action.