The Sell: Trbojevic brothers tackle developer over thwarted purchases
Manly NRL players Tom and Jake Trbojevic, and their parents Melissa and John, are in a NSW Supreme Court skirmish with a developer over their thwarted off-the-plan purchases.
NSW
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Manly NRL players Tom and Jake Trbojevic, and their parents Melissa and John, are in a NSW Supreme Court skirmish with a developer over their thwarted off-the-plan purchases.
They had bought off-the-plan into the Mimosa project at Warriewood on the northern beaches.
The sales marketing by the Knowles Group began in 2020 for the residential development of the 43-lot three-storey Warriewood Rd site, which was then costed at $31m. Completion was forecast for 2022.
The Trbojevics and their fellow purchasers claim the Knowles Group has acted unreasonably in not proceeding to completion after its builder exited the project in 2022.
The project’s completion sunset clause occurred in June 2023 with the NSW 2015 Conveyancing Act providing some remedy for purchasers after its expiry, but only through legal action. The case in the civil court against the Melbourne-based J & G Knowles and Associates Pty Ltd, as trustee for the Knowles Investment Unit Trust, goes before Justice Elisabeth Peden for directions on September 6.
Some 23 purchasers participated in failed mediation last year.
The Trbojevics’ parents were intent on buying a $1.795m townhouse.
“It has definitely felt like we were misled,” Tom Trbojevic has alleged.
“We’re disappointed. Jake and I are OK if this doesn’t go ahead because we’re very lucky to do what we do, but I really feel for our parents,” Trbojevic told the Nine financial press.
“This was their opportunity to move out of the family home, downsize, and now that’s been taken away from them. Now, with rising housing prices, they don’t have the capacity to do so to the same extent, which is really disappointing.”
The Knowles Group sales team advised they would not be commenting.
CALLAN SET TO HANDBALL OCEAN-VIEW BEAUTY
Greater Western Sydney champion Callan Ward is selling his Bronte investment.
Ward has had the Cross St apartment since 2017 when he paid $1,606,000.
Now it has a $1.75m guide for its September 10 auction through Raine & Horne Double Bay/Bondi Beach agents Mark Yeats and Doron Stein.
The median price for two-bedroom apartments in Bronte sits at $1.51m with 28 sold in the past year, according to Proptrack.
The data shows the median price for all Bronte apartments sits lower at $1.49m across 47 sales in the past year, down 6.6 per cent in pricing over the same period.
The Ward apartment, in a 1920s block of five near the Tamarama Gully, has two bedrooms and one bathroom.
It has 65sq m of internal living space, and a large, full-width, 31sq m northeast facing entertaining deck with valley and ocean views.
It has windows on three sides.
The apartment has been freshly painted with Yeats advising there is scope to renovate.
PropTrack suggests it could expect around $1150 per week as a rental.
The building is undergoing some upgrades.
When Ward made the move from the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne to join GWS Giants, the midfielder initially bought in Randwick.
Having paid $1.51m for the 1920s home on 405sq m, he renovated and sold for $3.6m in 2021 to make the move to the beach
The four-bedroom North Bondi purchase made through Yeats, which was marketed as a Palm Springs-inspired family home, cost $4,866,000.
Ward retains a one-bedroom investment in Bondi that was bought in 2018 as a renovation project for $810,000.
Ward will go down in history for the Giants, having kicked the team’s first goal. He is also the record-holder for most appearances at 312 games, with a few more left to round out the season. The 33-year-old is on a one-year deal at the Giants for his 13th season.
The foundation Giant has noted the gap in his CV which he hopes to fill with a premiership next month.
In 2019, Ward married his long-time girlfriend Ruby Keddie at the Elizabeth Bay waterfront mansion, Tresco. They have two daughters.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME FOR BLOCK JUDGE AS HOMES HIT MARKET
Interior designer and The Block judge Darren Palmer and his husband Olivier Duvillard have not only listed their Bondi Beach home, but their Byron Bay retreat has also been quietly listed for sale.
They hope to pocket $9.5m for their contemporary three-level showstopper at Bondi Beach through Raine & Horne’s Ric Serrao.
Palmer and Dullivard bought the former single-level Californian bungalow for $2.98m in 2015, when the couple were moving from Edgecliff.
The interior designer collaborated with architect John Deuchrass and construction company Taste Living in 2022 to rebuild much of the existing house. It comes with a heated pool plus four landscaped subtropical garden zones.
Palmer’s first TV gig came in 2009, the year before he met his husband, who works in the cosmetics industry. They married in South Africa in 2011, and again in Australia in 2017, and mostly share the home with their dogs, Frankie the French bulldog and Ziz, a Brussels griffon.
Their Suffolk Park offering, Pompano House, seems set for a loss, after costing $3.85m in the pandemic-induced 2021 regional property boom
It comes with $3.1m to $3.3m guidance in a “quiet listing” through Byron Bay First National agent Jane Johnston.
The chic home, which rents at $1500 a night peak season, is just 100m from Tallow Beach.
Complete with saltwater pool, now overlooked by a timber entertaining space, the two-level home sits on 720sq m of tropical gardens.
It backs on to bushland, with a path to the beach from the back gate.
It has four bedrooms, all located upstairs. Three of these have access to its wrap-around balcony.
There was talk that the long-running Channel 9 renovation show would be based at Byron after scoping out potential sites in 2021, but they couldn’t get enough adjoining neighbours to secure the site.
‘GOODBYE, NEIGHBOUR’ AS BLAIR LISTS HOME
Former Neighbours star Blair McDonough and his wife Kristi Townley have listed their Suffolk Park beach house just outside of Byron Bay.
The Melbourne couple bought it in 2016, when they paid $940,000 for a two-bedroom cottage, which they have since transformed into a luxury entertainer.
The Clifford St home has been extended, with three bedrooms in the main house and another bedroom in a granny flat.
The home is wrapped in decking that overlooks the pool, complete with a swim gym, a propeller-generated current for swim exercises.
These days McDonough calls himself a “DIY and building enthusiast” on Instagram. He installed the basketball hoop above the garage.
Denzil Lloyd of First National Byron Bay has a $3.8m to $4.18m price guide on the property.
There are 31 houses for sale in Suffolk Park on realestate.com.au, with six priced higher than the McDonough house. PropTrack calculates the median house price as $1.95m which is down 8.5 per cent over the past year after 18 sales.
The 43-year-old McDonough rose to fame on the first season of Big Brother in 2001, when he was 19, maintaining friendships with other housemates including Sara-Marie Fedele and the season winner Ben Williams.
He was cast on Neighbours in 2001, playing Stuart Parker for five years before moving to the UK. He briefly reprised his role in 2018.
SOLE BIDDER WINS TROPHY COMFORTABLY
A Strathfield trophy home fetched $3.8m at auction on Saturday having been listed with $3.25m guidance through Jonathan Hammond and Julie Hatch of Cobden Hayson.
Auctioneer Damien Cooley made a $3.5m opening bid and then secured the higher figure from a sole bidder.
The eastern suburbs celebrity couple who told their social media followers they were interested did not attend the auction.
The Bezjak family purchased the Beresford Rd plot for £1600 in 1955, buying it from the Church Missionary Society Trust Limited.
The house was designed by Emil Fretze in 1956 in the International Style, with its serious rejection of ornamentation and colour.
The council advised that there was no heritage order on the property.
Complete with repetitive modular forms, as seen in its facade, the three-bedroom dwelling remains intact having been long held by family.
But it had been offered to market five times since 2009 with guides from $1.95m to $6m in 2017, according to CoreLogic.
The house’s internal features include a sandstone fireplace.
The 923sq m block was part of the historic Agincourt estate, with the Victorian manor’s stable house located at the rear of the property.
Fretze, who was commissioned by the Commonwealth Bank to design banks and bank managers’ homes, built his own Modernist family home in Cammeray.
It was considered very bold in 1958 with its open weave-style brickwork.
After a recent redesign by architects ACME, the Vernon St property fetched $5.75m in January.
THERE’S MORTAR THIS RARE BRICK
Steve and Natalie Hall from Redpoint Capital Partners have listed their acclaimed North Bondi house, Brick House, for a September 27 auction.
The Hastings Pde house was designed by architect Andrew Burges. Its 2016 construction was costed at $1.66m, with bricks imported from Denmark.
The vendors have asked Raine & Horne not to quote a price, but point out that 86 Hastings Pde sold in 2021 for $12m as land value.
REIGN OVER A SLICE OF SPAIN
Glenbray, the Elizabeth Bay block of four Spanish Mission apartments, has been listed through Kevin Fine of Ray White in conjunction with Karbon Commercial.
It last sold in 2020 when bought by Andrew Spira, the founder of lender Pineapple Funding, for $3.41m, $310,000 above reserve.
It has three two-bedroom apartments and a one-bedder – with a gross income stream of $134,000 per annum.
RECORDS ROLL ON IN PROSPECT
A $2.375m record Prospect sale has been secured at 52 Hampton Cres.
The six-bedroom, three-bathroom house was sold by McGrath Blacktown agent Monique Layoun, who issued 13 contracts after 36 parties came through inspections.
The building block sold for $420,000 in 2012.
Layoun held the recent record at $1.915m: a six-bedroom home two doors down.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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Originally published as The Sell: Trbojevic brothers tackle developer over thwarted purchases
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