The Sell: Broncos star Ben Hunt selling up to regain a home-field advantage
Having headed back to Queensland, Brisbane Broncos star recruit Ben Hunt and his nutritionist wife Bridget are selling their former Sydney home.
NSW
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Having headed back to Queensland, NRL Brisbane Broncos star recruit Ben Hunt and his nutritionist wife Bridget are selling their former Sydney home.
The Hunts didn’t quite make it into Dragons heartland when they bought the home in 2018, after moving south from Brisbane.
They bought in Caringbah South for $1.61m.
Designed in the Queenslander style, the residence allows parking underneath.
The home has five bedrooms and two bathrooms on its 866sq m block.
The open plan kitchen, living and dining area opens to a covered deck and landscaped yard.
The 2010-built home is being marketed as “Coast Meets Country” by MattBlak Property Cronulla agents Blake Spooner and Cameron Mattison.
They are seeking $2.2m.
Rockhampton-born Hunt made the move to the Brisbane Broncos for the 2025 season, and buyers’ agent and former NRL player Matt Srama recently told realestate.com.au that the Hunts have been renting on the southern Gold Coast.
So far this season he has played four games as five-eighth, while Ezra Mam is suspended, and then is expected to shift to hooker.
Wearing the No.6 has certainly been different for Hunt, who has played 243 of his 338 NRL games at halfback.
He told Fox Sports he believes the Broncos, under coach Michael Maguire, were his best chance of winning a premiership before retirement.
Ahead of his relocation, he secured an acreage in Newrybar, outside of Byron in the Ballina Shire, paying $2.7m.
The 20ha property has been a luxury farm stay in the portfolio of local entrepreneur Norm Black, the co-owner of TripADeal, and his accommodation superhost wife Fiona. The purchase was put under scrutiny since the Dragons are sponsored by TripADeal.
There has been no recent registered purchase in Queensland, although Hunt does own north of the border.
His Bridgeman Downs property was bought in 2013 during his first stint at the Broncos, where he started his career.
He paid $375,000 for a 500sq m block of land, before commissioning the build of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
It has been a rental since, and was first let at $670 a week in 2017.
The home, located around 17km north of Suncorp Stadium, was up for lease at $825 a week in 2023 and then $875 a week last August when rented through Josh Braidwood of Mosaic Property Management.
Realestate suggests its current value likely sits between $1.38m and $1.54m.
CELESTE BARBER SELLS BEACHSIDE HOME
International comedian Celeste Barber and her husband Api Robin have sold their former Central Coast home.
The couple, now based at Tweed Heads, previously called Long Jetty home for five years before making the move north in 2019.
They paid $565,000 for the five-bedroom home in 2014, when Barber and Robin, a tree surgeon, had two young children.
The two-level home was built in the 1980s on just over 500sq m.
It has its main living, with an adjoining sun room, on the second level.
Set within walking distance of Shelly Beach and Shelly Beach Golf Club, Raine & Horne agent Matt Rogers had a guide of $1.099m.
He found the buyers, Ebony Graney and Alexander Conroy, at $1.045m.
PropTrack put the Long Jetty median house price at $1,304,000, up 8.7 per cent in the past 12 months based on 82 sales. The median time on market is 33 days.
The home became a $650 a week rental in 2019 when Barber and Robin moved north just before the Covid pandemic, buying a $1.175m penthouse atop a 1980s block overlooking Rainbow Bay.
The apartment has 155sq m of internal space and features a rooftop entertaining terrace with a covered kitchenette.
A year later Barber spent $477,000 on a three-bedroom apartment in a 1970s walkup just over 1km away.
It was a return to the district for Barber, who grew up in Terranora, a nearby coastal town on the far north coast of NSW.
Barber, who has 9.6 million followers on Instagram, had owned a studio apartment in Stanmore, in Sydney’s inner west, before moving to Long Jetty.
She bought the Harrow Rd, Stanmore, apartment for $259,000 in 2009 and sold for $320,000 in 2014.
KARL AND JASMINE’S REVISED HOUSE PLANS PLEASE NEIGHBOURS
The neighbours are happy that Today breakfast host Karl Stefanovic and wife Jasmine are shrinking the size of their intended luxury Castlecrag residence.
The couple are seeking to remove the top floor while adding a small increase in the footprint of the home with “earth toned” facade.
There will only be a small reduction in its floor space ratio as the new plans have 254sq m gross floor space, down from the original 276sq m gross floor space intentions.
There is a section 34 conciliation NSW Land & Environment Court conference scheduled for April 11 with Willoughby Council, in the latest twist in their four-year home ownership saga.
The initial design by the South Yarra-based Kennon Architects was lodged in March 2023 after the couple had paid $3.2m for the near-bushland property in March 2021.
The couple had a win in the court in March last year for the $4.5m three-storey house with basement.
The new plans would result in the number of bedrooms dropping from five to four.
The roofing is proposed to change from tiles to metal.
“Overall we welcome the modified DA plan that the owner proposes ... to reduce impact on surrounding neighbours,” one neighbour told council.
The house will have a lift, wine cellar, television equipment room, plus surf, bike and tool storage room.
Council advised The Sell the estimated costs remained “approximately $4.5m” although council supplied no documentation confirming the advisory.
The 559sq m site is at its dusty excavation stage with a huge saw cutting through the sandstone with two Komatsu graders at work.
The excavation has been described as “considerable” due to the 8.7m drop from the rear of the site to the front being undertaken by Harbourside Excavations and Demolition led by Orazio Parino.
It will be constructed by Enter Building Group led by Peter Oreb.
The couple, who have been renting nearby, retain a Sunshine Beach, Noosa, precinct mansion which cost $3.6m in 2019.
The elevated three-storey property, which boasts 180-degree ocean views, was briefly listed in 2022 with a price guide of $7.5m.
DRIVER SELLS HORSE POWERED ESTATE
Ex-Supercars driver Paul Weel and his wife Emma have sold their Burradoo equine estate, Stables on Songline, for $7.35m having listed with $7.85m last September.
They bought the 4ha NSW Southern Highlands estate for $7.2m in 2022.
The Songline Place property has a four-bedroom primary residence, with a fifth bedroom used as a self-contained loft studio.
Spanning 450 sqm with a dual wing floor plan, Emma Weel worked closely on fresh wall coverings, textiles, soft furnishings and furniture crafted by Sue Robbie of Natural Fibres Studio and Zig n Dot.
The master bedroom comes with a stained glass-style window originating from a former abode of Saint Mary MacKillop.
Stacker doors open out to alfresco terrace equipped BBQ kitchen and open fireplace.
It comes with a single garage adjoining the home and a separate 270 sqm barn to accommodate more vehicles.
Their competitive dressage rider daughter, Abbey, used its equestrian facilities including four barns with stables, wash bays, shelters, a tack room, and an Olympic-sized dressage arena.
Last May, the Weels paid $14.5m for the Bowral property, Highground, after its renovation by Tom and Emma Lane.
The Weels were previously Queensland trophy homeowners, but they sold their Mermaid Beach property for $16.95m to billionaire Clive Palmer. They also sold a 40ha Giltson equestrian acreage in 2023 for $5.4m having paid $7m in 2020.
MOVE TO US PROMPTS SALE AND LISTING
Following her move to the US to become Nine’s bureau chief in Los Angeles, Kendall Bora has quietly sold her former Woollahra home.
Bora bought the Fullerton St apartment in 2017, four years before she married then Weekend Sunrise co-presenter Matt Moran.
She paid $675,000 for the 35sq m one-bedroom apartment in Woollahra’s Piccadilly Gardens complex. It’s just been sold for $795,000 through Sydney Sotheby’s agent Sam Towndrow, showing a compound annual growth rate of just over 2 per cent.
Bora and Doran have also just listed their Berowra Waters weekender with $3m hopes. The Hawkesbury River riverfront was redesigned by Tamsin Johnson following their $1.75m purchase in 2021 of the four-bedroom home, known as the $1200-a-night Airbnb offering Sunny Corner Cottage.
Not long after landing in the US, with their Italian greyhound Murphy, the couple posted an Instagram video reviewing local fast-food snacks.
It was not quite the first of the documentaries Doran, who spent five years at Weekend Sunrise, intends to make while in the US.
Doran sold his Bellevue Hill apartment for $2.15m in 2023 after undertaking a redesign by Dylan Farrell. Doran had bought it from industry colleagues Alex Hart and Laura Jayes for $1.385m in 2017.
IN THE END, A $20M SALE
The matrimonial Bellevue Hill home of neurosurgeon Timothy Steel and socialite Emma Steel has settled after selling last September on extended settlement terms.
The five-bedroom Holland Rd home, which sold on its second marketing campaign, had reportedly fetched circa $21m by the local paper.
It was actually secured by Qian Lei for $20,225,000.
The long-separated couple paid $6.53m in 2010.
ENVIABLE WATERFRONT
The Cronulla waterfront of developer Allen Sammut has been listed for May 31 auction.
Set on three levels, the 2014-built Taloombi St house comes with a $20m plus guide through Highland.
The three-bedroom and four-bathroom abode on Gunnamatta Bay comes with an infinity pool and boathouse with portholes.
Sammut and his wife Nicole, purchased the 764sqm holding for $4.4m in 2011.
MAKEOVER ADDED $10M
Hospitality industry couple Natasha Stanley and Kingsley Smith have listed their modernist Woollahra abode with $16m hopes through R&H’s Charlie Davies.
The four-bedroom, five-bathroom 1959 Wallaroy Rd home has had a makeover by Iain Halliday since its purchase in 2018 for $6.55m.
The property had its initial renovation when owned by John and Dee Preston.
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