The Sell: Lingerie queen finds bolthole at Circular Quay
Honey Birdette lingerie founder Eloise Monaghan and her wife, Rebecca Collinson-Smith, have bought themselves a $6.39m bolthole at Circular Quay.
NSW
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Honey Birdette lingerie founder Eloise Monaghan and her wife, interior stylist and photographer Rebecca Collinson-Smith, have bought themselves a bolthole in Sydney.
It’s the first purchase together for the expectant couple, who have spent $6.39m at Opera Residences at Circular Quay.
Their 125sq m apartment was marketed as the largest two-bedroom floorplan on the harbourside of the 2021 building developed by Landream and Macrolink to a design by Tzannes Architects and Crone Partners, with interiors by Make.
The apartment has views towards the Harbour Bridge from its open-plan living and dining area. Its shared facilities include a pool, spa, gym plus a wine storage room.
Grant Ashby at Sydney Cove Property noted on the late-2024 listing that the near-new apartment had never been lived in.
Records show it first sold for $5.9m in 2022 and then $6.35m just 10 months later.
Their ownership is divided 78 per cent with Monaghan and 22 per cent with Collinson-Smith, who hails from Minnamurra on the NSW Illawarra coast.
Monaghan, who sold the lingerie company in 2021 to PLBY, the company behind Playboy magazine, married Collinson-Smith in Sydney last December with Graeme Collinson-Smith, father of the bride, as the marriage celebrant.
The couple have recently collaborated in launching Collinson-Smith’s swim and resort-wear brand Hunting Hue which has an outlet in The Rocks.
Monaghan is now the founder and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based Blonde Velvet (BVRGRP), a global investment company for luxury brands.
Monaghan’s former Surry Hills abode, bought in 2020 by then wife Natalie Johnson for $3,025,000 from F45’s Marc Marano, was sold last month, at an undisclosed price.
Back in 2020, Oxford Real Estate’s Matt Marano had been guiding $2.6m when The Wentworth Courier reported the duo had “fallen in love” with the three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment before its first open.
This time it took 82 days to sell through TRG, who’d given $4.2m guidance for the 250sq m space. atop a 1910 Reservoir St building near Central Station with a north-facing 70sq m entertainers’ balcony.
Monaghan and Johnson also recently sold their SJB-designed Potts Point investment apartment for $2m. The Ida, Brougham St apartment cost $1.6m in 2016.
Monaghan, who founded the Honey Birdette label in Brisbane’s West End in 2006 with then girlfriend Janelle Barboza, owned 15 per cent of the company and collected about $66m in cash and shares in the $440m PLBY deal. Retail entrepreneurs Brett Blundy and Ray Itaoui were the substantial shareholders.
RABBITOH BOUNCES BRISSIE PAD FOR NEW DEAL
South Sydney Rabbitohs star Jack Wighton has sold his longtime Brisbane investment apartment for $650,000.
It is understood that Wighton is redirecting his equity into another new-build investment opportunity.
Wighton bought the Newstead apartment off the plan in 2016, paying $445,000 when he was four years into his 11-year stint at the Canberra Raiders.
McGrath Bulimba agent Sam Battel sold the apartment to an investor within three weeks of its listing last month.
The one-bedroom Ajax apartment was pitched at both owner-occupiers and investors, but marketed as a “high-demand rental opportunity”.
The $620-a-week lease in place until August next year, so reflecting a 4.96 per cent yield for the 54sq m unit that has an open-plan living kitchen and dining space, a study area, and a balcony.
PropTrack puts the one-bedroom median at $585,000, up 15 per cent over the past year after 105 sales that spent a median 35 days on market.
PropTrack calculates the median yield as 5.1 per cent.
Wighton had bought it direct from developer two years before completion. It is set in the $195m complex of four buildings, developed by JGL Properties just a few blocks back from the Brisbane River.
The Bureau Proberts-designed complex has communal facilities including two barbecue zones, an outdoor cinema, a 25m lap pool, spa, gym and sauna.
Wighton retains the home he bought with wife Monisha Lew-Fatt for $1,135,000 in 2020. The 3.36ha regional NSW estate, just off the Old Federal Highway at Bywong, has a 1970s home with six bedrooms.
Having grown up in Orange, Wighton, 32, made his debut for the Raiders in 2012. He left after 242 games, and has played 32 games since joining the Rabbitohs.
COURT THWARTS WATERHOUSE GARAGE ALTERATION
The extension plans of estranged bookmaking family scion David Waterhouse for his soon-to-be-sold Rose Bay property have been scuppered by a 26,000-word NSW Land & Environment Court judgment.
Justice Sarah Pritchard ruled that a 2007 development consent granted by Woollahra Council for “alterations and additions to existing garage/studio” had lapsed in 2012 and could not be relied upon by Waterhouse, who bought the 1929 Spanish Mission property in 2020 for $10.25m from retired medical entrepreneur Robert Gregg.
The court matter reviewed whether works had physically been commenced by Gregg and whether conditions that required compliance prior to the work being undertaken had been met by Trico Constructions, which went into liquidation in 2017.
There were 56 prior judgments cited as Waterhouse’s neighbour, Mincong Huang, successfully sought to stop the latest reincarnation of the garaging at Villa Biscaya.
Waterhouse, as the first respondent, had costs awarded against him.
Woollahra Council and Michael Rothner, who is due to settle its reputed $26m purchase later this month following his June 2023 exchange, were the second and third respondent with submitting appearances.
The triumphant counsel was Nick Eastman SC, instructed by McCullough Robertson Lawyers.
They defeated the arguments put by Francis Douglas KC.
Between 2012 and 2024, the originating Tivoli Ave development consent has been subject to four applications, which Huang referenced as “modification creep”.
The judgment referenced that “it was more than 17 years since the 2007 development consent was granted, and that council had lost a large part of its file”.
“The onus is on the first respondent (Waterhouse) to prove that a dilapidation report and survey report were provided prior to the commencement of any of the work relied on by the first respondent carried out in June 2012 for the purpose of establishing physical commencement of the 2007 development consent.
“The first respondent has failed to discharge that onus,” it ruled.
EX-SEVEN MAN’S EXIT FROM ‘CHIC OASIS’
The Los Angeles-based former Seven Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell is selling his Clovelly apartment.
Pell, who spent nearly two decades at Seven before departing the channel last year, has $1.5m expectations.
He made the move to the US in 2022, staying initially with Seven as their senior vice-president for entertainment and content in North America.
Sunday Confidential revealed last year he was working as an executive producer for Merit Street, a cable TV and streaming network launched by Dr Phil McGraw.
Last week, Dr Phil’s network filed for bankruptcy saying its partner Trinity Broadcasting had reneged on a joint-venture agreement and the channel was going off air.
PPD’s Thomas Heath and Marcus Licastro have an August 2 auction for the listing, which garnered over 1000 page views in its first week on realestate.com.au. Less than 300m from the beach, the two-bedroom apartment is marketed as a “chic oasis set quietly back from the street”.
Spanning 70sq m, with a balcony, on the top floor of a mid-1960s block, Pell paid $1.4m in 2021.
The agents are suggesting it could rent at $1000 per week for an investor.
The expectations are slightly below the median two-bedroom apartment price in Clovelly that sits at $1,725,500, based on 17 sales, according to PropTrack.
Pell spent 18 years at Sunrise and is credited for the show’s continued success.
PADDO SALE ADDS TO WINTER RUSH
Jason Entwistle, the director of strategic development at ASX-listed wealth management platform Hub24, and his wife, Julie, have sold in Paddington.
They are whispered to have accepted $5.34m before last weekend’s scheduled auction for their four-bedroom, two-bathroom Regent St terrace.
It had been marketed with $5.25m hopes through Sotheby’s International.
There has been an unseasonably high winter sales tally, with seven terraces sales over the past week priced between $3.42m on Hopewell St and $7.5m on Roylston St for a modernist design by Ian Moore Architects.
The highest Paddington sale so far this year was when an Alec Tzannes-designed home was sold by the Profusion Group founder Rodney Jones for $13.25m to commercial lawyer Justine Isemonger.
The median Paddington terrace price sits at $3.5m, up 10 per cent annually after 210 sales, according to PropTrack.
There is a 50-day median time on market.
The Entwistle’s are off to Darling Point where they were the $20m buyers of the 1915 six-bedroom Hampden Ave home sold by designer Collette Dinnigan.
It had formerly been a $6500-a-week rental.
$900K SECURES REBUILD BLOCK
A burnt-out Busby residence has been bought for $900,000 by the Zakir family, which has plans to rebuild on the 600sq m block.
Marney East of Richard Matthews had 44 registered bidders in attendance at the recent onsite Aberdeen Rd auction. There were 99 contracts issued.
Bidding opened at $720,000, above the $660,000 reserve price having last sold in 2018 for $702,000.
BUYER TIES UP BOAT HOUSE
The Boat House at Curl Curl has sold, fetching within its adjusted $10.5 million to $11.5 million price guide through Christie’s International.
Known locally as the The Longboard, after its design by Mark Hurcum of MHDP Architects, it had hit market with $12 million to $13 million expectations in February.
The near-new four-level Carrington Pde home was built after Rob Tucker bought the site for $3.26 million in 2017.
EX-SOCCEROO SCORES A SALE
Former Socceroo and English Premier League midfielder Aaron Mooy has sold his Ewingsdale, Byron Bay home, which was bought from property developer Terry Agnew for $3.6 million in September 2023.
It has been sold for an undisclosed price, but was listed last November with a guide of $3 million to $3.3 million. Agnew had paid $3.5 million in 2021.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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Originally published as The Sell: Lingerie queen finds bolthole at Circular Quay
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