Peter and Divonne Holmes à Court sell Chain of Ponds, Mittagong for bullish $6 million plus

An unidentified cashed up Europe-based buyer - thwarting the nascent trend of Asian buyer interest in the Southern Highlands - has secured Chain of Ponds before this weekend's scheduled auction.

The property is the matrimonial farm of Sydney businessman farmer Peter Holmes à Court and his former wife, Divonne, who now lives in Saanen, Switzerland where the children are schooled.

It had been set for 26 April auction with $6.3 million plus hopes through McGrath Bowral agent Anne Stone and Howard McMillan from McMillan Real Estate Bowral.

The sale price has not been revealed but Title Tattle is aware of $6 million plus offers.

APM reported Sydney vendors notched up a 78% Anzac Day weekend clearance rate, up on the 73% rate on the same weekend last year, with the highest recorded sale being 229 Prices Circuit, Woronora at $1,610,500.

With the wonderful autumn rains, Chain of Ponds presented picture perfect in the auction marketing, as Property Observer columnist Margie Blok recently noted.

The property is currently run as a beef breeding and fattening property on a large scale for the Southern Highlands but could easily be transformed into a high class horse stud. 

Occupying 145 hectares on Old South Road, the property has a six-bedroom residence renovated by Luigi Rosselli Architects.

It is set in extensive gardens designed by landscape luminary William Dangar.

At the western edge of the house paddock, Dangar planted acacias, hakeas and eucalypts all species endemic to the local area to form a screen for privacy and wind relief.

With potential for subdivision into three separate lots, Chain of Ponds is six kilometres from Mittagong and 11 kilometres from Bowral.

The Holmes à Courts oversaw the planting of 5,000 native trees linking the property with surrounding national parks. The property is well irrigated with 12 dams and the Chain of Ponds creek.

Title Tattle is aware of several trophy home sales over recent months, the most noteworthy being The Chase, on Oldbury Road at Sutton Forest through Bill Carpenter from W. McI Carpenter & Associates at Bowral. The Chase, the historic trophy property, was bought for $5.8 million by the Malaysian horse racing tycoon Teo Ah Khing.

It had been put to December 2013 auction through Bill Carpenter inconjunction with Campbell-Jones Property agent Angus Campbell-Jones. Last traded at $5.2 million in 2011, the 40 hectare property was offloaded by John Starr, a real estate franchise tsar of Sydney’s western suburbs.

Patchway on Ranelagh Road, Burradoo also sold in January to locals for about $4.2 million. It was the home of Lyn Wilson and her engineer husband Ken who Title Tattle recalls supplied steel fabrication for the Olympic Stadium at Homebush.

Still no settlement details on Dunsinea, the 40 hectare Mittagong, Southern Highlands NSW trophy property that has been sold for about $4.95 million.

All the locals reckon that champion horse trainer Gai Waterhouse is their new neighbour, along with her extended family. Apparently the Waterhouses are thinking of selling their Clifton Gardens home and buying a Sydney apartment.

Dunsinea has views over the bushland of the Nepean State Conservation Forest. 

It was sold by Mark and Rosie Mitchell who developed the holding from the ground up after returning from the UK in 2002. They first tried to sell in late 2008 with $7 million plus hopes, then more recently with a $5.25 million asking price through Sam Triggs from Meares and Associates and Michael Maloney from Richardson and Wrench Bowral.

Set on the northern fringes of the Southern Highlands, Dunsinea comes with modern ‘rammed earth’ five bedroom sandstone home.

Dunsinea is surrounded by 100 acres of rolling grazing land, some 15 kilometres from Bowral.

The house is srrounded by its green and white garden, complete with 10 metre heated pool and all weather tennis court. There is also a guest cottage.

The main residence boasts 300mm - 450mm thick walls and 10 foot high ceilings.

Title Tattle recalls Margie Blok, after inspecting the home in 2008, noted it had been meticulously built with classic architecture.

"The house has superb proportions, solid sandstone walls, stone verandas and custom-made Georgian-style windows with double glazing. Inside, the rooms have 3.6-metre-high ceilings and polished stone floors, which are heated for winter warmth," she wrote.

"The front door opens to a wide central hallway with two guest bedrooms, a bathroom, a guest toilet and a study on the left. Opposite are the formal sitting and dining rooms.

"At the end of the hall is a central pavilion with a television room and a large family living-dining area with an open-plan kitchen. Off this is another kitchen (for caterers or food preparation) with a coolroom and cellar," Margie Blok told her readers.

Its formal dining room was subsequently included in the ‘Best 50 Rooms’ by House and Garden magazine.

The pasture was marketed as ideal for cattle grazing with the property fattening 40 to 50 steers year round. Title Tattle gathers that would translate accomodating around 20 horses, as is.

It had been for sale on and off for several years, even attracting the fleeting attention of the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his wife, Therese.