Buyer secures slight discount on fashionista model Lara Bingle's Darling Point apartment

Buyer secures slight discount on fashionista model Lara Bingle's Darling Point apartment
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

The Cotton On model Lara Bingle's Darling Point apartment offering failed to find a buyer at its damp Sydney auction.

And with the vendor uncontactable overseas, there was no chance for immediate price negotiations around the undisclosed written reserve.

Bingle, spotted this week holidaying in Bellevue Hill, Italy with partner Sam Worthington, subsequently accepted a post-auction offer Saturday evening, but too late to be included in the Fairfax Media auction results.

Property Observer gathers $875,000 was secured, slightly less than its $882,000 sale in 2010.

The top auction bid was $855,000 from one of the two bidders at the crowded 10.30am auction in the 65 square metre one bedroom apartment. The onsite bidding opened at $825,000 with a vendor bid subsequently placed by the McGrath auctioneer Scott Kennedy-Green at $850,000. Property Observer counted around 25 at the auction. There appeared to be three interested buying parties.

The weekend Sydney auction clearance rate weakened slightly from the late May fillip to 75.6% on higher than normal winter volumes, according to Australian Property Monitors, with sales between $180,000 in Blacktown and $5.25 million in Mosman. 

McGrath Estate Agents had, in the lead up to the Bingle auction, revised its price expectations to more than $850,000 for the Darling Point apartment.

The agency initially was quoting more than $825,000 for the stylish one-bedroom, with one car space that was listed through Richard Bonouvrie.

The marketing campaign was not assisted when Fairfax Domain speculated, seemingly of its own volition, that it could fetch $1 million plus.

The model bought it from interior designer Blainey North for $882,000 in 2010, soon after Bingle's break-up with Test cricket captain Michael Clarke.

Blainey North moved into a $2.2 million Potts Point apartment.

The Bingle apartment is the Goomerah Court company title art deco apartment apartment with city and harbour views from most of its 65 square metre space.

It came with American oak parquetry floors, DeGourney silk wall panelling, Kreon lighting and Vola tap ware. Its quarterly levy was $2000.

There had been two other McGrath sales in the cul de sac block when $925,000 was secured for a two bedroom unrenovated listing and then a renovated two bedroom sale last October at around $800,000 which explained the initial pricing estimate.

It was Bingle’s brother, and former reality show co-star, Josh Bingle who endeavoured to represent his sister at the auction. The listing had $850,000 plus price guidance on the McGrath website immediately after the onsite auction, and the McGrath weekend sales advisory did not give any update at close of business Saturday afternoon. However it was sold Saturday evening with the price undisclosed.

Of course the building is best known for its long association with Jean Wright, regarded as the doyenne of magazine stylists.

She was responsible for many of the upmarket glossy pages in local and international magazines and books with her trademark look, contemporary classicism, all the time operating out of a small, modern, all-white apartment there in Darling Point after her move from Melbourne.

The Melbourne weekend auction clearance rate, according to APM, was 73.8%, with prices between $262,000 at Seaford and $4.65 million at Hawthorn East.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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