$12 million paid for The Rocks penthouse
Peter Campbell, the Clarendon Homes founder, and wife Catherine have paid $12 million for a penthouse in The Rocks.
It ranks as the sixth most expensive apartment sold in the last financial year. It has quintessential Sydney postcard views across Campbells Cove to the Opera House and up towards the Harbour Bridge.
The Hickson Road apartment has a stellar provenance having first been owned by the late McDonald's chief Charlie Bell.
Bell spent $8,525,000 in 2003 after its refurbishment of the 1912 Metcalfe Bond building by Nettleton Tribe Architects for Tjeerd la Grouw's Amstal Property Group.
Qantas chief Geoff Dixon was another past owner though he sold it at a loss in 2014 for $7.45 million.
Set in the 1912 Metcalfe Bond building, the two level apartment has three bedroom and spans 328 sqm.
The two most expensive established apartments to sell in last financial year were both secured off market by downsizers.
The former Sydney Lord Mayor Nelson Meers and his wife Carole paid $16 million for a Point Piper whole floor apartment in the Alex Popov designed harbour front Buckhurst Avenue block.
Last traded for $11.6 million when new in 2011, the unit came with four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
LJ Hooker agent Bill Malouf handled the sale.
The couple had downsized from Bayview where they sold their five bedroom Tuscan style villa for $4.55 million last year.
Businessman Stephen Johns, most known for being the longtime chairman at Brambles, bought the Darling Point apartment of Silicon Valley software billionaire David Doyle.
Set in the Burley Katon Halliday block, the four bedroom penthouse comprises 456 sqm of internal space, 103 sqm of terraces and a 12 sqm rooftop garden.
It has a private gym, study, maids suite, home theatre and large terrace which takes in views of the Harbour Bridge.
Doyle, a software pioneer and backer of Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill, paid $7.1 million for the lavish New Beach Road spread in 2000, a record breaking apartment sale in Sydney's eastern suburbs at the time.
Like the Meers, Johns has also downsized.
He and wife Michele Bender are waiting for a buyer for their long-held Bellevue Hill trophy Belhaven which has price hopes of between $25 million and $27 million.
The third most expensive apartment came in August last year when Rocco Lagudi and wife Frances, paid $13.5 million for a Point Piper apartment.
Aussie John Symond sold his Point Piper penthouse for $13.3 million, with a caveat lodged by Angela Teplitsky, wife of property developer Michael Teplitsky.
Ferrari Australasia chief executive Herbert Appleroth sold his harbourfront apartment in Pyrmont for more than $13 million, making it the fifth most expensive sale this financial year.
The five bedroom, four bathroom apartment amalgamation had been inspected by Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio in 2011 as a possible rental while he was shooting Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.
The top six sales of established units totalled over $80 million.
The top off the plan sales were considerably pricier, with two apartments in the new Circular Quay development the Opera Residences fetching $26 million and $27 million.
The third most expensive was a $17 million apartment in another off the plan Circular Quay development, Loftus Lane.
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.