Southern Highlands buyer found after four-year pursuit
With just the fourth prestige Southern Highlands sale in the past three years, retired Compaq executive Ian Penman and his wife, Ayesha, have finally sold their Sutton Forest holding, The Chase.
The restored and extended five-bedroom 1880s house, which sits on 40 hectares, sold through Bill Carpenter from W. Mcl Carpenter & Associates at Bowral.
Its sale price has not been revealed, although the recent marketing indicated the $7 million expectations sought in October 2010 were not being pursued. It had been listed in 2007 with double-digit million hopes.
Local agents considered a $6 million selling target was more achievable given there had been just three sales at $5 million or higher across NSW’s Highlands since mid-2008.
Tarranlea, with a 744-square-metre ridgetop residence on 140 hectares at Werai, is 2011’s highest recorded sale at $5 million.
The highest sale in 2010 was an 84-hectare holding, Binya Farm, at Robertson which fetched $6.1 million through Bill Bridges at Ballard Property in conjunction with Carl Hilder .
There was a $6 million sale at Glenquarry when businessman John Dougall and his interior decorator wife, Suzanne, sold their 18-hectare property Runnymede. The five-bedroom house sold through Drew Lindsay at Drew Lindsay Real Estate Bowral to company director David Baffsky and his wife, Helen. The Kangaloon Road house was rebuilt by the Dougalls on the rural parcel, which has frontage to Lake Wingecarribee. The property has a tennis court, stables, seven paddocks, native woodlands, four dams and a 200,000-litre underground tank. It last traded when bought for $2.9 million in 2004 from the Malouf family, who had paid $730,000 in 1994 for the then Hereford cattle operation.
The Sutton Forest property Bunya Hill, a 45-hectare estate with an 1878 sandstock mansion, was sold in early 2008 for $6 million to actor Nicole Kidman and singer Keith Urban. It was sold by head of global markets at National Australia Bank Peter Coad and his wife, Helen, through Drew Lindsay, in conjunction with Martin Schiller from Sotheby's.
The Chase, which has a reception hall, formal sitting room and dining room, billiard room and living room last traded when bought from insurance industry operative Rob Porter in 1996 for $2.6 million.
It was marketed by Carpenter as one of the very few true, great estates within the New South Wales' Southern Highlands.
It originally formed part of the Newbury Land Grant made to Australia's first Harbour Master, Captain John Nicholson.
Set on Oldbury Road, it is four kilometres to the Moss Vale town centre and 130 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD.
The main residence was built in the late 1880s and completely restored in 1989-1990. It sits in walled gardens credited as among the most beautiful in the Highlands, with three hectares of sweeping lawns, hedged and walled gardens and exotic trees.
The centrepiece of the garden is an expansive ornamental lake along with a pool and tennis court.
It also comes with stables, barn, grooms quarters, cattle and horse yards, and sheds.
The highland’s record stands with Comfort Hill, a Sutton Forest farm sold by adman Michael Ball and his wife, Daria, for $15 million in 2007 to the television industry pioneer Reg Grundy. It nearly doubled the record for a Southern Highlands hobby farm. The 200-hectare property sold through Meares & Co agent Chris Meares in conjunction with Christie's agent Ken Jacobs.
During the time they occupied the farm, the Balls extensively renovated and extended the home, as well as setting out a substantial garden of six hectares, which includes a lake containing more than 10,000 yellow Japanese water iris. Comfort Hill's settlement dates to the 1830s, when it was taken up by John Morrice, who owned a plantation in Barbados. The Morrice family, after subdividing the property into two lots, Eling Forest and Comfort Hill, sold Comfort Hill in 1839 to the Davis family of Queensland graziers. The Davises occupied the property until 1983.
The area's previous record was set in 2005 when Mittabah, at Exeter, was sold for $8.65 million to property developer James Vertzayias and his wife, Eugenie, by the Scottish-born businessman Sir Arthur Weller and Lady (Marea) Weller. The Wellers bought the then 89-hectare property for $3.15 million in 1989 and shortly afterwards added 29 hectares at a cost of $450,000.
