Prue and Alasdair MacLeod spend $10.65 million on Woollahra home of miner Nick Curtis
Prue and Alasdair MacLeod have emerged as the $10.65 million buyers of the Woollahra home of Lynas Corporation rare earth mining magnate Nick Curtis and wife Angela.
It is a trophy Woollahra abode for the eldest daughter of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his first wife, Patricia. The MacLeod owns retail holdings on the prestige village strip. She and her husband of 25 years had been renting nearby from Rob Rankin, having sold in Vaucluse in 2012.
The Queen Street house was initially marketed with hopes that it might go close to $12 million in February. There were then adjusted $10 million plus indications.
On its June sale, Property Observer speculated it sold at around $10.5 million given what was being told to other prospective buyers, but the slightly higher official figure emerged this week.
It last traded in 2004 when bought from the 2SM radio broadcaster John Laws and wife Caroline for $7.7 million.
Laws had purchased the 961 square metre Queen Street property in 1981 for $264,000 and then commissioned a two storey house, with separate staff quarters and garaging for six cars, behind its high fence.
There is also a separate two bedroom cottage.
All just footsteps from all the village amenities.
Nick Curtis has been leading Lynas Corporation since mid-2001 with a career spanning more than three decades in the resources and finance industries.
The Queen Street trophy mansion sold through BradfieldCleary who marketed it as "a blue ribbon retreat with comfort and convenience".
Woollahra's record sits with a 2008 sale when engineer John Grill paid $16 million on Rush Street.
In 2010 the MacLeod's discretionary investment trust Wyelba Pty Ltd, spent $4.6 million on the then premises of Collette Dinnigan, now Zampatti
In 2011 the MacLeods also bought the then Howell and Howell antique premises at 84 Queens Street for $4.25 million, now with Anna Thomas as the tenant. The upper level is operated as a boutique serviced apartment for tourists.