Villa del Mare, Point Piper back for formal spring 2014 marketing: He Said/She Said

It's back, but property insiders know it never really went away.

Villa del Mare, the much offered hillside Point Piper home of the headhunter Julia Ross, has its latest marketing campaign launched for spring 2014.

Her grand Point Piper property has been on and off the market for several years.

The six bedroom non-waterfront home on Wolseley Road still has its old price tag of about $40 million.

It has now being marketed with Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker in conjunction with Ken Jacobs of Christies International.

“That price hasn’t changed,” Malouf told News Ltd.

“It’s the right timing for Julia. It’s not like we haven’t had suitable offers in the past, but this time the property is going to move,” he said.

Ross bought her Point Piper pad ten years ago for $21.5 million from Nati Stoliar who awaits sentence in the United States. Last month he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Las Vegas to a series of fraudulent schemes connected to biodiesel credits with sentencing to come in October.

The Point Piper peninsula has had a few top end sales over recent months, so our property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok return to their familiar stomping ground with a few insights and preferences.

HE SAID:

I recall the Wolseley Road offering was discreetly put on the market in 2011 by Julia Ross. It came very close to a sale to Chinese buyers. Designed by architect Chris Tsioulos in the late 1990s, it’s almost certain to sell to Chinese buyers. Not sure why Nati Stolliar ever bulldozed the Espie Dods-designed Roche family house on the prominent corner location.

While the trophy limestone palazzo has sat on the market for the past three years, plenty of rival offerings have been listed, and the one I fancied has only recently been sold.

It was the prized Professor Leslie Wilkinson designed house sold by the retired shirt maker-cum-property developer Charles Scarf and his wife, Maria. The 1959 Wentworth Street property was the second-last of Wilkinson’s house designs. It was listed back in March 2012, selling only last month. 

SHE SAID:

The antithesis of understatement, Villa del Mare, qualified as one of Sydney’s tizziest houses when developer Nati Stoliar put the finishing touches on it during completion in the late 1990s. Thank goodness recruitment queen, Julia Ross, bought the place and subsequently toned down the tizz with the assistance of a swathe of interior designers including stylemeister Charlotte O’Neil who designed its most recent décor.

I was fortunate to take a peek inside the ornate limestone palazzo at the time of 2000 completion when Nati threw open the doors for a Jewish women’s committee fundraiser. Due to immense curiosity surrounding Nati’s interior design talent, the event was extremely well attended – and the throng were agog at what was inside.

An extraordinary mix of Hollywood glitz meets gaudy glamour from who knows where, the house was adorned with a confection of French washed yellow walls, ornate Corinthian columns, sparkling new chandeliers and acres of ceilings decorated with flocks of hand painted cherubs – including one bearing a remarkable resemblance to Nati, as I recall. 

But the piece-de-résistance within the three-level residence (which has about 2000 square metres of living space) was the remote-controlled billiards table. At the flick of a switch, the massive piece of furniture descended slowly below the floor, and then three rows of chairs rose to replace it. When another button was pressed, the room’s curtains closed and wooden wall panelling slid away to reveal a cinema screen. 

Another of Nati’s bold design features was an enormous tile placed in pebbled paving outside the front door. Measuring the 1.5 metres by 1.5 metres tile, it was decorated with a huge S (for Stoliar) fashioned from oak leaves. One could be forgiven for thinking Nati hadn’t heard the saying “money can’t buy you class”.

The harbourfront house of John Piven-Large, which last traded in 1991 when it was a duplex, is still the one for me. Brad Pillinger has the Edwardian-era mansion with more than $30 million hopes, down from $40 million hopes of 18 months ago.

It comes with a 30-metre private tidal beach.