Cracking $25 million Darling Point trophy home sale over Christmas break
The Christmas break didn't stop a Sydney trophy home listing from securing its next owner. And like the top sale of last year, it too is located off the harbour.
Details remained unconfirmed but the Eastbourne Road, Darling Point property joined the top 2014 sales list in eighth place.
The expectations of its listing agent Alison Coopes, who had the offering with Sothebys International, were a bullish $25 million plus. Any sale above $20.5 million put into eighth place.
"Evocative of Hollywood glamour by night and bathed in our great bright northern sun by day, the white sculpted spaces are perfectly appointed," the Agency by Coopes marketing suggested.
It offer six bedrooms and eight bathrooms within its 936 square metre space. It traded at $4,825,000 in 2003 pre-renovation when bought by AsheMorgan head Michael Rothner and Lisa Rothner.
The concept plans were prepared by architect Bruce Stafford.
The past year’s list of the top 20 Sydney house sales, updated by Property Observer, show price consolidation and a clearing of the cobwebs, particularly at Point Piper where the six highest priced properties on the list had languished on the market for years.
The Darling Point sale was however a snappy sale, listed by private treaty only in mid-November.
Again, Sydney's eastern suburbs proved dominant with 16 of the top 20 sales in 2014, and Mosman made a resurgence with four properties, a significant increase on its 2013 single appearance.
Tenders close pre-Christmas on the Darling Point home of the Rothner family, so it was heralded as likely to make it onto the revised list.
Property Observer commentators, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok, offered their analysis of the annual list highlighting three trends.
- A non-waterfront property topped the list for the second time in the past three years.
Villa Del Mare, a lavish residence set on the elevated high side of Wolseley Road, looks unchallengable in holding this year’s poll position at $39 million. The lavish home was sold by recruitment queen Julia Ross who bought the residence for $21.5 million in 2005 – at the time, it was a record price for a non-waterfront property, and also the second highest price paid for a house in Australia.
The last time a non-waterfront property topped the Sydney list was 2012 when a hillside Rose Bay estate sold for $21.5 million through Alison Coopes. - For the second year running, a buyer from China purchased the top-priced Sydney property. In October, Villa Del Mare was snapped up for $39 million by Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd through Ken Jacobs of Christies and Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker Double Bay.
Last year Property Observer shed light on the China connection of Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd by following a paper trail seemingly leading to the Chinese billionaire, Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande, an integrated corporation specialised in residential building, cultural tourism, FMCG, agriculture, dairy, livestock farming and sport industry with 460 billion yuan worth of total assets and 80,000 employees.
In 2013 the top priced property was Altona, the Point Piper waterfront bought for $52 million through Alison Coopes. Just three of the top 20 priced properties in 2014 were purchased by buyers from China, although sometimes it's a little tricky to ascertain the purchaser origins. - Piper Piper retained its poll position of Sydney’s most expensive real estate with the prestigious harbourside suburb claiming the six top-priced properties for 2014. However, each of these properties had been for sale for years.
For sale for the longest period was the Simon family’s Wolseley Road waterfront residence which traded eight years after its initial listing.
Below are the 20 sales of the year (all prices in millions):
- $39 - Point Piper, 63 Wolseley Road
- $37 - Point Piper, 112 Wolseley Road
- $31* - Point Piper, 106 Wolseley Road
- $30.5* - Point Piper, Wentworth Street
- $30 - Point Piper, 130 Wolseley Road
- $30* - Point Piper, 60 Wunulla Road
- $26* - Rose Bay, 12 Dumaresq Road
- $25* - Darling Point, 21 Eastbourne Road
- $20.5 - Bellevue Hill, 12 Ginahgulla Road
- $19 - Bellevue Hill, 17 Carrington Avenue
- 19* - Vaucluse, 29 Coolong Road
- 18 - Vaucluse, 8 Wharf Road
- $16.3 - Mosman, 9 Curraghbeena Road
- $16 - Bellevue Hill, 8A Ginahgulla Road
- $16* - Vaucluse, 2 Loch Maree Place
- $16* - Mosman, 8 Burran Avenue
- $15.6 - Mosman, 21 Carrington Avenue
- $15.45 - Vaucluse, 2a Vaucluse Road
- $14 - Vaucluse, 9 Hillside Avenue
- $13 - Vaucluse, 1 Loch Maree Place
* Sale reported, but not settled