Try and buy opportunity for Elaine, the grandest Sydney Harbour colonial estate

Try and buy opportunity for Elaine, the grandest Sydney Harbour colonial estate
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Businessman John B Fairfax has listed the Double Bay harbourfront estate, Elaine for rent.

More importantly the trophy home property remains for sale on the Christies International Real Estate website.

Property Observer is aware of the tenants moving out late last year. Tim Pockley at Pockley & Roderick has the rental listing, though without any rental price guidance. Prospective tenants have been advised they must be accommodating of the inconvenience of discrete inspections by well-heeled potential buyers.

The six-title offering of 6,900 square metres, at 550 New South Head Road, (highlighted below), has been in the publishing family for 100 plus years, but tenanted over the past two decades by the prudent Edgecliff based publisher and pastoralist. It has been leased since 1996, first to the boutique property developers Bob Rose and his wife Margaret, and in 2005 to venture capitalist Cameron O'Reilly.

Its most recent tenants were the joint chief investment officer of Caledonia Investments, Mark Nelson, and his wife, Louise.

doublke-bay-sept-18-one

Sydney's official record price stands with Altona in Point Piper, with RP Data records indicating a $52 million sale earlier this year. Villa Veneto, also at Point Piper, is reputed to have sold for around $52 million in 2010, but without confirmatory documentation. The $57.5 million Australian price record was a multi-dwelling Mosman Park compound on the Swan River in Perth in 2009.

Elaine has been traded or handed down within the Fairfax family since bought by Geoffrey Evan Fairfax for £2,100.

The exclusive listing agent Ken Jacobs who had a video marketing campaign kick off the international sales campaign early last year has always maintained a record price would be achieved for the holding.

Perhaps an opportunity to try then buy now exists. 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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