Andrew Roberts secures $38 million for Double Bay harbourfront
A $38 million sale has been reported of Andrew Roberts' Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay property.
The six bedroom, eight bathroom harbourfront property is set on the northern point of Double Bay.
It was sold by the Bondi Beach-bound Multiplex scion Andrew Roberts who had it listed through Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker, The Australian reported.
The 1145 square metre north-facing holding has a three-level house completed in 2005 after Roberts paid $10.1 million in 2003.
Andrew Roberts, the former chief executive of Multiplex, has spent a record $25 million off the plan for a luxury Bondi Beach penthouse in the Pacific Bondi Beach complex.
Mr Roberts now heads RF Capital, which invests in commercial property, listed equities, private equity, and resources.
The house, which comes with heated pool, four-car garage, jetty and mooring, was once part of the Gladswood House grounds until subdivided by the Parisi family in 1950 for 10,000 pounds.
Bill Malouf briefly had it for sale in 2010 when it was tipped to sit between the Sydney records set in 2008, when Craig-y-Mor fetched $32.4 million and Coolong sold for $45 million to Ivan Ritossa, the head of foreign exchange at Barclays Capital, through estate agent Bill Bridges.
Title Tattle recalls the property was sold to Andrew Roberts through Laing & Simmons Double Bay agent Bart Doff by the Ho hotel investment family who were relaxing at Huka Lodge, New Zealand, when Title Tattle breezed through some years ago.
The property had previously traded in 1989 for $7.28 million when sold by Robert Hampshire whose plans to merge it with Gladswood House failed after a tussle with then neighbour Alan Bond.
That was unquestionably one of the most riveting property dramas of the highflying late 1980s.
One of Australia's then wealthiest, Alan Bond, and the entrepreneurial property developer Dr Robert Hampshire were engaged in an expensive and intriguing tussle over who should own and restore the Sydney sandstone landmark Gladswood House. And neither got their way, with both sold out separately by the early 1990s.
Bond owned Gladswood House, built in 1856 on the prime Double Bay peninsula, but Dr Hampshire, the flamboyant Sydney developer, snookered Bond by secretly securing the adjacent property.
Both men harboured a $30 million desire to restore the baronial mansion, which was once set on two hectares, to its place as one of Sydney Harbour's most elegant homes.
Title Tattle recalls Dr Hampshire said at the time: "It's like Solomon's purse."
Each one worth (supposedly) nothing on its own but worth the world together.
Looking on from his neighbouring holding, Hampshire believed Gladswood House rivalled Kirribilli House and Carthona, the Oxley Darling Point residence, as the finest harbour-side homes.
Occupied by the crew of Bond's Southern Cross II, the Gladswood Gardens castle had purchased by Bond's Endeavour Resources Pty Ltd for $2.4 million in January, 1986.
Alan's then wife, Eileen Bond, who had a flair for interior design, told Title Tattle back then that "We really do love that house. We certainly won't sell, but it would be nice to get the property next door."
Gladswood House's previous owners include the property developer Warren Anderson and the investment banker Robert Whyte.