Bronte's Mound House sells post-auction

Justin Butterworth, the entreprenuer who pioneered online holiday home rental websites in Australia, knocked back $3.91 million for his architectural gem at Bronte at weekend auction.

His Palmerston Avenue home came with an initial $3.9 million to $4.29 million price guidance. There'd been a $3.9 million vendor bid.

There were three interested parties and two bidders at the damp onsite weekend auction through McGrath who have secured an undisclosed post auction sale. Around $4 million was secured. Just a dozen turned up if you didn't count the local estate agents.

The Dale Jones-Evans designed home last traded at $2.6 million in 2012 when sold by the Goode-Nicholas family who built on the 270-square-metre site on Palmerston Avenue in 2005.

The family home with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a study, a media room and plenty of indoor-outdoor living space. It is nicknamed the "Mound House."

Jason Butterworth was most recently at the Stayz website, but had previously been with HomeAway, YesBookit, Rentahome and Takeabreak.

An 1880s house at Bronte - offered for the first time in five decades - fetched $2,605,000 at auction yesterday afternoon.

This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.