Jodhi Meares buys Watsons Bay charmer
The former swimwear model turned fashion designer Jodhi Meares has secured a Watsons Bay charmer for $2.75 million.
The timber Victorian Georgian-style fisherman's cottage with baby blue exterior will be her bolthole as she divides her time between Sydney and the United States.
Having separated from her photographer husband Nick Tsindos, she looked to have cut ties with Sydney all together when recently selling her Point Piper and Paddington properties.
But she's bought back, quietly securing a quaint cottage with harbour glimpses near the popular Watsons Bay hotel.
The heritage listed 1880s cottage - one of nine remaining in the so-called fishermans cottage group of the original Camp Cove village - was passed in on a $2.7 million vendor bid in its May auction through Goodyer Real Estate agents Pauline Goodyer and Rosalia Marasco.
It allowed the US-based Meares to swoop some two weeks later according to the settlement paperwork lodged this week by her well-connected lawyer, Natasha Goulden.
The compact rectangular boxlike home - with picturesque 12 pane windows - sold with approvals to extend the two bedroom dwelling with plans by Cracknell & Lonergan Architects.
It last traded for $2.06 million in 2010, just $10,000 more than it traded for in 2006.
A formal lounge and combined kitchen and dining area flow to a garden on the 250 sq m block.
A Jack & Jill bathroom services the two upstairs bedrooms that features a versatile study space.
Meares secured $2.6 million for her Point Piper apartment in May just days into its auction marketing campaign through Raine & Horne Double Bay agents Ric and Christophe Serrao.
Buyers were initially being told there was a $2.2 million price guide, which was quickly increased to $2.4 million.
The model turned luxury athletic wear entrepreneur paid $1.23 million for the apartment in 2004, shortly after her brief marriage to casino tycoon James Packer.
The two bedroom, two bathroom Point Piper apartment in the historic 1907 Danmark building was briefly listed in 2013 with $2 million hopes. It was withdrawn from the market as the fashion designer took up residence with her then beau, former Noiseworks frontman Jon Stevens.
The apartment sits an Edwardian era Wolseley Road mansion which was converted to a suite of individual apartments in the 1930s.
The Tigerlily label founder moved out of the apartment early last year having married photographer Nick Tsindos.
It then became a $1,600 a week rental when the couple headed to a Paddington terrace which Meares sold last month for around $2.5 million.
She co-owned the two bedroom Underwood Street property with her mother Denise Macpherson having bought the two-storey, Victorian-style terrace for $900,000 in 2004.
It was reported Meares, who is mostly Hawaii based, and Nick split earlier in the year.
The former model married casino mogul James Packer in a lavish wedding in 1999 at the Packer family’s compound Cairnton in Bellevue Hill at which Elton John sang.
Soon after the Packer marriage secured a St Thomas Street Bronte home for her mother at a $2.4 million cost in 2000.
The Bronte home was offloaded for $3.41 million in 2003.
This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.