Sydney's number one penthouse hits the market through John McGrath
Estate agent John McGrath has returned to selling homes, having stepped down from the day-to-day administration of his ASX-listed estate agency.
He has put his name and phone number to the marketing of the abode billed as Sydney’s No.1 address — the apartment on the tip of the top floor of 1 Macquarie St’s Bennelong.
The apartment, long owned by the Moran family of Moran Health Care, has been listed by the Trinity Point, Lake Macquarie property developer, Keith Johnson.
It was this time last year when Johnson first endeavoured to find a buyer. He and partner Natalie Habib have gutted the 380 sqm 12th floor space along with commissioning an approved design (above) by architect Koichi Takada. They have been through several agents and are now engaging McGrath and his sidekick Craig Donohue.
“We can’t sell you the Opera House, but we can sell you the closest thing to it,” their marketing in the Wentworth Courier says. No details have emerged as to its pricing, but there is no doubting its potential having set prior records.
The per square metre price record stands at $96,000 a square metre when $27 million was paid off-the-plan in the nearby Opera Residences by the former chief of Tenix, Robert Salteri and his wife Kelly. The top price sits at Crown Resorts’ $60 million sale to James Packer in One Barangaroo.
John McGrath’s last marketing listing was an apartment in The Ritz in Cremorne Point in 2008 at $29 million.
“I am starting to enjoy the feel of the business again,” McGrath said last month. “Despite the fact that it’s been annus horribilis for us, no doubt, we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel,” he told shareholders who have witnessed the share price drop from $2.10 on floating in 2015 to around 30c.
McGrath’s biggest sale ever was the Point Piper house, nicknamed the Bang and Olufsen house, in 1990 for $11.25 million. It was in conjunction with the veteran Bart Doff who recently secured the $58 million Rona, Bellevue Hill sale. McGrath also continues to train young estate agents.