Bob Hawke sells Northbridge home
The five storey longtime Northbridge home of the former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke and his wife Blanche d’Alpuget has been sold reportedly for around $15 million.
Hawke and his then wife Hazel paid $1.23 million for the three bedroom knockdown house overlooking Sugarloaf Bay in 1991, just seven months before he lost the prime ministership to Paul Keating who suggested at the time it signalled Hawke was preparing to move on from the top job.
During construction on the 960 sqm block, the Hawkes stayed at Birchgrove in the townhouse of adman John Singleton and then lived at the then Ritz Carlton Hotel in Double Bay.
It was completed in late 1993.
In 2013 Australia’s longest-serving Labor Prime Minister secured Willoughby Council approval for his plans for a rooftop pergola, decking and synthetic turf entertaining area able to be used as a putting green.
After their marriage ended the property was kept by Bob Hawke and transferred in Blanche’s name in 1999.
No estate agent has yet taken credit for the sale - or its reported price by Domain - which ranks as the third highest in Northbridge, behind a $21 million top sale from 2017.
Selling agent Chris Downie of Richardson & Wrench Northbridge declined to comment on the sale.
The house set on the north shore’s Middle Harbour was constructed on a bushy block with views from one of the suburb’s best streets.
The original modest three-bedroom brick house came with jetty, sandy beach and harbour pool.
Hawke and his then wife, Hazel had sold their 1940s Melbourne home in Sandringham in 1986 for $430,000, three years after the family moved to The Lodge in 1983.
Hawke, Australia’s 24th Prime Minister, was born in South Australia’s Bordertown in 1929 and lived there until 1935.
The downsizing couple secured their whisper quiet off market sale with plans to soon relocate to an apartment overlooking Hyde Park in the Sydney CBD. Hawke, who turned 89 last December, has said his health has been “terrible.”
They are believed to have bought in the One30 Hyde Park development where off the plan settlements are due in coming weeks.
The couple borrowed $4.25 million using the Minibah Road Northbridge home as collateral for the financing of the switch.
The 38-storey tower has been developed by Hong Kong-listed developer Aoyuan Property Group in a joint venture with Ecove, the developer behind the controversial Opal Tower building at Olympic Park.
Developer Aoyuan International subsequently sought assurances of quality of the build at One30 Hyde Park at 130 Elizabeth Street.
Prices in the luxury development started for two-bedroom apartments from $2.1 million and three-bedrooms starting at $3.1 million.
News of the move comes shortly before d’Alpuget’s next book, The Lions’ Torment is published, which her agent described as “Game of Thrones meets Hilary Mantel”.
This article was first published in the Daily Telegraph.