Admen close the deal on $8 million Sydney Harbour property: Title Tattle

Robert Morgan, the chairman of Clemenger Communications whose career was made marketing Campbell’s soups, and his wife, Vanessa, have spent $8 million to buy on Sydney Harbour. Their Point Piper acquisition was bought from Pierce Cody, the entrepreneurial adman who went onto establish and sell Macro Wholefoods, and his wife, Toni. With views across the Royal Motor Yacht Club, it last traded in 1997 for $3,262,500. It sold through Alain Waitsman of McGrath and the LJ Hooker Double Bay agent Bill Malouf.

The Morgans have yet to sell their four-bedroom Woollahra hillside residence, Attunga Lodge (pictured), which has $6 million-plus hopes through Michael Pallier from Raine & Horne Double Bay. The five-bedroom 1868 house has been refurbished since it was bought for $5.06 million in 2007 from Mark Chiba from Asia-Pacific advisory outfit the Longreach Group. Attunga Lodge underwent its major late 1980s refurbishment by developer Bill Shipton, who put in the two-storey addition around the original 19th-century home after it was bought from investment banker Paul Espie for $800,000 in 1988.

Morgan moved to Sydney from Clemenger's Melbourne office after Greg Daniel stepped down in the late 1990s. Australasia's largest marketing services company, Clemenger Group, voted in early 2011 in favour of a $150 million takeover by the New York-based Omnicom. The 469 local shareholders in the unlisted public company approved the bid, with the directors and staff selling half their shares at $6.43 a share, a 70 %-plus premium on the valuation of $3.75, calculated in November 2010 by Ernst & Young.

 

 

Sticking to the wealthiest waterfront peninsula, architect Harold Finger's four-bedroom Point Piper harbourfront house has been sold through LJ Hooker agent Bill Malouf and Ray White agent Michael Finger. The Wunulla Road house, with Annie Wilkes gardens, was initially expected to fetch more than $14 million on its September 2010 listing, but it has ended up selling for just under $10 million.

The house, with a jetty and pool (pictured), previously was bought from bookie John Muir in the early 1990s. No names yet on the latest owner, but they are pretty cashed-up. The same family apparently gave thought to buying Altona, the nearby $50 million-plus listing. And presumably to the other half-dozen waterfronts for sale, including Deauville, which has been listed for sale by the Darling Point-bound property investor George Snow and his wife, Sabrina, who are off to a luxury apartment with a marina. Deauville remains for sale through Ben Collier and James Dack at McGrath, in conjunction with Bart Doff of Laing+Simmons Double Bay.

Albeit not on the water, the freshest Point Piper listing comes from the Double Bay-bound stockbroker John Bowie Wilson and his wife, Sally, who have entrusted the Wyuna Road listing with Brad Pillinger from Pillinger Real Estate.

 

 

The climate change actor activist Michael Caton, star of The Castle and sage of the TV reality show Hot Property, and his wife, Helen, have their Bondi apartment listed for June 23 auction. Caton, who also stars in Packed to the Rafters, has owned in Bondi since 1984, when the couple paid $57,000. But the listing is an apartment that was bought on Sir Thomas Mitchell Road in 2000 for $400,000.

It a top-floor two-bedroom unit that comes with study, deck and 46 square metres of floor space in the block of four known as Sunnyhurst. Sandy Kogan at Richardson & Wrench Bondi Junction expects more than $900,000. After the sale the Catons are tipped to upgrade in the locality.

 

 

Still on The Castle, property investor Richard Moseley’s Bonnie Doon holiday shack near Lake Eildon in Victoria was featured in the comedy as the serene holiday home of the Kerrigans. Moseley proudly secured the property for $169,950 in 2006 and has wanted to sell the two bedder 115 kilometres from Melbourne since early 2011, when it was initially listed at $195,000.

After a bit of salutatory feedback, the price eased to $188,000. And now it’s got a $182,000 asking price, making the gap between purchase and possible resale just $12,050. Moseley, a Sydney telecommunications technician bought it sight unseen – other than of course having viewed the movie. Dean Shipley and Andrew Houghton at RT Edgar Yarra Valley have the listing, which is a popular rental.

 

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The Mount Hotham ski retreat of former Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson remains unsold. The ski-in, ski-out four-bedroom chalet on Twirligig comes with a $795,000 asking price through RT Edgar Alpine.

RT Edgar’s Robin Ford says the property is consistently rented and provides excellent returns year after year. But its asking price has slipped from $945,000 on its initial winter 2010 listing.

 

 

Just Jeans founders Craig Kimberley and his wife, Connie, have $10 million-plus hopes for Kalimna, their hilltop Port Douglas retreat. The far north Queensland property was designed by Christine Vadasz with nine pavilions. It is listed through Coldwell Banker agent Chris Buse without any internet marketing. It’s the friends who no doubt miss it the most, as the Kimberleys have been remarkably generous with the key.

 

 

All eyes turned to the Ginahgulla Road, Bellevue Hill hillside this week following news that businessman Michael Darling had spent $14 million on a luxury condominium site at North Bondi. But his current trophy home isn’t likely to hit the market for some years yet. The oceanfront Ramsgate Avenue redevelopment project to be undertaken by his son-in-law architect Nick Tobias will surely take until almost 2013 for completion.

The chairman of Caledonia Investments and his wife, Manuela Darling-Gansser, have resided in colonial Georgian revival grandeur since paying $8.24 million in 1991 when the property was bought from merchant banker James Yonge through Double Bay agent Jane Ashton. It had been built in 1935 to a Hardy Wilson design for Jean Flynn, the grand-niece of George Adams, the Tattersall’s Sweepstake founder.

The couple’s North Bondi acquisition was bought from the retired IT entrepreneur Neill Miller through Raine & Horne agents Martin Maskin and Mary Anne Cronin. Set on the rock shelf known as Mermaid Rocks, the building now comprises 10 apartments that Miller consolidated at a cost of $14 million between 2006 and 2008. 

 

 

The Woollahra home of the serviced apartment pioneer and property developer Robert Palmer and his wife, Inge, has been sold for about $10.7 million. Palmer last made headlines when he sold the Oakford All-Suite hotel chain to Singaporean buyers in 2002. The Tuscan-inspired residence was bought by the then Melbourne-based couple for $4 million in 1996. Its extensive renovations have included a commercial-size kitchen, plus a sunroom and gazebo.

The five-bedroom house, with three ensuite bathrooms, comes with tennis court and pool on a 1,140-square-metre block. For a short time it was the Sydney rental of actors Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness. The whispers are it has been bought by estate agent James Dack and his wife, Mary Cowin.

 

 

Chris  Kyriakou and his wife, Phoebe Baker, who must vacate their Point Piper rental later this year given the house has been sold, have bought in Woollahra from the Ryan publican family for about $8 million through Ben Collier and Hamish Robertson at McGrath.

Their current rental is the townhouse-style three-bedroom house sold by the richest MP in Federal Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull, and his wife, Lucy. Their investment property, designed by Michael Suttor and completed in 2003, sits adjacent to the Turnbull’s $50 million-plus harbourfront residence. The townhouse-style three-bedroom house has been bought by Ben and Tiffany Tilley.

 

 

The silly property distraction of the week came from Women’s Day suggesting that the novelist J.K. Rowling had spent $10 million in Tasmania. It was Ingleby, the Denmark-based worldwide group headed by Hans Henrik Koefoed, that was actual buyer of the $10 million pastoral farm Symmons Plains. It was sold by the Youl family, who had resided at the property since the 1820s.

It sold through Harcourts Rural agent Michael Warren. Title Tattle recalls that similar rumours spread when Ingleby bought the 1838 Bridport property Bowood, for $7.75 million in 2005.

 

 

Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens – so the word from Western Australia is of a $13.25 million house sale – Perth’s dearest sale for about two years. It is understood to be in Applecross, and the sale betters the suburb’s $11.75 million record set in 2008 through the repeat record-setting agent William Porteous.

And don’t say that Title Tattle told you, but apparently the Paspaley pearl family have spent $9.45 million in Bellevue Hill.