Baby photographer Anne Geddes' Potts Point bundle of joy on the market: Title Tattle
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The internationally renowned photographer Anne Geddes, famous for her portraits of babies often in cabbage patches, and her husband, Kel, have listed their impressive Potts Point apartment. It’s in the Alex Popov-designed block Grantham, which has front-row views of Woolloomooloo Bay, Sydney Harbour and the Bridge, Opera House and CBD skyline. It’s been listed through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay presumably with $7 million or so expectations. There are just the eight whole-floor apartments in the 2010 completed Halcyon Group development. Each apartment occupies a whole floor and comprises three bedrooms and three bathrooms, two ensuite. There are two car spaces for each of the apartments, plus generous storage areas. The SJB Interiors introduced a mix of natural stone, bronze and timber.
The Priory, the monastic Neutral Bay harbourfront estate listed with $10 million-plus hopes, has been sold. The sale price accepted by retired United Artists executive turned property developer Ken Stevens and his wife, Judit, has not been revealed by the listing agents Christie's agent Ken Jacobs and LJ Hooker Mosman's Richard Harding. It last traded in 2001 for $4.35 million when bought from the former Worldschool director-turned-property-investor Ashley Owen and wife Julie, who had paid $2.8 million in 2000. The 1906 Federation residence on a 914-square-metre block comes with a waterfrontage of 32 metres – deemed as one of the widest available on the lower north shore. It’s no doubt been bought by boating enthusiasts, as the Shellcove Road property's facilities include a mooring pen, a large L-shaped jetty, an iron slipway and a boat shed with a home office above it. In 1926, when The Priory was owned by a religious order, a chapel was added. It’s now the dining room with vaulted ceilings, cedar panelling and an impressive sandstone fireplace. The four-bedroom house near Kurraba Point wharf comes with a self-contained guest apartment. There's talk its been sold at $8 million plus to a Mosman buyer.
The Ingham family has sold its long-held apartment (pictured above) in The Connaught, a high-rise residential tower opposite Hyde Park in the city. McGrath agents Ben Forsyth and Ben Collier had $2.6 million hopes for the 24th floor three-bedroom apartment with a 17-metre balcony. Title Tattle recalls it last traded for $505,000 in 1984, the year the Liverpool Street building was completed. When the 239 apartments came onto a depressed market in the early 1980s, they were initially slow sellers and prices realised were quite low.
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The hapless debt-laden Sydney socialite property developer Gary Baker has lost his latest attempt to escape bankruptcy. The Federal Court rejected his appeal that the April 2011 bankruptcy should be overturned because two lenders – Perpetual and Challenger – had misled him and sold his trophy properties off too cheaply. The overly ambitious developer – best known for white zinc on his smiling lips while driving a 1957 Ford Thunderbird around Sydney’s eastern suburbs – particularly blamed a sky-high $5,595,000 apartment valuation given in 2007 for misleading him into thinking his prestige property empire was worth more than even he’d concluded. Baker’s case on appeal was based on his unchallenged evidence that but for the misleading valuation, he’d have offloaded a Bellevue Hill triplex apartment (pictured above) when offered $4.25 million in early 2008 rather than forlornly await offers closer to the $5,595,000 refinancing valuation. But the Bellevue Hill apartment eventually yielded only $3,001,000 at a mortgagee 2010 sale to antiquarian booksellers – with Baker arguing that part of the $1,249,000 difference would have been sufficient for him to have avoided his financiers bankruptcy attempts in an outstanding damages claim. Baker has declared that he is living "at no fixed address (living with family and friends)''. News.com.au says his sequestration paperwork lists his main creditor as his wife, Karin Upton Baker, being owed $5.1 million. Title Tattle understands the couple's former abode, the unsold Elizabeth Bay penthouse is now occupied by renters, including Sydney nightclub owner James Miller.
Warringa, the 1880s McMahons Point residence (pictured above), has been sold by the Marshman family, who've bought the Surry Hills warehouse sold by Neville and Beryl Miles. Warringa had $5 million-plus hopes after failing to selling at its auction last month. The four-bedroom Mitchell Street house last sold at $2.4 million in 2000. The warehouse cost $5.71 million when bought at auction through McGrath agent Ben Collier in conjunction with Shannon Whitney at BresicWhitney.
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One of East Melbourne’s most elegant terraces houses (pictured above) dating back to the early 1860s remains listed for sale after failing to sell at its May auction. The Gipps Street terrace, currently home to Delwyn Freestone’s Chrysalis Gallery, comes with a striking all-white Classical Italianate Revival façade, the work of renovations in the 1880s by architects Terry and Oakden. It sold at $920,000 in 1999. Around $4.5 million was expected by Rob Vickers-Willis at Abercromby's Real Estate. Chrysalis Gallery will continue to open during the sale of 179 Gipps Street. The gallery will relocate at a date to be confirmed.
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Sanctuary Cove has a new record-setter mansion (pictured above). The Anchorage Terrace mansion, which came with adjusted $13.75 million price hopes on its April listing through Ray White Sovereign Islands agent Ali Mian, has reputedly been sold for around $12 million. It’s 1,000-square-metre mansion with a 43-metre river frontage. The house has symmetrical designer interiors, from its grand double-wing staircase entrance to its heated pool. It has hallways reflecting the strong black-and-white palette of the French fashion house Chanel, the latest home technology system, plus tepanyaki bar, home cinema and Swarovski crystal chandeliers. The land was consolidated by tourism entrepreneur Chris Scott, who bought two neighbouring houses, and finished off by UK-based businessman John Baines and his wife, Elizabeth. They paid $4.3 million in 2009 for the shell of a home on its 2,836-square-metre holding, which then had a Greg Reid-designed house built by Thomas Hughes Construction. The Baines have previously sought $17.5 million for the property on earlier listings. The prior Sanctuary Cove record was $7.22 million on Bayview Terrace.
Freemantle Football Club player Adam McPhee and his wife, Bree, didn’t sell their former Port Melbourne home at auction last weekend through RT Edgar agent Gerald Betts. The renovated traditional Victorian terrace was bought when the then Essendon player paid $885,000 when he moved from Ascot Vale in 2007. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms plus secure car parking. There’s a rooftop terrace with views over the beach to Port Philip Bay. It went into the rental pool at $1,650 a week after his move west. The couple were hoping for around $2 million for the Beaconsfield Parade property.
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And hasn't Academy Award-nominated actor Toni Collette been in our faces this week with the CBA can/can't ad campaign. Of course Title Tattle has been following her many property plays of late and next week her property settlement legal proceedings will be back in the Supreme Court list. Title Tattle revealed the likely quantum of the claim for non-performance of her once intended Paddington terrace. Collette and her musician husband, David Galafassi were set to pay $6.35 million for the Stewart Street house, which resold this week for about $5.5 million through McGrath agent Ben Collier. It's not known what defence the entertainment industry couple will mount to explain their alleged contractual non-performance. The new owner of the Paddington terrace is Ian Ball, the Ernst and Young accountant and chief executive officer of the International Federation of Accountants. And hats off to the Sydney Confidential sub-editors and advertising reps at the Daily Telegraph for their co-ordination!
