Beachside Brighton luxury mansion sellers seeking bright spots: Title Tattle

Beachside Brighton luxury mansion sellers seeking bright spots: Title Tattle
Jonathan ChancellorOctober 18, 2012

Seek chairman Bob Watson is selling his Brighton near beachfront house (pictured above) with $8 million-plus hopes. The Spanish-inspired property has a pool and tennis court directly opposite Dendy Beach. It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a study and a library. It's been scheduled for November 1 auction through Barb Gregory of Marshall White in conjunction with J P Dixon Real Estate. It was bought by Bob and his wife, Lynette, for $5.2 million in 2001 from Peter and Kim McQueen, who Title Tattle seems to recall subsequently re-settled in Surfers Paradise.

Stewart Lopez of Kay & Burton Brighton has listed the substantial Brighton property (pictured above), which once belonged to the Buxton family. They're still an influential name in the real estate industry for the last 100 years. The Bay Street property has always been referred to as the Buxton family home, even 40 years after their departure. Kay & Burton’s executive chairman, Gerald Delany, remembers attending a lot of family parties at the property positioned on the corner of Selwyn and Bay streets. At 2,949 square metres, it's one of the largest landholdings for years. With magnificent bluestone foundations,  the house has 14 rooms featuring period detailing beneath towering ceilings. It has wainscoting, window seats and diamond leadlight windows and four chandeliers. The expectations are $5.5 million plus when offers close November 12. 

 


The former chairman of Shell Australia Russell Caplan is selling his architect-designed Brighton residence (pictured above). The Dendy Street four-bedroom, four-bathroom home has a price guide of $2.8 million plus. It apparently comes with from vast expanses of Arabian-honed travertine tiling both indoors and out. The Caplans moved into the property in early 2006 on its completion. Designed by TS2, the Manor on Dendy townhouse sits on the corner of Manor and Dendy streets.  There's high ceilings and indoor-outdoor entertaining with a pool, spa, sauna, home cinema and a rooftop terrace. It comes with a self-contained guest suite.  Caplan retired in 2010 as the chairman of Shell Australia after being appointed the position in 2006. He worked for Shell for 42 years. Offers are due October 29 through Nicole Gleeson from Kay and Burton South Yarra. It was bought by Eva Caplan from the Summerfield family for $3.1 million.

A 1920s period home on Downes Avenue (pictured above) sold in a very competitive Marshall White auction that elicited 74 bids from four separate bidders to achieve $3.6 million – a price that was $525,000 above reserve. It was sold by the Price  family. The house was set on an 844-square-metre block next to Kamesburgh Gardens. It came with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a large study and three living zones. James Buyer Advocates described at as the best home in the street.

What's been described as the pinnacle of  beachfront indulgence, an Alimar Court residence (pictured above) has been listed for sale. It's been listed by the Catalfamo family through Barb Gregory at Marshall White.

More than $1.9 million is expected at the November 10 auction of the Brighton home of Tim Bamford, the executive director of Major Projects Victoria. After three years, Bamford has decided to sell his sophisticated two-storey residence designed around two central courtyards. There's also a wrap-around self-cleaning salt chlorinated pool.  A Brighton lover, Bamford is down scaling in the area after selling  Whyte Street through Justin Follett at Kay & Burton.

The retail and mining mogul Ian Gandel is still seeking buyers for his Brighton home with Jack Merlo-designed gardens (pictured above), which was listed in August with $6.8 million hopes. Ian is the son of billionaire John Gandel. It's been listed through Kay & Burton agent Stewart Lopez. It was bought by Ian Gandel's wife, Linda, for $5.65 million in 2009. Designed by Nick McKimm, the four-bedroom three-level Cosham Street home with lift comes with impressive seven-car basement garage with turntable.

Monash University professor and shoulder and elbow orthopaedic surgeon Simon Bell and his wife, Jennifer, are selling Greystones, their Arts and Craft-style Brighton home, with a price guide of $7.3 million plus. Located on Park Street amid established English gardens, the 1914 house sits on 2,219 square metres. The house comes with six bedrooms and five bathrooms. It's been home to the Bells for the past 20 years. The house comes with a large cellar, sauna, studio with a gymnasium and a rooftop retreat that offers views across the bay to the city skyline. After living there for 20 years, the Bells are downsizing. Greystones has been listed through Ian Jackson from Kay & Burton Brighton with expressions of interest closing October 30.

The 1885 mansion, Kilkerran mansion, the big Brighton possible offering remains unconfirmed, although the prominent buyers' agent David Morrell recently sold The Herald Sun that retired cricketer Shane Warne's house had been for sale on the quiet "for some time, but without any nibbles". The suggestion Warne might be a seller followed his now-confirmed purchase with Liz Hurley of Donnington Hall, the $9.2 million 13 room Georgian estate on the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire border. The Age's Suzanne Carbone has optimistically put the probable Brighton price as up to $20 million, giving him a tidy profit from the $8.55 million he bought it for three years ago, albeit after undertaking extensive renovations. Warne's purchase involved $7.55 million for the house plus $1 million for the adjacent holding when it was bought from Bruce and Elisabeth Garrett. The property, which is far from the beach, would set new price record in the bayside suburb if the late Victorian Italianate home sells for more than $15.6 million. Brighton is the most expensive suburb in Melbourne for house and unit prices, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria. The median house price in Brighton is $1.64 million, up 6.8% in the 2012 September quarter.

An earlier version incorrectly attributed Brighton property ownership to an unrelated Price entity. 

 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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