Chip off The Block as producer lists own home: Title Tattle
The brains behind The Block 2011 triumph, television series producer Julian Cress and his publicist partner, Sarah Armstrong, are on the move themselves just weeks before they dive back into The Block 2012. Their Newtown abode (pictured above) has been listed with $1 million-plus hopes. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom Church Street property comes with contemporary living space. The three-level Torrens titled residence is within strolling distance to village cafés, Newtown dining, Camperdown Park and public transport options. It comes with lock-up garage. Charles Bailey at Ray White Inner West has it listed for October 8 auction.
Without a doubt, Merlyn (pictured above), the beautifully restored Victorian Italianate mansion, is the standout home on York Road, Queens Park. The 1880s landmark family home that faces the vast leafy acreage of Sydney's Centennial Park recently fetched $3.6 million. It has been creatively transformed for modern family living while maintaining its soaring pressed metal ceilings, polished timber floors, and six marble fireplaces. It comes with rooftop observatory. It had been listed for auction through Laing & Simmons Double Bay agent Andrew Hennessy by the Aroney family. It last traded in 2001 at $2.15 million, when the adman Geoff Dixon sold through agents Di Grundy and Michael Dunn. It had previously been traded for $900,000 in 1995.
Event promoter Andrew McManus is still holding out for $13 million for his Toorak mansion (pictured above), which didn’t sell at its August 11 auction. The house last sold in 2008 mid-construction for $8.75 million now has six bedrooms and six bathrooms, plus a 12-car garage. There’s also a study, gym, home theatre, billiards room and cabana and pool on its 1,389-square-metre block. Its rear yard was unmowed at the end of its auction campaign, which attendees put down to it being a revival of the '80s trend of mondo grass. Bennison Mackinnon Armadale's Nathan Waterson is marketing the Myoora Road property in conjunction with Marshall White.
McManus has blamed the Taxation Office for the collapse of one of his touring companies, which went into liquidation last month owing more than $4.2 million. Corporate records show the ATO is owed more than $1.1 million by Andrew McManus Presents (International), making it the company's biggest creditor. ''They just keep sending massive bills and it's cheaper for me to do it this way than try and fight them in court,'' McManus told The Age this week. McManus said coming tours by artists including Stevie Nicks, Mötley Crüe and Joan Collins would not be affected as they were promoted by a different company, McManus Entertainment.
Nick Foskett , the founder of the venture capital firm SA Angels, and his wife, Cate, have $3.5 million hopes for their home in Adelaide’s inner north. The St Peters property (pictured above), with parkland views, was designed by architect Max Pritchard. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom house has been listed through Klemich Real Estate agents Judy Morris and Penny Riggs. It comes with nine-seat (raked) home theatre. Offers close September 28.
Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens –so the word from Castle Cove on Sydney’s Middle Harbour is that one of its finest homes (pictured above) has been sold for more than $6 million. The Neerim Road property was sold to a mainland Chinese buyer on behalf of its Hong Kong-based expatriate owner. It sold through Adam Ross and Shayne Harris of Savills Residential, in conjunction with Raine & Horne World Square, for $6.006 million. The landmark Castle Cove mansion was built in the late 1990s and last sold in 2003 for $4.55 million. Positioned on 2549 square metres of elevated ridgetop land, the five-bedroom home comes with a marble-clad foyer with domed skylight. It had been marketed with $8 million hopes through Leonarder Collins Luxury Homes earlier this year. It had also been available for rent at $4000 a week.
And don’t say Title Tattle told you, but John Schaeffer, the well-known Sydney art collector and former cleaning contractor company founder, has taken an option on a neighbouring Point Piper penthouse. He paid $4.03 million in August 2009 for his half of the top of the residential tower. Apparently he wants to consolidate it with his own apartment and create a space that does justice to his art collection. Schaeffer has taken a call option over the long-held Pozniak family owned apartment after recently paying a $10 call option fee. His current holding is 224 square metres, and if the sale proceeds it will add another 217 square metres.
