Former Virgin exec Ian Duffell buys into Bondi development: Title Tattle
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Lynwood Farm (pictured above), the charming three-storey timber house with widow’s walk set on 5.8 hectares at Robertson, has been listed for sale by Peter and Janie Marshall. For more than 100 years, the NSW Southern Highlands property was a dairy farm set among stands of remnant rainforest. It comes with a terraced garden of drystone walls, an apple walk and peony garden, spring water, bore, three tanks, citrus orchard, Hornbeam hedge and a paddock for stock. The grounds also have an original one-bedroom cottage plus separate guest accommodation above the double garage.
The interiors include wide oak floor boards from England and a Chinese Chippendale timber staircase, all overseen by Janie Marshall, who for a long time until she eased herself to her Highlands lifestyle, was the favoured decorator of well-heeled hecticly demanding Sydneysiders who wanted their soft, rather 1950s English glamour interiors, given she trained at the Inchbald school in London. Title Tattle seems to recall she did Altona’s interiors along with Thomas Hamel for the Handburys. Given the climate in the Southern Highlands, Lynwood comes with double glazed windows, hydronic central heating and open and gas fires. Its listing agents Michael Maloney at Richardson and Wrench Bowral and Drew Lindsay of Drew Lindsay Real Estate are seeking $5.3 million.
For buyers seeking to run a bigger farm, Richardson & Wrench agent Philip Dwyer has an adjoining 40 hectares on Vandenberg Road for sale with another vendor at $1.69 million.
Benacre, a 1870s bluestone Adelaide mansion (pictured above), has been listed by wine industry entrepreneur Rory O’Neill and his wife, Cathryn. O’Neill is director of the wine label Australian Domaine Wines. It was built for Henry Scott, the Adelaide mayor and his wife, Emily Gooch, who named it after her ancestral home in Suffolk. After its last major subdivision in the early 1970s, the two-storey house sits on a 6,600-square-metre block at Glen Osmond. The five-bedroom, four-bathroom heritage-listed Victorian Italianate mansion has grand formal rooms with marble details, parquetry floors and hand-painted friezes. There’s a modern extension plus gourmet kitchen that opens to the saltwater pool. The Toop and Toop listing agent Lew Toop has been advising buyers that they were hoping for close to $6 million.
Ian Duffell, the former Virgin Entertainment executive, has spent $2.7 million to buy into Investec’s The Beach House development on Campbell Parade Bondi. Ranging from 65 square metres to 250 square metres, the initial mid-2009 off-the-plan sales in The Beach House (pictured above) started at $740,000 for one-bedders. The project was overseen by architect Brian Meyerson, with interiors by Burley Katon Halliday, after the specialist banking group secured the site from publican Cyril Maloney for $41 million in 2007. The Beach House is a four- to five-level, 40-apartment building next to Hotel Bondi, with a retail and cafe precinct that's been recently finished. The nearby Swiss-Grand Hotel is soon to begin the marketing that accompanies its much-anticipated $100 million conversion into 95 apartments, along with hotel rooms and retail by developers Allen Linz and Eduard Litver.
Alcatel’s former South Asia Pacific president Ron Spithill, and his wife, Patricia, have listed their north-facing Cammeray waterfront house (pictured above). The modern Cowdroy Avenue house sits on a 472-square-metre block with jetty and deep-water marina berth. The house cost $2.4 million when newly completed in 1999. It’s listed through John Conroy at Century 21 Resnekov for March 8 auction. Ron has an extensive background in the telecommunications industry and is a former president of the Telecommunications Industry Association of Australia. He joined Alcatel in 1962 when it was called ITT and was with the company until his 2005 retirement. The couple spend much of their time in Europe with regular trips to New Zealand, where he’s on the board of Telecom NZ.
Former Hawthorn premiership player, the Toyota car dealer Bruce Stevenson and his wife, Julia, are selling their Portsea property (pictured above). The Tasmania-based couple are seeking $2.8 million plus through Kay and Burton agent Linda Boulter. The four-bedroom Wyuna Court house has a tennis court, a pool and a gym. The outdoor entertaining area includes a wood-fired pizza oven. The Portsea property was bought from Michael and Deborah Cook in 2005 for $1.37 million. Offers are due February 24. Stevenson was in the 1971 Hawthorn team that beat St Kilda by seven points.
The Paspaley family, who bought in Bellevue last year for $9.4 million, have listed their redundant sandstone Woollahra cottage (pictured above and below). It last traded for a bullish $3.87 million in 2005. Di Jones agent Kim Jones has the Georgian sandstone Moncur Street listing for February 21 auction.
Of course it’s her former family home, given Kim’s parents, the prominent late 1980s estate agents Bill and Di, owned it between 1990 and 1999. They paid $595,000 and sold for $2.3 million. Title Tattle gathers Bill and Di have secured new digs themselves, buying in The Residence, the College Street residential tower overlooking Hyde Park. Their $3.9 million apartment purchase was actually among the first off-the-plan purchases, in the block according to RP Data.
The award-winning photographer Sean Izzard and his wife, architect Amanda, have listed their contemporary Stanwell Park residence (pictured above) for March 3 auction. It’s listed through Amanda Moore and Vanessa Denison-Pender at McGrath Thirroul with $1.3 million-plus hopes. It takes in views of the ocean and Bald Hill escarpment. The architecturally designed home is set in landscaped tropical gardens on a 550-square-metre block, which cost $425,000 in 2001. The Izzards' house was built about six years ago to a design by Amanda. Closer to the ocean, businessman Peter Holmes a Court's clifftop home reputedly sold to Phil Staub, the executive chairman of General Pants, a retail group which owns Surf, Dive and Ski, Jetty Surf and Billabong, just days before Christmas for $1.9 million.
The sales were small beer, rather than champagne cork popping, at the Gold Coast auctions during January. At Sanctuary Cove, the four-bedroom house of Ted Kunkel (pictured above), the former Fosters boss turned Billabong chairman, sold before last weekend's big Ray White auction for an undisclosed figure. Set on Bay Hill Terrace, the expansive house was built after the 804-square-metre lakefront reserve block had cost $500,000 in 2002 when bought from Mulpha. It comes with a Florida room with conservatory-style pool overlooking the sixth, seventh and eighth holes of the Palms Golf Course.
The boss of Freemantle Media Ian Hogg has spent $5.7 million in Mosman. It was previously the abode of the chairman of the Commonwealth Bank, David TURNER, and his wife, Julia, who have upgraded Mosman abodes, without the bother of finding finance for the new home. The Turners then spent exactly $10 million on their unencumbered beachfront reserve house. It was bought from the Royal Bank of Scotland's head of Australian equities operations, Randolf Clinton.
Seadream47 (pictured above), the double-storey Mt Martha residence with 180-degree coastal views from Red Hill to Portsea, is under offer. Expected to fetch more than $3 million, it features five bedrooms, four bathrooms, formal and informal spilt-level living areas, plus home office, gym, spa and infinity pool. It been home of the structural engineer Harry Lambis since he designed it about six years. It was listed by Kay and Burton agents Rob Curtain and John Couper.
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Title Tattle aims to tell you first – often before it happens – so stand by for the listing of Headingley House (pictured above), the Woollahra home of John Spender. It was his diplomat father, Sir Percy Spender, who bought it from the Kater pastoralist family in 1949 for £11,676. Little wonder John Spender has been most ponderous in whether to let go of the house. Of course two years ago Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer were allowed through Headingley House when Spender first thought he might get something like $18 million.
And don't say that Title Tattle told you, but the Sydney accountant to the stars Anthony Bell has been quietly seeking out buyer feedback on the two Bondi Beach penthouses he's keen to sell. Bell, and his wife, television presenter Kelly Landry, are keen to buy a luxury eastern suburbs house – more so since the birth of their baby daughter, Charlize, five months ago.
