Global ethical investor Peter Hall decides to stay in London and lists Double Bay's historic Customs House: Title Tattle
Peter Hall, from Hunter Hall, has decided he’s staying in London for the time being, and won’t take up residence in his 1860 Customs House, Double Bay purchase (pictured above). It cost him $5.65 million when it was bought in 2010 from the director of Trent Nathan, Shane Barr, and his wife, Catherine, who had paid $2.1 million in 1998. No doubt the savvy but realistic investor has told Ray White Double Bay agent Ashley Bierman to get as close as possible to the 2010 purchase price at its December 5 auction, and Hall would then content himself with some successful currency play. Hall, the chairman of an Australian investment management company, is part-owner of Prospect and Monocle magazines. He was once a cadet journalist with The Canberra Times. It seems his family have decided it's not quite the right time to return to Australia.
Buyers' agent David Morrell isn’t saying. But he’s behind the $12 million plus purchase of Toorak’s latest pricey deal. Set on over 1 ,858 square metres, the Georgian- inspired Michael Munckton classic (pictured above) sits in gardens, designed by John Patrick and Andre Girjoff from the Perennial Garden. The four-bedroom house with traditional period details comes with cellar, pool and spa, large underground water-tank, and five car garage. It was sold by Stephen and Kate Shelmerdine. He’s the grandson of Sidney Myer and the former president of the Wine Makers' Federation of Australia. The listing agent was Michael Gibson at Kay and Burton. Title Tattle well recalls it $3.475 million sale in 1999 after an earlier offer on the home fell through at the last minute. It initial 1999 buyer had identified himself as Rafael Certi Meritt. But the deal fell through when Interpol swooped on Carlos Cabal Peniche, the fugitive Mexican banker wanted over a $2 billion fraud. Long known as Heathfield, the property stands on part of a larger estate once owned by the Baillieu and Murdoch families.
Author Brendan Gullifer and wife Robyn, a stylist, are selling their two-bedroom Smeaton cottage (pictured above) just outside of Daylesford in Victoria. Gullifer is well known among estate agents having written the 2009 published novel SOLD, which lifted the lid on life in a Melbourne estate agency. Apparently it’s been optioned for television by Cabbage Films, the team behind Wilfred (SBS) and Lowdown (ABC Television.) His current writing project, a novel about a move to the country, has just been signed up by Melbourne publishers Sleepers. “People keep asking me if it’s set here in Smeaton, but they will have to wait until the book comes out to find out,” Gullifer tells Title Tattle. Robyn has worked at Lyn Gardener’s Empire Vintage in Albert Park and has helped manage The White House in Daylesford. The restored two-bedroom cottage is set in half an acre of flower beds, lawns and fruit trees. The property used to be a permaculture farm, so the soil is amazing. The couple is moving to Sydney to be closer to family. The two-bedroom Calder Street cottage is for sale through Hocking Stuart Daylesford agent Glenda Rozen with $370,000 hopes.
At Darling Point, the Retford Hall penthouse (pictured above) of the late arts philanthropist Mollie Gowing was passed in without bid at its recent auction through Peter Blacket of Blacket and Glasgow. Occupying the entire 18th level of the Thornton Street high-rise tower, the four-bedroom penthouse had been expected to fetch more than $7 million. On the market for the first time in 30 years, it has about 260 square metres of indoor-outdoor living space with harbour views.
Things of Stone and Wood frontman Greg Arnold and wife Helen Durham, the inspiration for the band's 1992 hit song Happy Birthday Helen, have sold their 1920s cottage in Carlton North (pictured above). The couple’s two-bedroom Art Deco house comes with a European-style extension designed and built by Hamish Knox. It features "Eltham" mudbrick rendering and exposed wood beams. Ben Williams at Hocking Stuart was quoting the Nicholson Street property at $680,000 plus.
On the NSW south coast, Ian Barker, QC, and his wife, Penny, have yet to sell their 14-hectare retreat (pictured above). It was listed for auction last weekend through Adam Guthrie at Adam Guthrie Lifestyle Property with expectations of $1.8 million plus. The property has sweeping coastal views stretching from Seven Mile Beach to Pigeon House Mountain near Ulladulla. Since the property last traded for $750,000 in June 1999, the Barkers have renovated the two-level timber house. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a library, office and open-plan living and dining areas opening to a deck. In the quiet precinct of Broughton Vale, the Tullouch Road property is five minutes' drive from Berry. The Barkers are returning to Sydney.
Marshall White agent auctioneer Justin Long drilled his five bidders sufficiently to secure a $5.22 million sale when Beswicke (pictured above pre-renovation), a grand Toorak Victorian boom era mansion designed by John Beswicke went under the hammer last weekend. It had been listed with $5 million plus hopes after architects Jackson Clements Burrows had restored and modernised the 1880s building into a stunning family house (pictured below, post-renovation)for the Ebsworth family.
The interiors come with American oak floors, ornate ceilings and marble fireplaces. The main bedroom has city views from its private balcony and parking won’t be a problem given its five-car basement garage. For almost five decades until 2008 it was the Australian Dental Association headquarters. Set on a 735-square-metre Mathoura Road block, it was briefly owned by developer Walton Property Developments, which sold in 2009 at $3.1 million to Rod and Andrea Ebsworth. The association moved to 10 Yarra Street in nearby South Yarra, to an office building developed by Craig Walton. Marshall White's James Redfern has been the marketing agent for its past two sales.
Title Tattle likes to tell readers of interesting property deals as soon as they happen – if not before – so the words from Paradise Point on the Gold Coast is that Clive Palmer has spent $1.75 million for another house in his portfolio. The seller, who wanted $4.5 million in 2009, was Fred Taplin, who headed Gold Coast Galaxy's tilt at an A-League franchise, which lost out to Palmer's Gold Coast United.
And don’t say that Title Tattle told you, but Eileen Bond really wanted to buy her neighbouring Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay apartment, which came up for the first time in almost three decades. She didn't secure it, and although some considerable mystery surrounds the sale of the two-level 450-square-metre apartment in a 1930s Art Deco block, it went to an expat, who no doubt will shortly introduce himself to the effervescent owner in the block. It was being sold under instructions of The Trust Company through McGrath agent Peter Starr in conjunction with Harriet France. Title Tattle gathers it fetched close to $4.7 million, but we are not sure to whom. It last sold for $780,000 in 1982. Eileen “Red” Bond paid $1.22 million in 1986 for the top floor and then paid $675,000 in 1987 for the middle apartment in the triplex.
