John Symond buys in Elizabeth Bay: Title Tattle
In 2006 historic Brighton residence Totnes (pictured above) sold to the then incoming Newcrest mining boss Ian Smith, the seasoned mining engineer born and raised in Broken Hill. Smith was in London at the time of his purchase, where he had been a senior Rio Tinto executive. The then selling agent Damian Taylor was surprised when it sold to a buyers' advocate who was representing a client who had viewed the property just 24 hours earlier on the internet.
The 1892 mansion with 10 rooms sits on an 1,100-square-metre block. It’s been listed for October 22 auction through Barb Gregory and James Redfern at Marshall White Brighton. Gregory says the house is expected to fetch $4.5 million. Smith stepped down at the end of June this year from Newcrest after five years in which he turned around the nation's biggest gold miner and doubled its market value. Newcrest’s recent annual report revealed it’s still paying Smith until the end of the year along with a $2.25 million payment on December 31. Smith received $1 million bonus after sealing a $9.5 billion takeover by Lihir Gold last year.
Retired surgeon Bill Roney and his wife, Sara, have listed their 1901 Point Piper residence (pictured above). Roney, who played rugby league for the Roosters from 1958 to 1962 and then for the Eels from 1963 to 1965, has been at the Wyuna Road property since paying $2.2 million in 1999. The price guide of more than $5.7 million is being given for the 670-square-metre holding by its conjunctional listing agents Sally Hampshire at Laing + Simmons Double Bay and Hamish Robertson at McGrath Estate Agents.
Double Island (pictured above), the tropical far north Queensland island belonging to one-time dot.com success story and OzEmail founder Sean Howard, comes with an $8 million asking price through Colliers International agent Jay Beattie. Set near Cairns just one kilometre off the coast at Palm Cove, it was bought in 2000 for $4.5 million from Sydney developer John Palasty. The 17-hectare island was previously owned by the late Robert Holmes a Court. The 12 two-bedroom villa resort has been available for rent from about $75,000 a week. Actor Keanu Reeves ranks among the celebrities who have stayed, with the gymnasium especially built for his stay.
Victor Harbor's Mount Breckan – which in 2010 was tipped to push South Australia's record house price to a new high – has returned to the market with subdued mortgagee expectations. Anthony Toop at Toop and Toop has the baronial 1879 castle for sale with sub-$5 million hopes, with offers due this week. It’s set on 2.4 hectares with harbour views. The property was built in 1881 for state politician Alexander Hay. It last traded 16 years ago at $600,000 and has been restored it to its former glory.
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Yarroma (pictured above and below), which set a $3 million record Hawthorn price in 1987, has returned to the market. The Coppin Grove riverfront mansion sits on 2,930 square metres with an adjoining 3,082-square-metre holding owned by the O’Brien family. The historic Victorian mansion surrounded by lavish gardens in the renowned St James Park Estate must be worth about $18 million or so, but it's likely to be sold in two lots following its recent subdivision, with the house fetching about $10 million plus. It’s been listed through Marcus Chiminello at Marshall White Armidale. With elevated city skyline views, it was built in 1872 to a design by James T. Conlan in a Romanesque revival style.
Manicured lawns adjoin the glassed conservatory housing the heated pool with mosaic inlays. There’s a series of descending terraces that lead to a tennis court, arbours, pathways, a stilted cubby house, fruit trees and vegetable gardens all neatly positioned around bluestone cobbled pathways meandering down to the river banks. The new owners will have the opportunity to construct a cantilevered boatshed and mooring. It didn’t sell on its 2010 RT Edgar listing.
James Vaile, from the business advisory company Vaile and Associates, has spent $3 million to buy the two-level Westbourne, Potts Point penthouse (pictured above). It was bought from John Mills and Greg Clark, who paid $3,233,000 in 2007 for the three bedroom, three bathroom 192-square-metre apartment with 93-square-metre balcony built in 2005 by the Lovering development group. It comes with strata levies of about $3,359 a quarter.
The apartment is one of 11 in a low-rise building at the corner of Macleay Street and Rockwell Crescent. It marks a return to the village for Vaile, who previously had a double Wylde Street, Potts Point apartment in Garry Rothwell's first Winten development in the area. It had Darryl Gordon interiors. The apartment was sold in 2006, with one part fetching $3.55 million and the other $2.5 million.
The 150-year-old Barambah homestead (pictured above and below) – whose renovation was awarded the inaugural 2009 Gabriel Poole Award for Building of the Year – has been listed for November 11 auction by Brisbane stockbroker Steve Wilson and his wife, Jane, through Ray White Rural's veteran agent Lex Heinemann and Danny Bukowski. It’s been the Wilsons’ country abode for 11 years. More than $4 million is being sought.
Established in 1843, Barambah Station was 66,368 hectares (164,000 acres) in the 1800s and is one of the oldest stations in Queensland. After squatters Barambah, the traditional land of the Wakka Wakka, was held by the Sydney merchant Richard “China” Jones in 1850. His son, Thomas Jones, was joined for a few years in the 1870s by George Clapperton, and after them from 1876 Barambah was held by the Moore family for nearly a century. By then the Barambah Hereford Stud was famous, as were the racehorses. After three generations the Moores sold to an English pastoral family, the Vesteys in 1967, then Val Crowe took over in 1973, keen to move his stock up as the new Wivenhoe Dam engulfed his historic Bellevue. The neighbourhood – within a 90-minute drive from Noosa – now has other entrepreneurs, notably McCullough Robertson chief Brett Heading and mining magnate Nick Mather.
Barambah Station won the renovation award as the judges viewed it as an exemplar of how issues of heritage and sustainability align. It retains many of the original features including four-metre ceilings and ornate fretwork, and a spectacular hexagon shaped turreted rotunda. There is a restored Cobb and Co coach house and cattle yards. The Wilsons will maintain their nearby award-winning vineyard.
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Friesia (pictured above), the 1888-built Italian Renaissance-designed Hawthorn house and one of Melbourne’s most captivating residences, has been listed for sale. The single-storey mansion was designed for German consul William Brahe by architect John August Bernard Koch. The Hawthorn house was last traded in 1970 for $49,000 totally derelict. It’s been listed by Kay and Burton agent Scott Patterson, with offers due by November 15. Patterson hopes to secure $6.5 million plus for the property. The residence, inspired by the works of Filippo Brunelleschi, father of Italian Renaissance architecture in Florence, has been listed by Warwick Forge and his wife, Sue, who have been running the biennial Australian Landscape Conference for 10 years.
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Fashion designer Arabella Ramsay secured a bullish $1,805,000 when her Albert Park warehouse conversion (pictured above) went to weekend auction through Marshall White agent Oliver Bruce. It traded at $1.55 million in May of last year, representing annualised capital growth of 11%. It was knocked down to buyers’ advocate Mal James, who had to fend off three other parties during the 20-minute contestant.
Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens –so the word is that mortgage broker John Symond has spent $4.1 million on an Elizabeth Bay apartment (pictured above). The 390-square-metre three bedroom unit is for a family member who has been regularly spotted at local prestige open for inspections and auctions for many months. It comes with terrace garden with park views and a harbour cameo in the Hindmarsh development of nine apartments on Onslow Avenue tucked in between the waterfront and the Macleay Street hub.
Onslow's nine apartments were priced in its initial 2007 market as ranging from $4.8 million to $13 million and range in size from 250 square metres to 410 square metres. The six-level development, designed by PTW Architects' Andrew Andersons, was marketed as featuring interiors by Freedman Rembel. Flooring was a mix of timber, stone and carpet with fireplaces in the living rooms. It had been listed through Ben Stewart of CBRE in conjunction with Jason Boon and Geoff Cox at Richardson and Wrench. The purchase is the second time in the past year that Symond has swooped on a prestige apartment listed at a substantial discount to its initial asking price. The other was a $8.2 million Point Piper penthouse, near his own home on Sydney Harbour.
And don’t say that Title Tattle told you, but everyone in Brisbane is talking about the property developer with the large tax bill. About $10 million with interest, it’s been suggested.
