Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein spend $1.4 million on Brissie block: Title Tattle
With a non-descript name like Green Gables, the latest Vaucluse harbourfront listing doesn’t stand out from the crowd. But Title Tattle recognises the house (pictured above), which the Mayo family has listed. It’s the home that was bought for $1.15 million in 1981 from the late banker Frank Nugan of Nugan Hand Bank fame, who had bought it in 1976 for $450,000. It had previously been in the Sayers family for at least five decades.
Nugan reputedly shot himself in the head in the front seat of his Mercedes in Lithgow in January 1980, and the bank collapsed. Its links with money laundering and drugs were to feature in the Costigan and Woodward royal commissions. Nugan was buried in Northern Suburbs Cemetery, but a subsequent reported sighting of Frank in a bistro at Atlanta, Georgia, US., led to speculation that a drug dealer was buried in his grave. Nugan's body was exhumed, and a second inquest, held in March 1981, confirmed the earlier findings on the basis of dental evidence, according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Green Gables is being marketed through James McCowan from Richardson & Wrench Double Bay in conjunction with Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker. The five-bedroom house on 1659 square metres includes a jetty, sandy beach, park-like level gardens and sunny pool at the harbour's edge. More than $20 million is expected.
The television executive David Lyle – who was appointed last month as chief executive officer of the Washington-based National Geographic Channels within News Corporation’s Fox group – has finally sold both his redundant Whale Beach holdings (one pictured above and below), having previously spent $5.02 million on a house at Palm Beach. He and his wife, writer Janne Dennehy, bought their hillside Palm Beach acquisition from the McConochie family after being listed through Glenn Lee at Raine & Horne Palm Beach.
Lyle, whose first job was as an exploration geologist, started work at the Nine Network on The Mike Walsh Show in the 1980s. It was then off to London for Pearson Television and then as president of entertainment at Fremantle Media North America. The couple’s first redundant house to sell fetched $2.2 million in August last year and then more recently they couple secured $2 million for the house that cost $190,000 in 1987.
The grand Toorak mansion built for but never occupied by Jeans West non-executive director Mark Stevens has returned to the market. The four-bedroom house (pictured above and below) with study was last listed for private sale at $8 million in May 2010 after being was passed in at $7.5 million by the Pearce family.
Stevens had sold the new Kooyong Road house for $7.75 million in August 2009 after deciding not to relocate from Park Orchards. Its design was by Christopher Doyle, with interiors by Stuart Rattle and set in gardens by Paul Bangay set on about 939 square metres. It’s been listed through Matt David and Ross Savas at Kay & Burton South Yarra with offers due by October 28.
About $4.5 million had been expected for the 1933 Elouera (pictured above), set at the western end of Martin Road, Centennial Park, one of Sydney's most prestigious non-waterfront addresses. While the front section of the house retains its art deco architecture, the back section is modern and bold designed by architect Michael Heenan of Allen Jack + Cottier. It was renovated in 2005. It sold for $4,815,000 through Louise Snowden and Catherine Dixon from Di Jones Real Estate. It last traded at $1,445,000 in 1998 when bought by engineer Paul Philips and his wife, Kay, a director of online sleepwear shop Silk and Cookies. There had been $5.5 million hopes on its initial earlier this year.
Clutha, a landmark Kirribilli estate (pictured above), was passed in at $4 million at auction last weekend through Belle Property Neutral Bay agents Mark Jackson and Jessica Wolodkowicz. Listed for sale by the Cox family, the 1,116-square-metre Elamang Avenue property is one of the suburb's largest landholdings. It was initially expected to sell for more than $4.5 million, and then this was revised to more than $4.25 million in the days leading up to the auction. The grand five-bedroom 1901 Queen Anne residence has a stately central staircase, soaring patterned ceilings and harbour views. Set on the high side of the street, it last traded in 1961 for $24,000 when it was bought by the late Dr Neville Cox and his wife, Alison. Cox was one of the first orthodontists in Australia.
Stylist Kate Hopkins, who hosts the weekly Steal Her Style segment on Channel Ten's The Circle, secured $566,000 for her naturally stylish Art Deco apartment in Prahran (pictured above). The ground-floor two-bedroom unit, which Hopkins and her sister have renovated, is in a block of six. Its Bennison Mackinnon selling agent Carla Fetter had been quoting $500,000 to $550,000. In Steal Her Style, Hopkins gives viewers a surprise makeover in the style of their favourite celebrity.
The waterfront Cremorne Point apartment (pictured above and below) of former Colonial First State chief Chris Cuffe has sold for about $6.7 million. The Milson Road triplex apartment cost $6.05 million in 2003, and more than $7 million had been sought through Belle Property Mosman agents Tim Foote and Adrian Bridges.
The three-bedroom apartment had been on the market since January, when it was listed with hopes of $8.75 million. The 375-square-metre apartment, the home of Cuffe's mother, has harbour views to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.
Fashion designer Arabella Ramsay has her Albert Park warehouse conversion (pictured above) listed for October 8 auction with $1.25 million plus through Marshall White agent Oliver Bruce. It’s been her base since 2009.
Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens –so the word is that Jennifer Hawkins has vacated her Coogee pad. The removalists were spotted mid-week. It will be listed for sale soon. The model and her fiancé, Jake Wall, are building on Sydney’s northern beaches, and apparently are going to rent nearby while their finish the project. The 2003 built Coogee property has three bedrooms and three bathrooms. It cost $2.27 million in late 2008.
And don’t say that Title Tattle told you but Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein spent $1.4 million on their near-riverfront 510-square-metre vacant block of land in Brissie, on which they plan to build their empty nest down the track. It will likely have space for plenty of visitors. The block has great views. Its official recent valuation was $1.25 million. Their existing Norman Park house cost $384,000 in 1994. Land title records now show the price, since it was reported in August without a price.
