Anna Bligh seeks out Paddington purchase possibilities
There's almost no more ultimate terrace house address in Sydney than owning on Paddington Street, Paddington.
And that's just where the former Queensland premier Anna Bligh has been spotting house hunting.
Everyone knows she's been looking – though Property Observer has the first confirmed location – since she and her husband, Greg Withers, have been renting after he took a job in Sydney earlier this year.
''We are looking to rent for 12 months while we get acquainted with the Sydney property market,'' Bligh told the local paper after her August arrival when Withers began as a senior executive in Arts NSW.
And Bligh, who said she would ''always regard Queensland as my home", seems to have kept herself busy with Saturday open for inspections.
With around $2 million to spend, it won't be at the pointy end of the Paddington market, but certainly above the suburb median which RP Data says sits around $1,325,000, down 9.1% over the past year.
Paddington's most recent sale was last night when Brad Caldwell-Eyles at 1st City Hasemer + Caldwell-Eyles secured $3,425,000 for 138 Glenmore Road Paddington at Cooley Auctions. It sold at mortgagee auction having last traded at $3 million in 2004.
There are currently 34 houses for sale in Paddington, advertised on realestate.com.au.
There are five on Paddington Street and one on Paddington Lane.
The listings include 13 Paddington Street which has been listed for sale since May this year through LJ Hooker Woollahra agent Michael Stavianos by the Stravrianos family.
The imposing offering at 133 Paddington Street is for sale at $2.5 million through agent Richard Carwin. The Ray White Paddington office initially listed it in August 2011.
The fresh offering (pictured above) at 84 Paddington Street went to November auction through Ballard Property Group agent Mark Lowe.
With Harbour views from some of its four levels, the six-metre-wide terrace was on the market for the first time in more than 30 years. It sits on a 190-square-metre parcel of land.
Another fresh listing that didn't sell at its November auction was 168 Paddington Street. It last sold in 2009 at $1.78 million.
The 1 Paddington Lane offering is a timber cottage which goes to auction this weekend through Maclay Longhurst of BresicWhitney Estate Agents.
The Leal family, who made their money as owners of Super Smash, the Bondi smash repairer, listed their grand Paddington Street home with $11 million hopes.
It wasn't their first foray into record-setting Paddington listings, as they sold their previous double-fronted offering for a record $4.52 million in late 2004 to investment industry bigwig Andre Morony and his wife, Beverley, through McGrath agents James Dack and Ben Collier. It was a four-level, six-metre-wide terrace standing on a 202-square-metre block.
The latest offering is described by Ben Collier as "arguably one of Paddington’s finest homes".
The north-facing terrace is set on a 390-square-metre block of land, located at the Woollahra end of Paddington Street.
It has four levels with lift access. The double-fronted terrace spans 12 metres in width.
The two now amalgamated terraces were consolidated in 2000.
The Paddington record residential price is $7.75 million when a Goodhope Street Dunkley Developments residence sold through Bickmore-Hutt agent Damien Bickmore-Hutt in April 2010.
There had been an earlier $7.75 million sale in 2006 when stockbroker Neville Miles sold in Union Street.
