Pacific Bondi Beach record $21 million sale will buoy Sydney prestige penthouse market

The developers of the Pacific Bondi Beach complex are close to securing a two-penthouse combined record sale totalling $21 million plus.

The boutique investment fund manager Will Vicars is behind the acquistion of two of the seven apartments on the sixth floor of the Campbell Parade complex that will replace the existing Swiss-Grand Resort & Spa.

Title Tattle gleans the sale price is somewhere between $21 million and $22 million. 

It's known that ever since he was a boy, Will Vicars has loved the beach at Bondi, so when he saw the plans for the penthouses, or "lighthouses'' as they are being marketed, he knew to buy one last September. And it now seems he's decided to buy the adjoining of what he called "an oasis within an oasis."

Will Vicars, a director of Caledonia Investments, a low-key boutique fund manager, looks after the money of several of Australia's richest families.

The sale was the talk of last night's charity Gold Dinner fund raiser dinner for the Sydney Childrens Hospital, Randwick.

The developers have also been marketing a double apartment combination - as a $25 million to $29 million penthouse - since March this year with a BKH fitout spanning about 600 square metres with 40 metres of beach-facing frontage which will be Australia’s highest-priced apartment.

Earlier this week the South African group, Redefine Properties invested $50?million in preferred equity in the development of the $400?million Pacific Bondi Beach complex. The investment play was by South Africa’s second-biggest real estate developer whose equity will help the Sydney developers Eduard Litver of Capit.el Group and Allen Linz of Rebel Property Group commence construction by October.

It has been previously been reported that seven of the 19 lighthouses luxury apartments had pre-sold, at prices ranging from $3 million to $10.5 million. Some 82 of the 94 apartments have reputedly now been sold.

On its September launch last year it was reported that five of the 19 penthouses sold, with a European buyer paying $9 million, a Hong Kong expatriate paying $10.3 million and a local buyer $10.5 million.

A further release of three, priced from $8.1 million to $15 million through CBRE agent Justin Brown and and McGrath agent Stephen Chen, occurred recently under instructions by the developers Eduard Litver and Allen Linz.

Lighthouses that face away from the beach sold initially at prices reflecting about $16,000 per square metre.

But prices for beach-facing stock had reportedly initially fetched $45,000 per square metre.

Allan Linz told the departing AFR reporter Ben Wilmot this week that that the mood of luxury buyers had picked up this year and recent apartment sales had been 25% above initial pricing.

The developers are negotiating with a boutique operator for the 69 luxury serviced apartments which will be taken to market in July.

Off the plan Sydney prestige penthouses have had a severe bad luck run over recent years with record penthouse price-setting sales not transpiring included developer Andrew Richardson, who in 2009 lost his record $20.1 million off-the-plan penthouse buyer in The Elizabeth, which also overlooks Hyde Park. Richardson had accepted a $100 deposit for the proposed three-storey penthouse from the now-bankrupted businessman, Rodney Price.

 Ashington's former $70 million Wylde Street, Potts Point project was the location of an other abandoned record setting deal.

Ashington had sold the penthouse atop its proposed six-floor 10-unit complex designed by Tzannes Associates. But the buyer Duncan Hardie who was willing to continue with his intended $20 million purchase, didn't really get a choice as the Ashington project never proceeded following the collapse of the Ashington company. Investec is now seeking buyers with $13 million plus for the remodelled penthouse.

Then as they say bad things come in threes, so Sydney’s third record-setting penthouse sale then floundered.

It was reported in the Australian Financial Review that the penthouse in the Hyde Park tower The Residence had been sold by the developer Galileo Group for around $20 million.

But no exchanged contract was ever signed and buyers are now being invited to inspect the furnished apartment listed by CBRE agent Ben Stewart.

The sale of the penthouse of The Residence has become akin to pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

The most recent confirmed prestige sale - a little away from the main parade action - was property developer Gordon Fell securing the sale of the penthouse in his Hastings North Bondi project.

The $5.8 million Campbell Parade penthouse (pictured below) has a panorama across Bondi Beach. It totals 421 square metre second floor rooftop space, with a further 109 square metres on the first floor, plus 70 square metres of parking and storage.

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The combined space has been bought by Anthony Miller from Goldman Sachs JB Were. It currently remains as two apartments.

The former chairman of the Rubicon property empire has also had his Point Piper harbourfront abode quietly listed for sale with $30 million plus hopes for the past few months.

The luxury $28.75 million home in Point Piper was bought by his wife around the time of the Allco-Rubicon deal.

Fell, the Rhodes Scholar property investor, dabbles in property currently specialising in eastern suburbs Sydney projects.

The Hastings North Bondi property site cost $6.5 million in 2007 with the contemporary apartments subsequently listed through McGrath agent Stephen Chen. There is also a retail component. Its been noted the complex at the northern end of Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach mimics the modern style of James Packer's pad at the southern end.

In 2010 the two penthouses came with $3 million hopes and the other apartments for as much as $1 million each.

Fell has also undertaken a project at 93 to 99 Bronte Road, Bondi Junction, The Hub, a complex of 20 apartments and two levels of commercial space.

The couple were among the buyers who snapped up a 2006 off-the-plan apartment for $6.75 million in the Bondi complex, the apartment block on Campbell Parade that replaced the Bondi Beachside Inn on its 2009 completion.

It comes with 250-square-metre internal space but is 486 square metres all up.

On its initial December 2011 listing they were looking for $7 million plus, which was reduced over its three or so marketing campaigns.

It has views that stretch across the beach and bay from North Bondi to Tamarama from the northern side of the building.

It has three bedrooms, all with ensuite bathrooms.

The luxurious appointments feature custom American oak joinery.

There’s also C-Bus 2 intelligence system with automated blinds and curtains.

The sale price has not been disclosed but Property Observer gathers it was about $5.3 million.

The Bondi Beach prestige unit market still awaits formal public valuation confirmation of the September 2012 sales marketing of the nearby complex, the Pacific Bondi Beach.

But observers have noted the sale of apartments in the Pacific Bondi Beach - credited as Sydney's most successful post-global financial crisis apartment sales marketing campaign - secured prices per square ranging from about $15,000 to $45,000.

The whale of all listings is James Packer's $22 million-plus hopes for his billionaire's Bondi Beach pad.

It's a four-storey Campbell Parade property, which is set to hit the market in February.

The four-bedroom, six-bathroom home has an eight-car garage, gym, cinema, winter garden and six terraces.

The Bondi Beach pad has views of the beach. The initial report of the pending listing came last July in News Ltd papers when property reporter Bronwen Gora reported its $20 million plus mumurings.

But its McGrath listing agent Andrew Livingston has now acknowledged the official pricing was derived from September 2012 sales at the nearby Swiss Grand Hotel redevelopment into the Pacific Bondi Beach, where its ''lighthouse'' penthouses are being offered at $40,000 or so a square metre. The 800-square-metre Packer pad pricing rates at close to $30,000 a square metre.

And standby for the penthouse of   The Bondi to be marketed following accountant Anthony Bell and his wife, Kelly Landry, who made her name as a presenter on Channel Nine's Getaway, having bought a Watsons Bay harbourfront from Stephen Brown and his wife, Corrine. The Bells married in 2011 and have a daughter, Charlize. Title Tattle presumes the adjoining penthouses will hit the market once the $3000 a week northern penthouse rental situation allows.