Packers shuffle the paperwork, John Hewson a major property player: Title Tattle
Dan White, the great-grandson of the founder of the Ray White real estate empire, and his wife, Sam, are selling their abode set high above Tamarama beach in Sydney (pictured above and below). With bespoke, imported finishes throughout, the house has large living areas that flow out to an entertainment terrace with beach and ocean views.
The house, sits in William Dangar-designed gardens with courtyard and lap pool. The four-bedroom, four-bathroom residence has been scheduled for September 21 twilight auction through Ray White Double Bay agents Elliott Placks and James Keenan. Presumably they are aiming for $7 million plus result given Marco Rossi, the brother of the motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, bought his nearby Thompson Street residence for $11 million in 2008.
Hawthown player David Hale has sold his Kensington townhouse (pictured above) at a reported $737,000 through Rendina Real Estate agent Charles Bongiovanni. The two-storey, three-bedroom property, which comes with a central courtyard and garage, had been tipped to fetch more than $700,000 for the Hales, who are wanting to upsize as they have a baby girl.
Software entrepreneur Simon Clausen, who debuted on the 2009 BRW Rich List with a $180 million fortune after selling his software company, has abandoned construction plans for an expansive three-level Balmoral Slopes, Mosman, residence. Two vacant blocks have now been listed for sale (pictured above and below).
It continues a marked reversal in intent for the high-flyer, who until late 2009 was on a spending spree of Sydney property. His 17 acquisitions totalled $60 million over just three years. His recent sell down of a couple of properties includes a Balmain house that was bought for $1.66 million in 2008 and sold at recent Cobden and Hayson auction at $1.91 million.
The 2,560-square-metre vacant Balmoral Slopes holding now listed through McGrath agent Nigel Mukhi cost $19 million in 2008 and 2009. It included a since demolished new home that was offloaded by developer Albert Bertini, onetime star of The Secret Millioniare.
Clausen retains the neighbouring $12 million heritage-listed house, which is not listed for sale, and which has reputedly been leased to one of Sydney's bigtime gamblers. The vacant hillside Arbutus Street holding has approved architect plans for a stunning 10-bedroom home with 10-car garage and swimming pool in Peter Fudge-designed gardens. The BJP Architects-designed house with a gross floor area of 940 square metres, which got approval in May last year, had an estimated $7.5 million completion cost.
His first purchase was a $1.35 million Balmain terrace in 2004 with his wife, Alexandra. On Sydney's Pittwater, the Clausens’ Clareville architect-designed weekender – featuring glass, copper, sandstone and timber – is nearing completion after the couple paid $2.7 million for the property in 2009. BJP has done an $800,000 project at Clareville. Clausen debuted on the BRW Rich List with a $180 million fortune in 2009, after selling out of PC Tools, the company he co-founded in 1998, but didn't make the list's $185 million cut-off the next year. It is understood that the Clausen family are now spending more time in Europe following changed extended family circumstances.
A year on and bookmaker Mark Read has yet to sell his surplus acreage at Cooroy Mountain in Queensland (pictured above). Read had once run his business out of the Cooroy Mountain property but now resides in Victoria, after moving his stable of racehorses to a property in the Yarra Valley. The 44-hectare cattle stud, known as Beauty Falls, sits in the Noosa hinterland. For horse lovers, it has an Olympic dressage arena, 18 seven-metre stables with four full-size horse boxes, separate tack room, wash bay and a 75-sqare-metre holding yard and water. The 10-year-old, double-story Queenslander residence has 1,340 square metres of space. It is for sale through Unique Estates agent Nicolette van Wijngaarden at $4,875,000.
Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as it’s known - and sometimes before – so the word from the NSW Southern Highlands is that John Hewson – yes, the onetime prime ministerial aspirant – has become a serious property player in the rural district. He of course has long loved the place, having first bought back in 1977. His home has since 2004 has been Invergowrie, the Tudor-style Exeter estate built in the 1930s for the BHP industrialist Sir Cecil Hoskins in Paul Sorenson gardens.
His latest property foray involves the nearby Mittabah, one of the Southern Highlands’ great estates. The property, also at Exeter, has been sold for $9 million by the Vertzayias family to a syndicate headed by Hewson along with Karl Martin-Weber and Michael McPhee as its three directors. There are three companies as shareholders of the overarching Mittabah Holdings Pty Ltd company: Bangaline Pty Ltd, Keber Investments and Mix Investments, with all three being defined as non-beneficial entities.
Mittabah was previously sold in 2005 through Drew Lindsay Real Estate for $8.65 million by the Scottish-born businessman Sir Arthur Weller and Lady (Marea) Weller. Intriguingly, two of the syndicate, Hewson and McPhee, along with Mosmanite William King, have also turned up as directors of the company that has spent $8.5 million buying the Vertzayias family's Globe Projects Wongabri retirement village development site at Burradoo. And apparently some the syndicate have even got involved in Globe Project's Bundeena property, the redevelopment of the former Uniting Church property.
And don't say that Title Tattle told you, but the Packer family has being shuffling some paperwork at their Bellevue Hill compound, Cairnton. They have transferred the estate at a $43 million value from Consolidated Press Holdings Pty Ltd into the more familial Cairnton Pty Ltd. Cairnton is the name of the long-time home of tycoon James Packer's mother, Ros. The Packers hold about 11,000 square metres atop Bellevue Hill, the result of nine acquisitions since the original purchase in 1935 by James's late grandfather, Sir Frank. The initial one-acre cost £7,500, with Sir Frank making five other purchases costing £28,000. In a classic case of like father, like son, Kerry added four more that cost about $9 million.
I've never been inside but recall the chilly night I spent outside. It was 24 years ago this weekend when the Krug champagne flowed for the 21st birthday party of Ros and Kerry's only daughter, Gretel, who poured into a spectacular red-and-black spotted outfit. All the 1987 guests left richer when they were given mementoes – gold medallion necklaces for the ladies, gold cufflinks for the gents. Kerry's daughter was wearing her gift – a $290,000 Cartier diamond choker and earrings. flown in the week before from Hong Kong. At midnight, when the then psuedo Cleo journalist turned 21, Dire Straits' Money For Nothing was spinning on the turntable of MTV's video jockey, Richard Wilkins, in the ballroom marquee. Having dined on the Peter Rowland-catered Tasmanian smoked salmon, beef, Peking duck, the Liberal Party war horse Sir John and Lady (Susan) Atwill were among the first to depart. Around 1.30 am Sir Peter Abeles drove his wife Kitty home to Vaucluse. Bob and Hazel Hawke stayed until 1.30 am, with Kerry waiting on the then Prime Minister when he wanted a mineral water. The Bulletin columnist David McNicoll drove his Sigma home around 2.20 am. It was well after 3 am before the Breretons – Laurie and his sequinned wife Trish –got home to Kensington. About 50 revellers appeared keen on staying for breakfast. And I filed something for the Fairfax press.
One person who possibly skipped the Packer party was the colourful bookmaker and car dealer Harry Barrett, who died earlier this month. He was among the last of the colourful bookmakers, and in the early 1990s, he had an annual turnover of about $200 million, bolstered by the combative Kerry Packer's passion for the punt. Barrett briefly enjoyed the property limelight when he paid $6.1 million for Altona through W. J. Bridges Real Estate in 1991. He thought he got a good buy, and his wife, Pat, jestingly thought he was off his trolley. Within a year the Barretts decided to stay at the Strathfield house they'd bought 17 years earlier for $112,000 and Altona was sold to Matt Handbury and his wife, Fiona. Rival bookmaker Mark Read once accused Barrett of wearing the same tie for 20 years. But as Fairfax Media racing writer doyen Max Presnell recently recalled Barrett countered: "I've only got one neck".
