Publican doesn't spend $18 million on the still unsold Green Gables: Title Tattle
No sale this week of an $18 million Vaucluse harbourfront. The SMH's Domain.com.au report of the purported sale on Sydney Harbour proved inaccurate as the Mayo family has yet to sell Green Gables, its Coolong Road residence, for $18 million. Today's report thereby also wrongly identified hotelier Bob Berger as its buyer. Rumours aplenty yes, but emphatic denials. No doubt there will be a fascinating backstory as to what did and didn't transpire in the negotiations over the property on Thursday, let alone the hasty attempts to remove all cached versions of the premature publication from the Fairfax websites this morning. Title Tattle recalls Green Gables was last in the headlines in somewhat greater controversy when in the 1980 its then owner, Frank Nugan, shot himself shortly before his merchant bank Nugan Hand went into receivership and was involved in the odd Royal Commission or two. The Mayo family paid $1.15 million in 1981 for the Vaucluse waterfront, which Nugan bought in 1976 for $450,000.
Actors' agent Ann Churchill-Brown has listed her nine-metre-wide Paddington residence (pictured above). It’s being marketed by McGrath agent Ben Collier as having immaculately retained period details and sophisticated contemporary design. Occupying a prime corner position on Elizabeth Street, the three-bedroom property with three levels has been scheduled for June 2 auction. It comes with a private entertainers’ courtyard garden. It last traded at $3.2 million in 2007, so its ought fetch a little more given its renovation.
Alastair Provan, the long-time Bell Potter Securities executive, and his wife, Jan, have listed their 1920s Neutral Bay residence (pictured above) for May 31 LJ Hooker auction. It has five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a study and several living rooms. It’s set in 1,184 square metres of parklike gardens. It comes with city skyline and Harbour Bridge views from both levels. Title Tattle seems to recollect it was briefly listed through Ray White late last year with $5 million hopes. They paid around $1 million in 1993. The Provans have spent $8.8 million on their high-rise apartment in newly completed complex The Residence overlooking Hyde Park. The one-time headquarters for the NSW Police has been gutted and refurbished by architectural firm Scottcarver to accommodate 87 upmarket apartments. The College Street complex was marketed by CBRE with the initial sales through Laing Real Estate, Pagdens, and Christies Great Estates.
At Point Piper the media advertising buying agency veteran Jill Waddy has listed the family’s long-held four-bedroom apartment (pictured above). It’s been owned by the Waddy family since the early 1970s. Offers of more than $3 million are expected by May 24 through D'Leanne Lewis of Laing+Simmons Double Bay. The apartment occupies a floor in a Wolseley Road triplex with big rooms and views across the harbour to the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
Alcatel’s former South Asia Pacific president Ron Spithill, and his wife, Patricia, have sold their north-facing Cammeray waterfront house (pictured above) before this weekend’s scheduled auction. The modern Cowdroy Avenue house sits on a 472-square-metre block with jetty and deep-water marina berth. The house cost $2.4 million when newly completed in 1999. Ron has an extensive background in the telecommunications industry and is a former president of the Telecommunications Industry Association of Australia. He joined Alcatel in 1962, when it was called ITT and was with the company until his 2005 retirement. The couple spend much of their time in Europe with regular trips to New Zealand, where he’s on the board of Telecom NZ. It sold through McGrath agents Piers van Hamburg and Priscilla Ouvrier who secured a tad higher than their $3.9 million plus hopes.
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The former Parramatta Eels chief executive Paul Osborne offloaded his Byron Bay Property investment (pictured above) for $1.14 million at auction last weekend. Highlighting the perils of quick sale turnarounds in already negative markets, the price reflected a 40% decline in 16 months. His foray into the northern NSW town cost $1.9 million in January 2011, with the property having previously sold at $1,475,000 in 2007. It failed to sell at its December 2011 auction, when Osborne had $1,499,000 hopes, and was subsequently listed at $1.395 million. It was last October when Osborne's stressed financial situation was made public by SMH investigative reporter Kate McClymont after leaks that the Kenthurst-based Osborne had borrowed money from the Parramatta chairman Roy Spagnolo. The then chief executive was on a salary rumoured to be $270,000. The Massinger Street, Byron Bay Property sold through Ray White Byron Bay agent Brett Connable who had advised his extensive email list that the offering would be definitely sold at the weekend auction. Set opposite the Top Shop Cafe in Massinger Street, it comes with ocean views to the north over Byron Bay. It has three upstairs bedrooms plus downstairs is a one-bedroom guest quarter.
Don’t say that Title Tattle told you, but the aged care nursing home operator Keith Mathies is likely to emerge as the buyer of South Yarra's Saint Cloud, the Kensington Road house that sits on a large estate. The property has apparently been sold through Andrew Baines at Kay & Burton for about $10 million. When initially listed in 2005 it was described as 5,437 square metres of land, 100 squares (930 square metres)of living, six bedrooms with ensuite, north-south championship tennis court and botanical gardens. The prominent semi-circle late 1980s home was sold by Peter Clark, who co-founded management consultant Clark Hummerston Group, and when Title Tattle last enquired a few years ago, was splitting his time between homes in Lorne, Mount Macedon, the Mornington Peninsula and the United Kingdom.
And the whisper is that the prestige sales doyen Gerald Delany has resumed the mantle as Kay & Burton's chairman. He sold his equity last year and briefly cut his ties with the prominent Melbourne estate agency and went on a well-earned vacation. But after eight months away, last Saturday he had the auctioneer's gavel in hand selling the week's highest price property.
