The Banks buy in Hong Kong after $53 million Point Piper sale: Title Tattle
Australia’s headline sale during the past financial year was $53 million on Wolseley Road in Point Piper. Villa Veneto, a five-storey Italianate Palladian villa, was sold by recruitment entrepreneur Andrew Banks and his wife Andrea for $53 million through LJ Hooker Double Bay agent Bill Malouf (below).
Following the sale he was dubbed the undisputed king of Sydney real estate by the Daily Telegraph, which reported he had made $298 million in sales over the past year. The August exchange, reported in September, was with dentist David Penn and his wife Linda. They settled on Valentine's Day following the payment of the second installment of $44 million to finalise the deal.
Designed by the architect Michael Suttor, the six-bedroom house sits on a 1426-square-metre block, set over five levels. Finished in 2004, it took more than two years to build and possibly $10 million to complete. Although they have taken nearby rental accommodation, Banks spends much of his time working in Hong Kong. Shareholders in his recruitment company Talent2 were advised by the chairman, Ken Allen, that Banks would spend considerable time in Asia working with Hong Kong-based non-executive director Ken Borda.
Banks recently spent $4.8 million on a central Mid-Levels district apartment representing about $26,000 a square metre. The 32nd-floor apartment on Hong Kong Island last sold in 1992 for $1.08 million, reflecting 8.4% annual growth. It first sold on completion in 1991 for $760,000, representing 10% annual growth. Villa Veneto was built after the couple bought the 1424sqm holding for $14 million in 2001, when they gave their address as Trump Tower, New York.
The moving vans came in February, when there was no doubt plenty of Louis Vuitton luggage heading into the imposing mansion – David Penn's passion for vintage luggage is evident at his Double Bay showroom.
The other prestige Point Piper listing, Altona, remains listed for sale through Ballard Property agent Bill Bridges and Bill Malouf and their executive assistants, Meagan Cotten and Emma Prgomelja, with whispers of $50 million-plus interest.
Title Tattle aims to tell you as soon as we know – often before it happens – so that rumoured prestige sale in Perth has now been confirmed at $13.25 million in the suburb of Applecross. Its Perth’s dearest sale for about two years. The sale betters the suburb’s $11.75 million record, set in 2008, through repeat record-setting agent William Porteous, who wouldn’t reveal its buyer. But Title Tattle now gleans it’s big home builder Ross North and his wife, Catherine, whose nearby house has been listed through Banovich & Hillman.
With pedigree in almost every petal, Kennerton Green (below) ranks among the country's finest garden properties, and it sold recently through Bowral agent Drew Lindsay to Sydney businessman Matthew Csidei and his wife, Lauren Roscoe, for about $1.8 million.
The magnificent 2.2-hectare Mittagong property, which is Australia's only 20th-century listing in The Oxford Companion to the Garden, was listed for sale by the Ireland family. It comes with a four-bedroom, four-bathroom residence but it's the gardens, which date back more than 100 years, that steal the show. Its past owners include international gardener Marylyn Abbott, of West Green House in Hampshire – an 18th-century English property she rescued. Before her were Lady Susan Renouf, who bought it for $690,000 in 1986 from Lady Marjorie Pagan – the widow of the late Sir John Pagan, whose famous guests left plaques to commemorate their visits. A copper beech in the front yard was planted by Princess Margaret, a catalpa by Dame Pattie Menzies and a maple by Margaret Thatcher.
The neighbouring garden property with pavilion (above) remains listed through Lindsay.
Sahba and Soheil Abedian's Sunland Group take the cake for the culmination of three woeful Sydney acquistions which have all ended in tears, and little shareholder joy. 2010 kicked off when they sold its 107-hectare Tahmoor property, best remembered as the Jay-R Stud, for $4.5 million having been bought from Ross Cribb, former NSW TAB chairman and TNT general manager, for $14.5 million in 2004. Then its luxury Birchgrove apartment complex (below) finally sold out.
It was 2008 when songstress Kate Ceberano entertained guests at the launch of the six luxury Louisa Road units, which were priced from $6.25 million to $10.8 million. The initial asking prices totalled $48 million, and when the final unit sold last September they had recouped $26.3 million in sales, having paid $13.7 million for the land in 2004. Sunland’s pitiful year was topped off most recently when it sold its Cronulla beachfront residential development to the Mondell development group for $10.2 million. The site had cost $13.4 million to amalgamate between 2007 and 2008.
It’s perhaps the highest price drop recorded in the recent downturn in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, reflecting a 32% price deterioration over the past three years. It was June 2008 when stockbroker Walter Lewin spent $7.5 million in Double Bay. It was bought from Clare Mulham, the daughter of savvy entrepreneurs Bill and Imelda Roche.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom Transvaal Avenue residence (above) has been resold for $5.1 million to the Li family.
Queensland’s highest sale price was $10.3 million for the award-winning "H House" at Hamilton, designed by Brian Donovan of Donovan Hill. It’s a real riverfront knockout home. Built for developer Steve Tyson and his wife Karen it won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects National Award for Residential Architecture. It was initially listed for sale in late 2009.
Retired Myer executive chairman Bill Wavish and his wife Yvonne doubled the size of their Kurraba Point, Neutral Bay holding, spending just $8.3 million. The couple had bought the other half of the dual harbourfront townhouse project for $12 million in 2007. The development was undertaken Adam Tolhurst and the longtime Sydney Flying Squadron director Sam Jackson who kept his contemporary townhouse until its recent sale. The development cost $6 million in 2004 when bought from Garry Rothwell's Winten Property Group. Winten had paid $5.1 million in 2000 when the vacant 530-square-metre block was bought from retired solicitor Morgan Ryan. Jackson had wanted $10 million. The unit has been listed for $4500 a week rental.
The Hemmes hotelier clan did well with their $12.6 million purchase of Kianga (below), a five-bedroom Federation house in Vaucluse on the hillside overlooking Sydney Harbour.
More than $15 million had been sought for Kianga, which had previously sold in 1989 for $6.2 million, thereby reflecting 3.5 per cent annual growth during the 21 years of Linz ownership. It was freight tycoon-turned-art collector Pat Corrigan who secured the sale just before the early-1990s downturn, scoring an impressive 30% annual growth during his eight-year tenure. The 21-room Kianga was known as Ormond Hall when it traded as Sydney's finest private hotel after being opened in the early 1950s by the Allen family.
The Cowley family took a hit as they exited Mosman to put all their energies into their Hunter Valley vineyard venture. They bought in early 2008 at $5.5 million and sold recently for $4.41 million to the Gale family.
All eyes turned to the Ginahgulla Road, Bellevue Hill hillside following news that businessman Michael Darling had spent $14 million on a luxury condominium site at North Bondi. But his current trophy home isn’t likely to hit the market for some years yet. The oceanfront Ramsgate Avenue redevelopment project, to be undertaken by his son-in-law, architect Nick Tobias, will surely take until almost 2013 for completion. The chairman of Caledonia Investments and his wife, Manuela Darling-Gansser, have resided in colonial Georgian revival grandeur since paying $8.24 million in 1991, when the property was bought from merchant banker James Yonge through Double Bay agent Jane Ashton. It had been built in 1935 to a Hardy Wilson design for Jean Flynn, the grand-niece of George Adams, the Tattersall’s Sweepstake founder. The couple’s North Bondi acquisition was bought from retired IT entrepreneur Neill Miller through Raine & Horne agents Martin Maskin and Mary Anne Cronin. Set on the rock shelf known as Mermaid Rocks, the building now comprises 10 apartments that Miller consolidated at a cost of $14 million between 2006 and 2008.
Prestige sales have been thin in the Southern Highlands, although retired Compaq executive Ian Penman and his wife, Ayesha, finally sold their Sutton Forest holding, The Chase. The restored and extended five-bedroom 1880s house, which sits on 40 hectares, sold through Bill Carpenter from W. Mcl Carpenter & Associates at Bowral. Its sale price has not been revealed, although the recent marketing indicated the $7 million expectations sought in October 2010 were not being pursued. It had been listed in 2007 with double-digit million hopes and local agents considered a $6 million selling target more achievable, given there had been just three sales at $5 million or higher across NSW’s Highlands since mid-2008. Former AMA boss Bruce Shepherd and his wife Jenny are the latest to try their luck, listing Dalway (below) with $7.3 million hopes through Drew Lindsay Real Estate, and Richardson & Wrench Bowral agent Michael Maloney.
The orthopedic surgeon and moleskin millionaire has been a long-time devotee of the highlands lifestyle, so Title Tattle imagines the couple are downsizing.
And don’t say Title Tattle told you, but there’s whispers a Hobart house has been sold for a record $6.06 million. Finally the Apple Isle gets the high-priced mainland disease.