Elaine, Double Bay - the tired trophy home too lonesome for one billionaire buyer?
On the market since September 2013, Sydney's priciest trophy estate, Elaine at Double Bay, is now being primed to be developed into a private four home luxury harbourside compound.
Vendor John B. Fairfax has submitted plans to Woollahra Council for two new homes, each on 2000 square metres fronting Seven Shillings Beach costing $3.7 million and $3.9 million, and alterations and additions to its two existing dwellings.
The main quite-dated Elaine home would undergo a $4.75 million update.
The total estimated Tanner Kibble Denton Architects works are put at $13.75 million.
"By virtue of its value, the estate has a small buyer pool and whilst we have had significant interest I now think it is necessary to explore other options for the sale, at the same time being hopeful of it being sold in one line."
The option of subdividing the 6,900 square metre estate has been on the books since a 1980s council approval for subdivision of the property into six titles, with a carriageway to the beachfront lots.
In February this year the businessman John B Fairfax listed the Double Bay harbourfront estate, Elaine for rent after tenants had vacated the trophy home property that remains for sale on the Christies International Real Estate website.
“The development application Mr Fairfax has submitted actually increases the likelihood of selling in one line as it provides the flexibility to build on the site,” agent Ken Jacobs told The Wentworth Courier.
The six-title offering of 6,900 square metres, at 550 New South Head Road, (highlighted below), has been in the publishing family for 100 plus years, but tenanted over the past two decades by the prudent Edgecliff based publisher and pastoralist.
It has been leased since 1996, first to the boutique property developers Bob Rose and his wife Margaret, and in 2005 to venture capitalist Cameron O'Reilly.
Its most recent tenants were the joint chief investment officer of Caledonia Investments, Mark Nelson, and his wife, Louise.
Sydney's official record price stands with Altona in Point Piper at $52 million sale last year. Villa Veneto, also at Point Piper, is reputed to have sold for around $52 million in 2010, but without confirmatory documentation.
Elaine has been traded or handed down within the Fairfax family since bought by Geoffrey Evan Fairfax for £2,100 over 100 years ago.
The exclusive listing agent Ken Jacobs who had a video marketing campaign kick off the international sales campaign early 2014 has always maintained a record price would be achieved for the holding.
No formal price guide was ever offered, but an absurd $100 million calculation published on its marketing debut in the Fairfax press cruelled its sale prospects.
The wayward $100 million price estimate was based on extrapolating the 53-metre beach frontage premium to the entire 6,900 square metre land holding, with the New South Head Road frontage clearly unlikely to warrant the Seven Shillings beachfront premium. The headline suggested $100 million while the article speculated as high as $112 million.
"The greatest value of the estate is maintaining the property in one line, as the site is unrepeatable," Ken Jacobs has repeatedly advised.
Any new housing approvals within Elaine could make the site more attractive to ultra high net worth individuals who want the family members elsewhere within what would a prized compound.
Approvals as a multi generational family estate could then see the Australian record sale.
Ofcourse that honour rests with Chris Ellison, the Mosman Park, WA mining millionaire, and his wife, Tia and their $57.5 million Swan River luxury riverfront estate.
Significantly Ellison, the founder, major shareholder and the executive director of Mineral Resources, highlights the compound trend as since the initial late 2009 record purchase two additional homes have been added into the estate.
