Ron Medich finally sells Point Piper harbourfront trophy home
Millionaire property developer Ronald Medich has sold his Point Piper harbourfront house, understood to be for about $38 million, just shy of its revised $40 million asking price.
The sale occurred at around 9pm last night.
The 112 Wolseley Road property has been on the market for several years. Its sale ranks as Sydney's highest since Altona sold last March for $52 million elsewhere in Point Piper. A $28.5 million sale took place last month, just a few doors along Wolseley Road, nicknamed Millionaire’s Row, was a nascent sign that the prestige market activity was finally gaining slight momentum.
The buyer was not immediately identified, but was Australian, according to The Australian newspaper exclusive report which then inaccurately reported its sale price as $48.5 million, around $10 million plus more than Property Observer quickly gleaned it actually fetched. The News Ltd publication subsequently amended its likely selling price to $38.5 million and advised the buyer was the SummitCare Australia aged care provider Peter Wohl.
Source: The Australian
First listed in 2011, Ron and Odetta Medich had hoped for $55 million for the property.
Agents had estimated the Medich home was worth close to $40 million in February 2011 when Title Tattle first reported its offering.
The initial and eventual selling agents were Ken Jacobs of Christie's International and Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker Double Bay, with prestige conjunctional agents having periodically introduced potential buyers. One agent was due there this week with a buyer, so was advised not to bother.
Title Tattle gathers the buyer first saw the property two years ago.
Inspections have been difficult to secure given the acute sensitivity of the listing.
It is understood the local buyer was introduced by Savills International agent Martin Schiller.
Seemingly going against the trend towards Chinese acquisitions, estate agents who'd taken international Chinese buyers through the home, indicated they had faced buyer hesitation given the circumstance of the listing. They also had fears that FIRB approval would not be forthcoming. It ought be noted that while the nationality of the buyer is on record, their ancestry has not yet emerged.
It was May 2012 when the property was officially listed, having been listed quietly listed for sale, without publicly marketed in print or internet over the prior year.
The Australian architectural studio Katon Redgen Mathieson completed the Point Piper project in 2009 for Ron Medich, who made a fortune with his brother developing industrial sites in Sydney’s west.
His estranged wife, Odetta, has been one of the country's most generous patrons of the arts.
The David Katon-designed house replaced the house bought from the restaurateur Wolfie Pizem in 2003 for $15.1 million.
Pizem had bought the 780-square-metre property for $160,000 in 1978.
At the time of its initial listing, one agent quipped that the Medichs' art collection was worth far more than the house. The artworks include poolside Tasmanian tiger sculptures by Caroline Rothwell. The internal walls of the four-storey house come with extensive artworks of mostly photographic works.
Despite all the ructions, there's been no caveats or refinancing on the official land title for the past three years. The last refinancing was in mid-2009.
Pleading not guilty, Medich, has been charged with the September 2009 murder of businessman Michael McGurk, who was killed by a single gunshot outside his Cremorne home on Sydney's lower north shore.
He will stand trial in the Supreme Court on August 25 with the proceedings expected to last three to four months.
The Crown alleges Medich, who was embroiled in legal disputes with Mr McGurk, conscripted then friend and associate ex-boxer Lucky Gattellari to carry out a hit.
