Gai Waterhouse springs into Melbourne apartment high society: Title Tattle
Despite horse trainer Gai Waterhouse's tell almost-all, effervescent chatter about buying in Melbourne, it was actually the past year's hardest property purchase to actually track down.
But Title Tattle belatedly can report just where the Melbourne Cup winning trainer and her husband, Robbie Waterhouse bought in Melbourne.
It's a whole floor Spring Street apartment which cost $4.3 million. It's within Melbourne's Spring Street precinct that certainly has property pedigree.
It had been advertised through the lowkey agent Gina Donazzan at Melbourne Boutique Property.
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Title Tattle gleans the three bedroom apartment covering 385 square metres sits on its 11th floor perch with two car spaces.
There's four balconies with views over the Treasury, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Treasury Gardens, Parliament, Exhibition Building, even apparently the Dandenong Ranges.
It had last sold in 2007 for $3.82 million with The Age's then comprehensive Domain coverage labelling it as having a sense of space accentuated by high ceilings, an easy-flowing floor plan, a pale colour scheme, large rooms and an abundance of glass.
The 2007 vendor was then Skilled Group Ltd boss Greg Hargrave. This time it was sold by the Perth couple Donato Fini and Victoria Cole.
It seems Greg Hargrave couldn't stay away from the precinct as he has just spent $4.08 million to buy in the penthouse in the nearby, exclusive 99 Spring Street residential block.
It's the level-25 penthouse that looks down over the Parliament and Treasury precinct.
The 420-square-metre apartment was initially listed in October 2011 with $5.25 million hopes through Anton Wongtrakun of Dingle Partners.
The Hargrave apartment was the one sold by the Holmes a Court family for $2 million in 2003.
The Perth business tycoon, Robert Holmes a Court had paid $160,000 in 1980 then adding a $150,000 purchase in 1981. It was his base when he made the sharemarket raids on the nearby Melbourne icons, The Herald & Weekly Times in 1982 and BHP in 1985.
It was then considered Melbourne's ultimate penthouse, but ofcourse has faced strong competition from new contenders over recent times. And now visual interference possibily from the forthcoming Windsor redevelopment next door along with the proposed redevelopment of the former Naval & Military Club site nearby at 27 Little Collins Street.
99 Spring was one of Melbourne's first apartment towers in the CBD evolving into one of Australia's most exclusive addresses.
The Packers, Potters and Robert Holmes a Court all have been among the country's rich who've had a bolthole within the tower through the decades.
Kerry Packer's former Melbourne bolthole, which cost $383,000 in 1983 with another $360,000 to make up the whole floor, was among the other 2013 sales. It fetched $3.15 million.
The Packer family had secured $1.5 million from the Leighton Holdings' chief operations officer Bill Wild and his wife Dianne for the 372-square-metre 12th floor apartment, in 2000. It has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, three living and dining areas, a study, two kitchens and two secure carparks.
Apartment 152 at 99 Spring Street remains listed through Kay & Burton having been listed early last year. Spanning around 200 square metres, the two bedder has been listed through Monique Depierre. It last sold at $1.1 million in 2006 when bought by George Stamas.
Over the years the who's who has included Lorraine Podgornik, wife of the late property developer Floyd Podgornik, who paid $725,000 in 1994 for an apartment that first sold in 1977 for $185,000. The psychiatrist and author Ainslie Meares was one of the first residents to move into the building. The restaurateur George Tsindos who ran the prominent Bourke Street restaurant Florentino's until 1979, called a 16th floor apartment his handy home.
Title Tattle's 99 Spring building spy says a recent buyer was the former ABC boss, Jonathan Shier who paid around $1.55 million, the cheapest sale last year in 99 Spring Street.
It was bought from the Margolin family - zoo keeper Emmanuel Margolin, truly one of Sydney's larger than life characters, who bought the Bellevue Hill mansion, Barford on his arrival from Melbourne in the late 1960s where he'd been a car dealer.
Shier, now a consultant sold his sub-penthouse in Ikon, at Potts Point, Sydney in late 2012 for $3.8 million. The 17th-floor Macleay Street unit sold through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox from Richardson and Wrench Elizabeth Bay. The three-bedroom pad was bought for $3.5 million in 2005 from the Laing + Simmons founder turned property developer Spencer Simmons. With two large balconies, the Ikon apartment cames with over 250 sq m of indoor/outdoor entertaining space.
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