Gough Whitlam sells Darling Point pocketing 8.46% annual property price inflation
The Darling Point apartment of Gough Whitlam, Australia's 21st prime minister, and his late wife, Margaret, has been sold.
The three-bedroom apartment in the Marathon Place complex sold for $1.35 million 10 days before its scheduled auction through McGrath agents Ben Collier and Bernadette Berlyn.
The second-floor late 1960s Marathon Road apartment had been the Whitlams' home since December 1975. It had cost $65,000 when bought in July 1975 from the Peken pastoralist family from Nocoleche Station, Wanaaring, who had first sought to offload it at a November 1974 auction.
The Pekens had paid $65,000 15 months earlier, shortly before Australia entered into recession when growth contracted by 1.2% in the year to the December quarter of 1974 and continued into the March quarter 1975, when it contracted by 1.1% through the year.
The Facer Watts agency had marketed the Darling Point block's 10 three-bedroom units, with Frank O'Neil-designed swimming pool,with prices starting from $39,500 in late 1968.
With views across Double Bay around $1.2 million had been expected for the 104 square metre apartment. Gough Whitlam secured 8.46% annual price appreciation.
The Whitlams moved there from The Lodge in Canberra after Gough's government was dismissed by the Governor-General Sir John Kerr on November 11, 1975.
The former prime minister now resides at Lulworth, the St Luke's aged care facility in Elizabeth Bay.
Margaret Whitlam died in March.
"They dearly loved the apartment and enjoyed their time living there,'' McGrath agent Ben Collier told the local paper."Aside from its lovely views, the apartment is private and close to all the cafes and village life of Double Bay – an area they loved.''
