Michael Willesee jnr and Allison Langdon move to Bronte: Title Tattle
Sky News reporter Michael Willesee jnr and his journalist wife, Allison Langdon, who works on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes, have bought in Bronte after selling their Randwick apartment. The couple, who married in 2008, spent $2.05 million on the renovated two-storey house (pictured above) that boasts three separate living areas. There are four large double bedrooms plus one guest bedroom and three bathrooms, a study and a sunroom. Its Laing and Simmons Double Bay selling agent Stephen Zoellner described it as a flawless family home with magnificent period features including ornate ceilings, timber floorboards and picture rails.
Their Randwick apartment was sold for more than $1.7 million. It was a 251-square-metre three-bedroom apartment with views to Coogee that cost $1.65 million soon after the building was completed five years ago.
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Respected art advisor Justin Miller – best known for his lengthy stint at Sotheby's – has sold his parkside Sydney city apartment (pictured above) pre-auction through Vicki Laing and Simon Polito at Laing Real Estate. It had been tipped to sell for about $3.3 million. The buyer only inspected the three-bedroom 30th-floor north-facing apartment in The Hyde on Wednesday, and the confidential paperwork got signed Thursday. Set in a residential tower standing opposite Hyde Park on Liverpool Street on the former Stockland office site, Miller had paid $2,949,000 off the plan from Stockland in late 2006. The 186-square-metre apartment has views of the city skyline, park and harbour. The apartment comes with two car spaces and a storeroom, which adds another 29 square metres to its title.
The 1890 Ashdon Farm (pictured above and below), one of the most vibrant farming properties in the Macedon Ranges, has been sold for about $2.4 million by Bob Talbot, the past president of the Australian Wagyu Association. It was snapped up after being offered for the first time in 33 years, shortly after Talbot and another adman Graeme Samuelson formed Samuelson Talbot in 1978. The 75-hectare farm comes with a modest homestead sets in mature parklands overlooking a lake, which has had the unmistakable influences of designer Paul Bangay.
It seems the cattle were prized, as they have an architect-designed covered cattle yard. The farm was utilizing the very best Japanese full blood Wagyu genetics to produce big volume animals with the highest quality carcass qualifications for international markets. Tom May and Beverley Higgs at RT Edgar Real Estate Macedon Ranges aren’t saying who the buyer was, but Title Tattle gathers it was Mark and Melissa Duggan of Hawthorn.
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Title Tattle normally leaves the political commentary to Laura Tingle at the AFR, but can't resist noting that Peter Garrett’s former Liberal opponent for the Kingsford Smith electorate, Michael Feneley, has bought back into the coastal Sydney electorate. But only by 250 metres from its border with the Wentworth electorate. Feneley, the director of cardiology and the Heart Lung Program at St Vincent's Hospital, got an 8% swing in the 2010 election and could be expected to seriously challenge if he runs next time. Seven years ago he and his wife, Marnie, built on a 247-square-metre Hewlett Street, Bronte property that sold earlier this month through McGrath agent Bethwyn Richards, who was apparently looking for $5 million plus.
The Feneleys are moving to St Marks Road, Randwick, where they bought Rathven from gastroenterologist Terry Bolin and his physio wife, Robin, for $6.3 million, a suburb record. The deal was negotiated through Bill Bridges of Ballard Property. Rathven, the rarely traded 1887 residence, is a six-bedroom, six-bathroom Italianate colonial villa that sits on a 2,117-square-metre block with an 18-metre pool, a spa and a tennis court. It was heritage listed in 1979 by then planning minister Paul Landa after 72 residential apartments were proposed for the site. It last traded, derelict, in 1982 for $410,000.
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House lots are being subdivided off MFS founder Michael King's former Gold Coast hinterland polo estate Elysian Fields (pictured above) with prices starting at $720,000. King, who is selling the estate on behalf of his financiers, has subdivided a 59-hectare holding into five lots. The lots are pitched at the equestrian community. The lots in Elysian Fields range in size from 3.1 hectares to 40 hectares and range in price from $720,000 to $850,000. Four of five lots have houses. Canungra Realty agent Lawrie Phillips says the size is right for “tree change'' buyers and will particularly appeal to horse owners. The land sale by King began more than three years ago. Proceeds of the sale will repay the property's mortgagee, with any surplus going to creditors of King's private companies.
King secured a personal insolvency agreement with creditors – mainly margin lenders – in 2009 after the $2 billion collapse of MFS in 2008. Part of the agreement, which has about six months to run, required him to manage the sell-off of the Elysian Fields estate. The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that following the latest lots, Elysian Fields would have shrunk to about 40 hectares from its 187-hectare peak. The district’s big buyer in recent times is mining magnate Nathan Tinkler, who bought 57 hectares of Elysian Fields for $4.55 million in 2010. Over the past two years Phillips says Tinkler has helped put Canungra on the map among the equestrian community. Phillips describes Tinkler as “a bit of a Pied Piper'' for the Canungra region after investing more than $20 million on a series of acquisitions around Wadham Park, which has since been renamed Patinack Farm.
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The Kew house dubbed "The Stawell House" (pictured above) has been sold. The internationally celebrated house graces the cover of new coffee-table book Australia's Best Houses. It’s been bought by George Sykiotis, one of the restaurateurs behind Made Establisment, who have seven restaurants in Melbourne – The Press Club, Little Press and Cellar, Maha, Hellenic Republic, P M 24 and St Katherine’s, with the seventh venue, Mama Baba, having opened in January in South Yarra. The property has its own website, https://26stawell.com, created by its recent seller David O'Donnell, who works in IT although at one stage he gave up his day job to concentrate on an emerging sideline enterprise as a developer. More than $3 million was tipped for the Stawell Street house listed through Kay & Burton agent Sam Wilkinson and Scott Patterson.
The Minimalist house covering three levels sits in a quiet nook off Studley Park Road. Likened by the architect, Michael O'Sullivan, who is part of the Vibe Design Group, to a 1960s-style stereo cabinet speaker, the house won an early prize following its completion in January 2011 when it was awarded as best residential design for a new house with over $1 million construction costs – and most innovative use of glass – in the Building Design Association of Victoria awards.
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The Coogee home (pictured above) of Jennifer Hawkins, the former Miss Universe, television personality and swimwear designer, and her fiance, Jake Wall, has now been listed with a $2.3 million asking price. It was passed in at December auction on a $2.5 million vendor bid through McGrath agent Adrian Bo and then listed with a $2.6 million asking price. The 2003-built Coogee property, with three bedrooms and three bathrooms, cost Hawkins $2.27 million in late 2008. The main bedroom comes with ensuite, dressing room and terrace. One of its ultra-modern bathrooms has a Japanese agape spoon bath. Its third bedroom could be a home theatre or home office. There’s a private rooftop terrace with ocean views as well as a cellar – all a stroll to Gordon’s Bay and Coogee and minutes to shops, cafes and transport. Much of the house, including a feature wall of Florence Broadhurst-style wallpaper, pre-dates Hawkins’ 2008 purchase. The couple moved out of the Moore Street townhouse several months before the December auction in anticipation of construction of their northern beaches home in the Windy Dropdown gated estate.
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And don't say Title Tattle told you, but it’s taken just a few days for the snappy sale of one of Portsea’s Easter auction listings. Dundonald, the five-bedroom, three-bathroom 1917 limestone residence opposite Fishermans Beach, has been sold. It’s been sold by the Boykett family within one week of its first-ever listing. Set on 1,724 square metres of level lawns on the corner of Point Nepean Road and Relph Avenue, more than $2.75 million was being sought. James Buyer Advocates suggests it fetched about $3.2 million through Kay & Burton Portsea agent Liz Jensen.
