Simon Mordant's mere $50,000 gain after decade in Darling Point: Title Tattle

Writer Melanie Hershon, the daughter of the late ragtrader Michael Hershon, has emerged as the buyer of the Darling Point penthouse of the arts philanthropists Simon and Catriona Mordant.

It was sold two months ago after seven months on the market.

The apartment had been for sale with $6 million-plus hopes through Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay.

Title Tattle suggested it could fetch around $6.5 million on its February listing, but it sold for just $5.3 million to Melanie Hershon whose writing career has included stints at Ita magazine, editorship of the annual Sydney Morning Herald Weekends Away magazine and of Portfolio, the first women's business magazine in Australia.

Melanie Herson's Darling Point acquisition had been bought by the Mordants from the retailing Fleming family in 2002 for $5.25 million.

Her father, who died in 2007, was dubbed "the Brassiere Supremo" as head of the Hestia-Berlei company among his various business ventures. Hestia was the lingerie business that his father, Edward, and mother, Serena, started with two sewing machines after arriving in Australia as Austrian refugees.

Hestia was a Greek goddess, although it became better known across the country for the irreverent acronym Holds Every Size Tit In Australia.

Michael Hershon was also a highly regarded property developer. The nearby Retford Hall apartment building in Darling Point was among the high-rise residential developments constructed by Progress and Properties, a company associated with Michael Hershon and other property legend Tibor Balog.

Another whole-floor penthouse sold for $5.7 million after being listed by the Gowing retailing family in Retford Hall.

The 18th-floor Retford Hall penthouse has been sold to another resident within the Thornton Street block, who could potentially ambitiously connect the apartments.

The Mordant apartment, unencumbered by any mortgage, was a 349-square-metre penthouse that spanned two levels in a Darling Point Road building designed by architects Peddle Thorp and Walker.

The Mordants listed the property in February following their $10.8 million purchase last year of a garden harbourfront Point Piper apartment in the Elk Developments project.

The year's highest-priced apartment in Darling Point has been the Salacia, Yarranabbe Road penthouse of the hotelier Solomon family to Neil Sutton of the Suttons motor family, who already lives in the complex.

PO