Rose Porteous draws the curtains on Deco Toorak property excitation: Title Tattle

Having placed a $4.5 million vendor bid at its March auction, Rose Porteous has now secured about $5 million in post-auction negotiations on her redundant Toorak abode. The Perth socialite bought the Irving Road house (pictured above and below) for $4.75 million in 2007. The Georgian-style residence comes with a double-height entrance hall. It was listed with Phillip French and Jeremy Fox at RT Edgar. The three-bedroom, four-bathroom house comes with lift access. The sale draws the curtain on Porteous's plentiful Toorak property plays, which have filled the city's society columns for much of the past decade.

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The five-time winning skipper of Sydney to Hobart yacht race winner Wild Oats XI, Mark Richards, and wife Gaenor Meakes have listed their Mosman semi-detached house (pictured below), with plans to build a larger house for the family. Richards told the Mosman Daily that with four children, it’s time to upsize. It’s been the home of the managing director of Palm Beach Motor Yachts since he paid $750,000 in 2003. The three-bedroom, two- bathroom 1910 house is set for May 5 auction through Stewart Gordon of Belle Property Neutral Bay. More than $1.3 million is tipped for the Rangers Road two-storey Federation semi, which was fully renovated in 2005. The Richards were briefly looking for $1.5 million late last year.

It’s like motherm like daughter when it comes to Chippendale warehouses. No sooner had Judith Neilson, the founder of the White Rabbit Collection, one of the world's most significant collections of Chinese contemporary art, splashed out $7,975,000 (including GST) on what will be her residential warehouse, but daughter Beau, a curatorial assistant at the gallery, has gone and bought herself a nearby warehouse. The 310-square-metre space cost $3.1 million. The White Rabbit Gallery, a converted former knitting factory on Balfour Street, which has four floors of exhibition space as well as a theatrette, a library and a teahouse, cost $4.6 million in 2007.

The Darling Point home of the late Roddy Meagher, who was perhaps the most loquacious of latter-day judges, has been sold. It went to auction with price hopes of $3 million plus, having been his home for 40 years. The three-level Darling Point Road terrace, which sits on a 322-square-metre block, sold through LJ Hooker Double Bay agents Alain Waitsman and Emma Barbour. Roderick Pitt "Roddy" Meagher, AO QC, died aged 79 last July.

Peter Butler, the former managing partner at Freehills and one of the nation’s top litigators, and his wife, Jillian, have secured $7.9 million for their Mosman waterfront on Sydney’s lower north shore. Kallaroo (pictured above), the contemporary four-bedroom house towers above the harbourside pool with pavilion, which predated more restrictive planning regulations. There is also a deep-water jetty and a pontoon. There’s lift access to each level from the four cars garage. McGrath agents Michael Coombs and Scott Thornton had been hoping for $9 million plus since last November. It cost $6.4 million in 2003.

The former Val Morgan chief executive Terry Savage, chairman of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and his wife, Cheryl Wannell, the general manager of the secretariat of the Screen Advertising World Association, have sold their Bayview estate for $3 million. It had been listed through LJ Hooker agents Ryan PETRIE and Gordon Spring with $4.6 million expectations in May 2010. Set on a 4,125-square-metre block, the residence has a tennis court, heated pool, spa and children's playground. The property on Minkara Road had been their Sydney base since 1999, when it cost $2.25 million. They intend to maintain a smaller property near the waterfront on the Pittwater peninsula, which cost $3.35 million in 2010.

Canberra restaurateur Paulie Higgisson has listed her contemporary NSW south coast retreat. Higgisson, who owns Tilley’s Devine Cafe Gallery in Lyneham, has the Bawley Point, had the house designed by architect Alan Greene. The four-bedroom house set about two hours’ drive from Canberra, has easy beach access, being at the edge of Batemans Marine Park. Daily visits from whales and dolphins to your front yard has been the sales pitch by Damian and Bill Lyristakis of Berkely Residential. With offers due by April 27, the price guide is about $1.5 million. She tried to sell it through Sydney agents in 2010 with $1.68 million hopes. Higgisson recently sold her nearby 778-square-metre Harrington Crescent vacant oceanfront block. It had been listed at $849,000.

Dubbed as one of Orange pick rural properties, the Hattersley family’s Stirling and Bellview Farm offering (pictured above) was passed in at its mid-week auction at $3.7 million through rural property agency Meares and Associates. Agent Sam Triggs said there were 40 enquires and a large number of inspections. The homestead was constructed in 1991, with 700 square metres under roof, to a design by local architect, John Blackwood. The farm has an established 58 ha vineyard, most planted between 1997 and 1999, at an average density of 1,854 vines per ha, which produces for the Hattersley’s Belgravia wine label.

 

And Title Tattle likes to tell readers of sales as soon as they happen, if not before, so the word is that Little Milton (pictured above), the Toorak house of late Corona group executive John Batkin, has apparently been sold by his widow, Monika, almost a year after hitting the market last May. The heritage-listed 1926, five-bedroom Albany Road house sits on the corner of Whernside Avenue, with a tennis court atop a 12-car underground garage on its 2,476-square-metre block. It is English Arts and Crafts style by architect Muriel Stott in landscaping by Edna Walling. RT Edgar's Jeremy Fox was marketing Little Milton with some $13 million price expectations reported at the time. But it’s seemingly been sold by Michael Gibson of Kay and Burton for certainly more than $10 million. Perhaps even more than $11 million is the guess of buyers’ agent Mal James who's noticed that while price at the top end might be iffy, buyer interest isn't.

There's also been a reputed $12 million-plus sale of one of the many homes listed on Kooyongkoot Road, Hawthorn. It was an off-market private sale, so only Marshall White agent Marcus Chiminello knows anything about the sale by Craig Parsell, who was Hong Kong based when he bought it in 2002 for $3.45 million. It's got a tennis court on its 2,788-square-metre offering.