SMH reports Top 20 most expensive Sydney apartments JONATHAN CHANCELLOR July 10, 2010

Sales of prestige penthouses have slowed to a trickle across Sydney, although the land subdivision developer with a penchant for premium properties, Duncan Hardie, has offloaded his apartment in The Rocks this week.

It’s been bought by the newly appointed Tourism Australia chief, Geoff Dixon, and his wife, Dawn, for $7.75 million. It has the quintessential Sydney postcard view across Campbells Cove to the Opera House and up towards the Harbour Bridge.

The Hickson Road penthouse had been listed by estate agent Jaime Upton, who is bound for Harrods Estates in London. It spreads across two floors in the redeveloped 1912 Bond Metcalfe building. It last traded for $10 million in 2007.

Late McDonald’s chief Charlie Bell was its first buyer, spending $8,525,000 in 2003 for the 330 sq m space after its refurbishment by Nettleton Tribe Architects for Tjeerd la Grouw’s Amstal Property Group.

At one point Hardie had intentions of eventually relocating to the penthouse planned for the Ashington development on Wylde Street, Potts Point, but, despite its $20 million off-the-plan sale, Ashington has abandoned its development.

The site remains unsold and the Office of State Revenue has lodged a caveat over the title in March, pursuant to land-tax issues.

Treasure Hunts

The chairman of Greenhill Caliburn, Peter Hunt, and his wife, Ellie, hold the mantle of the past year’s highest apartment sale, topping the list of Sydney’s top-20 unit sales and settlements for the recent $12.2 million settlement of their late-2008 off-the-plan purchase in the luxury Waillea apartment block opposite Queenscliff Beach at Manly.

It takes up the entire 600 sq m top floor, with 180 sq m of outdoor space. The 13-unit North Steyne project, designed by Susan Rothwell and then Sandberg Schoffel, has floor-to-ceiling glass and travertine-stone floors. It comes with a lap pool and entertainment area. I

t replaced three 1950s-style buildings for the North Steyne site initially consolidated by Bob Ell’s Leda Holdings. The Hunts bought from developer David Kavanagh before the building was out of the ground, with the record-setting sale secured through Alicia Ross-Ryan of Ray White Manly.

There are five units still in the developer’s ownership, with two exchanges expected soon through Ross-Ryan and Anthony Calacoci. The Hunts were trading up from their nearby North Steyne apartment, which sold last September to Basil and Diane Feros from Yellow Rock on delayed settlement terms for $4.42 million.

Gladswood tidings

About $9 million was secured earlier this month by oil trader Kirk Lazarus for his Gladswood Villas, Double Bay, harbour-front apartment through Bart Doff and Sally Hampshire at Laing+Simmons Double Bay.

The three-bedroom, four-bathroom unit, with 520 sq m of indoor/outdoor living space, is set over two levels on Gladswood Gardens. It had been decorated by Nicholas Tobias since being bought by Lazarus from Maxwell Hunt for $3.85 million in 2001.

It’s one of three within the European-inspired block developed by Ian Joye’s Coronet Investments. It first sold for $2,325,000 in 1990.

First things first

Just off the list, the Koundouris Group secured the first sale in its New South Head Road apartment development in Rose Bay last month. The four-bedroom penthouse apartment sold off the plan through Julian Hasemer of 1st City – Hasemer+Caldwell.

Eyles and in conjunction with Double Bay agent David Newgrosh for $6,565,000. The design has been done by David Katon with bespoke variations commissioned by the purchasers. The penthouse comes with parking for three vehicles. Prices for the remaining units start at $3.9 million.

Still on offer

Retired bookmaker-turned-financier Bob Blann has yet to sell his Elizabeth Bay apartment. It’s on the prestigious Billyard Avenue harbour-front. Blann, who bought last year at Palm Beach for $11,975,000, secured the 479 sq m sub-penthouse at a then-record $10.5 million in 2008, which Doff still expects to top.

Elizabeth Bay’s most recent sale was a reputed $12 million off-the-plan sale in the Belltrees redevelopment next to Arthur McElhone Reserve on Onslow Avenue. Construction works are now under way in the Wolanksi family’s project.

Just along the hillside strip, bulky-goods property developer Tony Benjamin sold his Darnley Hall, Elizabeth Bay, penthouse last year for $8.1 million to Paul Longmuir and Elaine Kwan.

Putting off the Ritz

The penthouse on top of the Ritz at Cremorne Point is still on the market with the mortgagees. Anything above $9 million would set a north shore record. The Milson Road penthouse, with four bedrooms and six bathrooms, spreads over 400 sq m.

It includes a rooftop terrace and garden with space to entertain 300 guests. It’s listed through McGrath agent Hamish Robertson in conjunction with Martin Schiller at Savills.

The mortgagee listed the apartment after the developer, Simon Symond, who was weighed down by a stalled shopping centre project at Toongabbie, lost control of it during the global financial crisis.

The penthouse, which took Symond a decade to develop, was completed for occupation in 1996.

Sienna dominates

The financial year’s top-20 apartment sales and settlements list is dominated by sales late last year in the Sienna development on Wolseley Road, Point Piper. The top price was $10.25 million for the apartment with the boat shed.

The unit was listed through LJ Hooker Double Bay agent Bill Malouf, who secured the bulk of the sales. The apartments fell into the control of financiers in December 2008, just before completion by the Bezzina Group.

Model Kristy Hinze and her husband, Jim Clark, were its highest-profile buyers. Also on the list were two apartments in the Wintergarden block in New South Head Road, Rose Bay, and two in Sydney Wharf, Pyrmont.

No small beer

Sydney’s most expensive penthouse also remains listed, with hopes of finding a buyer with close to $30 million. Occupying the 11th floor in the Bennelong building in Macquarie Street opposite the Opera House, it has been home to retired publican Cyril Maloney and his wife, Margaret.

It’s been listed through Michael Pallier of Raine & Horne Double Bay. The Maloneys bought the four units off the plan in 1999 for $13.9 million before converting them into a vast 715 sq m home.

Bennelong still best

Sydney’s priciest sale stands at $16.8 million in 2008 for a 12th-floor unit in the Bennelong block overlooking Circular Quay. It was the final part of plans by the Moran family – of Moran Health Care – to merge three units into a mega-apartment sprawling over 577 sq m after spending a total of $22.4 million during the past few years.

The former chairman of private bus operation Westbus, Jim Bosnjak, secured the most recent sale in the Toaster complex. His latest sale fetched $6.5 million, while his earlier offering changed hands for $6.96 million in April last year.

The initial sale was for $41,000 a square metre and the more recent at $32,000 a square metre. The adjoining fifth-floor units could become a 370 sq m residence, given Bosnjak sold both to the pie-making Allen family.

The top 20

* price not officially recorded

Source: Newspaper reports and sale databases