A Low blow, but still a sale Margie Blok September 10, 2011 Be the first to comment Click for more photos $6m Castle Cove mansion This Castle Cove home, with panoramic views of Middle Harbour, sold through Savills for $6m, after failing to sell when first advertised for $8m last year.
For months estate agents have noted expensive properties will attract buyers only if ''the price is right''. But during the past few weeks, when agents discuss values of prestige properties in a broad range of suburbs from Dural to Vaucluse, Title Deeds has gleaned ''the new pricing'' is the latest catchphrase falling from their lips.
Early this week, evidence of this new pricing was seen in Castle Cove following the $6 million sale of a landmark mansion that was listed with $8 million hopes late last year. Sold by Hong Kong-based expat banker Andrew Low, who left Macquarie Bank 14 months ago to establish RedBridge Grant Samuel, an Asia-focused investment banking business, the distinctive circular-shaped residence stands on a huge block of waterfront reserve land with sweeping north-easterly views of Middle Harbour and surrounding bushland.
Of colossal proportions, the five-bedroom, six-bathroom residence has been owned by Low since 2003 when he bought it for $4.55 million.
Advertisement: Story continues below An Asia-based family snapped up the Neerim Road property a few days short of its closing date for expressions of interest through Savills agents Adam Ross and Shayne Harris with Raine & Horne World Square agent Michael Zhu.
Drive a bargain Priced to meet the market at Dural is the vast estate of Phil Gilbert, a long-established and hugely successful car dealer, and his wife, Jenny.
Listed for sale at $4.35 million through Sandy Ward of Ray White Dural, the two-hectare property has been owned by the Gilberts since June 1994 when they bought it as a bare block for $1.1 million.
The empty-nester couple have lived in the vast six-bedroom, six-bathroom residence since it was completed in 1997.
Approached by a winding driveway lined with tulip trees, the house is surrounded by magnificent gardens designed by Peter Glass.
In the sprawling grounds are a covered outdoor entertainment pavilion, a wet-edge pool, an ornamental lake, competition-size synthetic-grass tennis court, horse stables and four irrigated pony paddocks.
Keenly priced to meet the market, the property is estimated to have a replacement cost of more than $6 million. The Gilberts intend to move to Hunters Hill, where they recently renovated a house they've owned for many years.
Fashion item Also competitively priced and certain to attract interest is the southern highlands home of fashion retailer Belinda Seper, whose business, Belinda International, has been placed in voluntary administration.
Named the Grove, Seper's Burradoo property is listed for sale at $1.25 million through the principal of Drew Lindsay Real Estate, Drew Lindsay.
Occupying a 2617-square-metre block in Osborne Road - one of Burradoo's most prestigious addresses - the renovated four-bedroom house has been beautifully decorated by Seper.
Set at the end of a long driveway, the house stands in established gardens with a north-facing courtyard and a pool.
In the grounds is a separate self-contained guest or staff cottage. Seper began her fashion empire in 1992 with a boutique in Double Bay.
The business grew into an international conglomerate of high-end fashion stores employing more than 70 staff from Sydney to Johannesburg. Seper's stores sell glamorous high-end imported labels from European fashion houses such as Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs and Lanvin.
Rags to riches In Paddington, successful fashion stalwarts John Recek and his wife, Gerry, have listed their long-held home because the couple is looking at a lifestyle change.
Listed for October 29 auction with price hopes of more than $5 million through McGrath agent James Dack, the Paddington Street house last traded for $880,000 in 1994.
Set behind a high wall and gated entrance, the three-bedroom residence stands well back from the street on a level 483-square-metre block that includes a swimming pool and a separate private studio.
John is the managing director of Simona, a privately owned family business (founded in 1963 by his mother, Inge, and her husband, George Fonagy), while Gerry is its sales manager. Inge still works at Simona's head office three days a week and the Receks' daughters, Jackie and Kelly, work in its design and retail departments.
A Victorian secret Also in the eastern suburbs, the redundant Woollahra residence of Ainslie van Onselen, the wife of author and political commentator Peter van Onselen, is set for October 1 auction through McGrath's Ben Collier.
In a row of historic Victorian gingerbread houses on Waimea Avenue, the two-bedroom cottage is expected to fetch about $1 million.
Earlier this year, the couple moved to Vaucluse in a Russell Street house they bought for $3.4 million from the O'Moore family.
One of Paddington's most expensive houses, the Leal family's five-bedroom residence on a double block in Paddington Street, also has been listed by Collier, with $11 million hopes.
Spur of the moment At Berry, a magnificent lifestyle property named Sequoia has been snapped up by the chief executive of JPMorgan Australia and New Zealand, Robert Priestley, and his wife, Alexandra.
On 1.95 hectares in Mount Hay Road, the property sold for $4.85 million to the couple, who live on the waterfront at Mosman.
Originally marketed with $6 million hopes through Christie's agent Ken Jacobs, the property was sold by design entrepreneur John Pegrum, who bought it as a bare block for $70,000 in the early 1980s.
With 270-degree views across green velvet dairy farms to the ocean, Sequoia occupies a spur of land on the escarpment high above historic Berry village.
Pegrum created and nurtured its extensive gardens decades before he built a modern four-bedroom residence and swimming pool in 2001.
