Record-setting Woolwich riverfront mansion back on the market as saga continues

For sale signs have again appeared at the record-setting Woolwich riverfront mansion which last sold for more than $11 million in 2007.

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom Italianate home with a pool, beach, jetty and pontoon has been listed for August 29 expressions of interest through David Ward at Ward Partners.

It had previously been scheduled for May 7 auction by the National Australia Bank, which had repossessed the Angelo Street house. But it was pulled from auction after internal water damage.

In April police investigated a break-in at the property during which taps in the kitchen and several of the six bathrooms were left running for days, causing serious damage. Just before the first scheduled opening for inspection, the real estate agents arrived to find the house awash.

As a result, the five-bedroom mansion, with its manicured gardens, was withdrawn from its scheduled May auction.T he water damage was the latest development in the intriguing real estate saga, which has been the talk of the prestigious Hunters Hill peninsula.

Just before Christmas 2010 Judy Obeid, the wife of the recently retired NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, entered into a contract to buy the property from the mobile phone seller Mick Hakim.

The off-market transaction was cloaked in secrecy with the Hunters Hill peninsula rife with whispers about the deal.

"My wife has exchanged on the property but it hasn't settled yet," Eddie Obeid told the SMH after being spotted overseeing the watering of the gardenias at the property.

But the sale at an unconfirmed $8.5 million price unravelled, as Hakim’s financiers sought to control the sale process.

For much of 2010 the house had been on the market with a price tag of $13.5 million.

Some 14 groups attended the July 30 2011 open for inspection.

“We are under instructions from NAB to sell the property by expression of Interest closing 5pm on August 29, noting that the previous sale in 2007 was $11,005,000,” David Ward noted.

“The property is looking in good shape with full security in place and several good offers have already been submitted,” he says.