Pricey Point Piper's 8 most expensive house sales: Title Tattle
No-one's saying whether Altona's latest sale price is a Sydney record setter.
Its certainly been sold and the vendors, the Miskin family were always holding out for a record $55 million.
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But no price has been revealed, and even through the buyer technically looks like a Melbourne Chinese family, it's possible they are merely fronting for another Chinese buying party. Even its local selling agent remains unknown.
"I wish I was," one agent, who was getting the credit, told Title Tattle after it was suggested she has secured the sale.
1) Point Piper's priciest sale sits with Villa Veneto, the five-storey Italianate villa sold by recruitment entrepreneur Andrew Banks and his wife, Andrea, in August 2010 to dentist David Penn and his wife, Linda.
It reportedly sold in August 2010 for the $52 million plus, details of which emerged in September 2010 through me, with its official settlement not available until its Valentine's Day 2011 settlement.
Villa Veneto's final payment appeared to Title Tattle as being a second instalment of $44 million which came within a labyrinth of sales paperwork dated December 2010.
Some have interpreted the $44 million as its total sale price, while others stick with the initial $52 million sale price which seemingly involved a sizable initial deposit option. Designed by the architect Michael Suttor, the six-bedroom house sits on a 1426 square metre block, set over five levels.
2) The next priciest sale was last month when the McWilliam family secured a reputed $34 million for the sale of the Point Piper harbourfront mansion - nicknamed the Bang & Olufsen house. The three-level residence was built in the mid-1980s by Brian Johnson of Pennant Properties. Singer Elton John nicknamed the house the Bang and Olufsen house due to its distinctive tinted glass stereo speaker design spotting it while sailing Sydney Harbour.
3) Businessman Ben Tilley sold Craig-y-Mor, a neighbouring house on the non-waterfront side of Wolseley Road, for $32.4 million in 2008 to Jiang Mei, the wife of Zeng Wei, the son of Zeng Qinghong, a former influential vice-president of China. Its the highest priced Point Piper non-waterfront sale. Craig-y-mor had been the home of the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin.
4) Gordon Fell set an Australian property record, shelling out $28.7 million in 2007 for Routala from the horse breeder Warwick Miller who had built the Wunulla Road house (pictured below) in 1999 after the 1200 sq m block was bought in 1997 for $8.35 million. Actor Hugh Jackman looked at Routala, as did Russell Crowe, who also inspected Altona in 2007.
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5) The $28 million Altona sale in 2002 was a record price when the Miskin family bought the Wunulla Road house from socialite Fiona Handbury.
6) The smallgoods merchant Paul Lederer and wife, Eve, spent $26 million on Wolseley Road in 2008. The boss of Australia's largest supplier of smallgoods, Primo, bought the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom harbourside house from Patricia De Lorenzo, the widow of the hair-care tycoon Vincent De Lorenzo.
7) After 13 months on the market, the McWilliam family paid $24 million in late 2006 for the so-called Bang & Olufsen house after which they removed some of the more 1980s-suited marble, glass mirrors and brasswork. It was bought from the Taechaubol family.
8) Villa De Mare (pictured below) was bought ought by Julia Ross for $21.5 million in 2004. It was bought from the entrepreneur Nati Stoliar, his wife Miki. Ross has recently withdrawn the vast limestone palazzo from sale. It stands on 1508 sq m of level land (one of the largest level blocks in the suburb) at the corner of Wolseley Road and Wentworth Street. Set high above the street, Villa del Mare was designed by Chris Norris for the Stoliar family who bulldozed an Espie Dods house on the $8 million Wolseley Road block in 1999. When the sandstone-clad mansion on the corner of Wentworth Street was completed, it was described by Domain property writer Margie Blok as ``the antithesis of understatement". The wisteria-draped verandahs of the three-level mansion come with iconic views across the harbour to the city skyline, Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The property is across the road from the Villa Veneto harbourfront.
