Balmoral House racks up Mosman's first double-digit house sale of the year

Mosman’s historic Balmoral House has sold to a local buyer for about $10.3 million, making it the first double-digit house sale in one of Sydney’s largest suburbs for the year.

There was stiff competition for the grand sandstone residence before it sold for more than double its previous sale price of $4.25 million in 2001.

Details on the sale price and buyer’s identity were not disclosed by ​selling agents Charlie Biddulph and Geoff Smith, of LJ Hooker Mosman, but sources have tipped the result at more than $10 million, with one local putting it at $10.3 million.

Agents say the strong competition on the property in the week before it sold are indicative of how buyers vastly outnumber sellers in the current prestige market.

The landmark sandstone residence was owned by Barclays Global’s former senior executive Bruce Goddard and his wife Vanessa, who originally listed it in October last year for more than $12 million, but failed to score a sale at that level. It was relisted with a revised price guide in January.  

Built in 1908 from locally quarried sandstone and modelled on the villas of the Italian Riviera, it was previously owned by adman Wayne Kingston.

Kingston only owned the five-bedroom property for five years, having purchased it in 1996 under the auctioneer’s hammer of John McGrath for $3.4 million when it was sold by publican Peter Bunting and his wife Chez.

The three-storey residence is set on a north-east facing block of 860 square metres with a swimming pool, and has been renovated and restored in recent years to feature its many period finishes.

Balmoral slopes scored last year’s highest house sale in Mosman.

That high was set at $16.8 million for the architect Alex Popov-designed residence of Donna Doyle, which was sold by Belle Property Mosman’s Tim Foote.

Doyle has since paid $5.95 million to buy the nearby Balmoral home of cricket’s power couple Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc.