Bowral's Bellagio estate sold for $8.2 million, ending four-year sales campaign

The Southern Highlands trophy home market has scored a fillip thanks to the sale of the grand Bellagio estate in Bowral for about $8.2 million.

The sale ends a four-year sales campaign by builder Roy Alvaro and his wife Wendy, and comes not long after the initial hopes of $12 million were revised down to $8.75 million this year.

It is expected to be the highest sale result since October last year when the Wattle Ridge property was sold for $8.25 million by Murdoch Media boss and Rupert Murdoch’s nephew Matt Handbury and his wife Clare Strang.

Knight Frank’s Deborah Cullen, who was the latest in a long line of listing agents over the years, declined to reveal the sale price, but preliminary records have put the result at $8.2 million.

The Southern Highlands record high has remained unbroken since 2007 when the 200-hectare Sutton Forest property Comfort Hill was sold for $15 million to the late Reg Grundy.

The Alvaros’ opulent 20-room mansion was inspired by the villas that line the clifftops of Bellagio overlooking Lake Como in Italy, with the Alvaros including the construction of a lake in the design to give the Bowral property a seaside feel.

The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom residence with a commercial-grade kitchen, separate caterer’s kitchen, self-contained guest accommodation, two cellars, a library and 10-car garage was completed in 2008.

Six years later it was listed with initial hopes of $12 million that were reduced to $10 million early last year.

It tops this year’s highest Southern Highlands sale result of $7.25 million for Springfield Farm sold by fashion designer Collette Dinnigan to interior designer Kinchem Hegedus, wife of property veteran Peter Barge, through John Renouf, of Drew Lindsay Real Estate.