Locals like Pat Cummins, Geoff Gallop cash in on Sydney's eastern beaches property boom

From North Bondi to Coogee, Sydney’s eastern beachside suburbs are riding the heights of the city’s property boom – and don’t many of the high-profile locals know it.

Cashing in on soaring median house price rises of between 10 and 30 per cent are the likes of former Western Australian premier Geoff Gallop, waterfront reformer Chris Corrigan and even star Finnish restaurateur Tomi Bjorck.

None of this has stopped Test cricketer Pat Cummins from buying into the Bronte market, with sources pinning the purchase of historic Victorian manor Figtree House on the fast bowler for about $9.5 million.

It’s a handsome upgrade for Cummins and his fiancee Becky Boston from the Clovelly apartment he purchased as a first-home buyer in 2013 for $1.36 million.

Alexander Phillips, of PPD, wouldn’t be drawn on the sale of Figtree House, despite listing it with a guide of $7.9 million on behalf of Anthony and Nikki Moustacas, owners of Double Bay’s Indigo Cafe. However, he conceded the prices being paid didn’t make sense to many out-of-area Sydneysiders, even those in traditional blue-chip harbourside suburbs like Bellevue Hill and Point Piper.

“There are a few expats in the mix of buyers, but overall it’s mainly locals driving the demand because they get it,” Mr Phillips said. “They appreciate the tight sense of community and village atmosphere that each of these suburbs has nowadays.”

Fueling the local market was last weekend’s record $20.1 million sale of former world-champion yachtsman James Mayo’s Bondi Beach penthouse under the hammer to the founder of one of the largest online gambling websites, Joshua Chan, through The Agency’s Ben Collier.

Also cashing in on Bondi Beach is Valerie Corrigan, wife of former Patrick Stevedores boss Chris Corrigan, leader of a union-busting push on the waterfront more than 20 years ago.

The couple’s penthouse atop the Cadigal building, purchased nine years ago for $7.3 million, has sold on the quiet for about $12.5 million. The Agency’s Edward Reid wouldn’t comment on the deal, but a caveat on title reveals it was bought by Thomas and Christine Deutsch, parents of F45 gym chain founder Rob Deutsch.

The strongest performing market is Clovelly, where house medians have jumped 29.9 per cent in the 12 months to December, according to Domain figures.

Cue the market launch of the Clovelly home of former Western Australian premier Geoff Gallop and his wife, Dr Ingrid van Beek, given the couple’s plan to move to their long-held weekender in Bundeena near the Royal National Park.

Gallop, the former chairman of the Australian Republican Movement and now Emeritus Professor at Sydney University, and Dr van Beek, who set up the medically supervised injecting centre in Kings Cross, purchased the house in 2010 for $4.15 million soon after they married. Belle Property’s Daniel Gillespie is yet to set a guide.

And as North Bondi’s median price has posted an almost 12 per cent rise over 12 months, Finnish celebrity chef and host of Masterchef Finland Tomi Bjorck and his wife Minka have listed their four-bedroom semi with a pool and glass sauna.

Raine & Horne’s Ric Serrao says setting a guide in this market is difficult given the shortage of stock is forcing buyers to offer more than expected, but he adds the Bjorck house should be compared to recent sales of between $5.3 million and $6.1 million.

In Bronte, where the median has risen 19.7 per cent, the beachside home of entrepreneur Irene Caldwell-Ash has sold off-market for about $12 million, with locals pinning the purchase on Louise Harden, wife of reinsurance boss Mike Harden.

That follows the recent sale of Rove McManus’s recently renovated Bronte home for more than $14.5 million.

The Hardens sold their Tamarama home earlier this year for about $14 million, reportedly to Guzman y Gomez co-founder Steven Marks.