Golfer Craig Parry tees off for $10m sale of waterfront Abbotsford house

Veteran pro golfer Craig Parry has long divided his time between his homes in Orlando, Florida, and his waterfront mansion in the Abbotsford, but expect to see more of him on the northern beaches given plans to downsize from his Sydney residence.

Parry had planned to buy a waterfront house in the eastern suburbs after he won a US tour event in 1994 but when an agent dismissed his enquiries as out of his price range given how he was dressed he turned on his heel and returned to the Inner West.

As he told the The Age at the time, he exchanged to buy the 1700 square metre waterfront property in Abbotsford later that same day. Records show he paid $825,000.

Nine years later Parry – known as “Popeye” for his impressive biceps – added a  Newport waterfront weekender for $3.2 million, and bought the house behind it the following year for $835,000.

The Abbotsford property – previously owned by the late art dealer Tom Mathieson – was rebuilt about 20 years ago into a three-level residence with all the mod-cons you’d expect of a suburb trophy home. Think home theatre, multiple studies, steam room, sauna, pool, spa, putting green, tennis court, marina berth, jetty, pontoon, slipway and 53 metres of waterfrontage.

The $10 million guide on his Abbotsford property is expected to top the suburb high set at $9.5 million in 2017 when spiritual healers Mina and Yvon Attia, of the Celebrate Freedom ministry, sold the house next door to 27-year-old Yangyang Tu, a director of the Northern Territory cattle farm Tutee Farms.

Tim Le, of BlackDiamondz Concierge, who set the suburb high next door, is taking expressions of interest on behalf of the Parrys until May 17.

Ashton sells up in Darlinghurst

The two-bedroom apartment with the plush interiors and artful nudes on the wall for sale in Darlinghurst begged the question: who owns the lavishly appointed home that is on offer for $1.1 million by the owner herself.

That would be the home of Madison Ashton, the famed Sydney escort and former mistress of the late cardboard king Richard Pratt, who failed in her bid to sue his estate for a multimillion-dollar claim but became one of the most high-profile escorts in the process.

Ashton’s home, complete with mirrored walls, chandeliers and Greg Natale finishes, has been recreated since it was bought in a company name in 2012 for $735,000 from Hollywood actor and director siblings Joel and Nash Edgerton.

But Ashton isn’t planning to move far. Prompted by the lack of nightlife thanks to the lock-out laws – “this is a lot of money to pay to live here when there’s no longer the street culture there once was” – she is planning to sell up and move to the CBD.

Given the move, Ashton is also set to list another two-bedder in the same block she bought in 2011 for $677,500. Renovated throughout with Olga Lewis interiors it is reluctantly offered for $900,000.

Inspect by appointment.

All the right moves

Goldman Sachs managing director Zac Fletcher has had an impressive start to 2019. He was appointed co-chief operating officer with Nick Sims of Goldman’s investment banking in February about the same time as he bought a beachfront weekender in Palm Beach.

Better yet, the $10.35 million purchase (currently configured as two three-bedroom dwellings) has one of the few beachfront boat sheds on Snapperman Beach.

David Edwards, of LJ Hooker Palm Beach, was billed with negotiating the sale, but declined to comment.

A rifle through historic records shows it has been held by the Esdaile family since 1957 when it was sold by the late hotelier Vincent Toohey.

The sale comes as the market welcomes a decent line-up of listings in the lead-up to the looming Easter holiday, and nicely in time for the federal election day rush when locals return to their “principal place of residence” to vote.

Take The Wedge House in Whale Beach, one of the early offerings of architect Peter Stutchbury that was built in 2001 for lawyer Deon Hubner and his wife Kim, co-founders of the ocean conservation charity Living Ocean.

The couple bought the hillside property in 1998 for $520,000, and commissioned the designer residence complete with Phoebe Pape gardens.

David Edwards is asking $3 million to $3.3 million.

Then there’s the Palm Beach weekender of corporate big wig Ken Borda and his wife Karen up for $6.8 million.

This is the hillside property on the high side of Florida Road, above Gretel Packer’s weekender, that Borda bought in 2002 for $2.995 million from former financial executive John Mills and his partner Greg Clark.

Borda retired as chairman of oil and gas producer Santos in 2015, the same year he upgraded his city bolthole in The Hyde selling his level-11 apartment for $2.82 million to buy a larger three-bedder upstairs for $3.56 million.

Given plans by the Bordas to purchase and undertake their own grand design in the suburb, LJ Hooker Palm Beach’s Peter Robinson has set a May 8 auction.

Murrays farewell Vaucluse

John Murray, who leads boutique advisory Aitken Murray Capital with Angus Aitken, and his wife Kathryn have swapped the Vaucluse mansion of expat currency trader Ivan Ritossa for a Point Piper triplex.

Corporate records show the couple have been cooling their heels in Ritossa’s Vaucluse property in recent years since they sold their nearby house in 2012 for $4.9 million.

Records show the Murrays paid $3.42 million for the top floor apartment in a 1920s block of three that was sold by Sally Hampshire, of Laing + Simmons Double Bay, on behalf of Lisa Barakat.

From Point Piper to Woollahra

Healthcare businessman Glenn Haifer and family have joined the well-worn downsizer track from Point Piper trophy home to Woollahra, buying a $6.3 million house.

The six-bedroom residence with swimming pool was sold by Sotheby’s Michael Pallier to the Haifer family following the sale of their half-renovated Point Piper beachfront home Deauville in late 2017 for $39 million to luxury car importer Neville Crichton.

Just what the doctor ordered

The downsizing plans of medico Stephen Simmons and his writer wife Carla is hoped to set a new record for South Coogee in the vicinity of $11 million.

The couple bought the dramatic clifftop residence in 2010 for $7.125 million, and have renovated extensively since then.

The five-bedroom, six-bathroom residence with media room, sauna, spa, gym and swimming pool is hoped to top the $8.5 million high set in 2015 by barrister Nancy Mikhaiel.

Nader Hotait, of Ray White Marboura, is taking expressions of interest until May 24.