Hardie Grant's John Gerahty buys Max Whitby's $12.5 million digs in Potts Point

Hardie Grant chairman John Gerahty and his wife Patricia look set to join the well-heeled downsizers of Potts Point given they’ve forked out $12.5 million for the sub-penthouse of legendary punter and racehorse owner Max Whitby.

Whitby did well on his pad in the Ercole Palazzetti-designed digs in the Villard, having bought it for $6.6 million in 2012.

No clue yet whether the Gerahtys will hold onto their Mosman home, but they certainly made a good impression on property records last year when they sold their recently built contemporary residence at Palm Beach for $18 million to hedge-fund manager Rob Luciano.

No sooner did Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay’s Jason Boon sell Whitby’s pad than he has kicked off 2019 by listing the nearby north-facing penthouse in Rockwall Apartments of retired car dealer Laurie Sutton for between $12 million and $13 million.

Sutton is another Palm Beach local nowadays, having bought the trophy home Kalua for $22 million in 2012 from businessman Ian Joye.

Sutton bought the penthouse with killer city skyline and harbour views in 2011 for $8.85 million from CBD Business Systems director Bill Smith.

Hopes hinge on trophy home success

Press scion Alexander Ma and a cohort of fellow recent big-ticket property buyers are no doubt hoping there’s no hangover coming after last year’s trophy home bonanza.

After all, the 29-year-old son of Hong Kong press baron Peter Ching-kwan Ma has a March 18 auction date set for the Vaucluse mansion he bought in 2017 for $26.5 million.

The sales campaign follows his purchase of two waterfront houses on nearby Carrara Road for close to a total of $55 million late last year, on which he plans to build three dwellings.

There’s no price guide on offer for Ma’s property, but it owes him more than $28 million given $1.8 million stamp duty. Peter Leipnik and Alex George, of their newly minted outfit BadgerFox, have the listing.

Making a deal in Bellevue Hill

Clark Perkins and his wife Marguerite, have set a March 4 auction date on their Bellevue Hill residence having already decamped to the $29.5 million Vaucluse waterfront residence Loch Maree they bought late last year from hotel mogul Jerry Schwartz and his wife Debbie.

Perkins, known as a prolific dealmaker as head of private equity firm Mercury Capital, bought the Cranbrook Road residence in 2007 for $8.1 million when it was almost newly built by Dunkley Developments.

James McCowan, of Sotheby’s International, is asking $8 million.

A quantum leap for Burcher

Property baron Stephen Burcher isn’t short on waterfront options given he already has the super yacht Quantum and added a $12 million beachfront house in Palm Beach to his portfolio last year, so it’s little wonder he’s planning to downsize from his Rose Bay residence to something land-locked around Woollahra.

After all, how much waterfront action does the Burcher Property Group chief executive need?

The Rose Bay residence is by far the pick of the portfolio, however. The three-level residence was bought in 2010 for $12.5 million from developer Michael Issa and his wife Anastazija Balaz, and since then has scored a Bruce Stafford renovation throughout with landscaped garden by Anthony Wyer.

Privately set on a battle-axe block with a four-car garage and gun-barrel views to the Harbour Bridge, it’s yours for $25 million.

Ben Collier, of The Agency, is taking expressions of interest until February 22.

Departing from the dress-circle

Prominent businessman Danny Bhandari looks like he’s already vacated his Centennial Park home ahead of the recent sales campaign launched by Sotheby’s International’s Michael Pallier.

This is the Tobias Partners-designed residence billed Centennial House and set on dress-circle Martin Road that was commissioned after Bhandari and his wife Anita bought it in 2009 for $8 million from international lawyer Adrienne Showering.

Bhandari, the co-founder of Tibra Capital and board member of Venues NSW, was best known in 2016 for scoring a place on the BRW Young Rich List but made headlines a year ago when he resigned from the board of Cricket Australia after a second-grade cricket match incident in which he made “avoidable hand contact to the head” of an opponent.

The contemporary five-bedroom residence with a gym, yoga room, pool and self-contained quarters is up for $13.5 million to $14 million.

Clovelly cottage in the news

Sky News presenter Ticky Fullerton looks like she won’t be pressing ahead with the recently approved DA plans for her charming sandstone cottage in Clovelly, instead putting it up for a February 23 auction.

The long-time ABC reporter was a Cremorne Point local when she bought the 1880s property in 2002 for $1.15 million, making her only the second owner and ending 132 years of Kennedy family ownership.

The sale plans come just six months after Fullerton married Australian Financial Review editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury.

The Agency’s Bethwyn Richards is asking $2.3 million to $2.5 million.

It’s Curtins for Woolwich

Olympic rower Bryan Curtin and his wife Minhee are downsizing from their villa in Woolwich, Eversley, which has an asking price of more than $11 million.

Curtin, who rowed for Australia with his brother Richard in the 1972 Munich Games, swapped a Birchgrove waterfront for Woolwich in 1986 when he bought the north-facing waterfront block with private jetty and 12-metre pool for $1.6 million.

McGrath’s Tracey Dixon is taking expressions of interest until March 8 for the 1500-square-metre property.

On the other side of the Woolwich peninsula there are selling plans for the long-held home of Helen, Catherine and Andrew Glad, the grandchildren of great Australian artist and writer Norman Lindsay.

The late Jane Glad, Lindsay’s daughter, bought the 1300-square-metre property on The Point Road in 1965 for £11,200.

It returns to the market for more than $5.5 million, again through McGrath’s Tracey Dixon.

Medich at home in Hunters Hill

The Medich family have also reappeared on the Hunters Hill peninsula property trail.

Property investor Roy Medich’s daughter Kim Medich has paid $7.4 million for a six-bedroom house in an off-market deal through BresicWhitney’s Nicole Robertson.

The house was built about 15 years ago by developer Danny Hanna, and sold to Medich by Karen and John Hexton, long-time corporate director of Inghams.

Carrs looking for new digs

As founder and chief executive of Bubs Australia Kristy Carr and her husband Jeremy have done well on the back of China’s insatiable appetite for Australian organic baby food and formula products.

So, it is perhaps unsurprising to see their contemporary Newport home hit the market for $4.5 million amid talk the couple are upgrading locally.

The five-bedroom residence with pool was built by father and son luxury builder-developers Andrew and Roy Walsh in tandem with the contemporary house next door and then sold to the Carrs in 2013 for $3.05 million.

Lachlan Elder, of LJ Hooker Mona Vale, has the listing.

Bubs Australia shares have rocketed to 54 cents this week, up from 18 cents two years ago thanks to its strong Chinese sales and the opening of Bubs’ corporate daigou channel.