Hong Kong press baron CK Ma gets real in Watsons Bay with $17.5m hopes

Hong Kong press baron Ching-Kwan Ma has got serious about selling his long-held Watsons Bay waterfront home, dropping his $20 million asking price of the past five years to $17.5 million.

Michael Dunn and Glenn McMillan, of Richardson & Wrench Double Bay, have launched the new sales campaign with a June 25 expressions of interest deadline.

C.K. Ma, also known as Walter Marr after he changed it by deed poll in 2001, is best known internationally as the owner of Hong Kong’s media empire Oriental Press Group whose family founded the group’s flagship newspaper, Oriental Daily News, in 1969.

Ma bought the waterfront property on more than 1000 square metres with a private mooring in 1992 for about $2.1 million, and undertook a major renovation soon after.

In 1993 he made headlines when he paid about $130 million for the Hilton Hotel from the receivers of the late Alan Bond, and then sold it back to the Hilton family in 2000 for a reported $200 million.

Ma’s son Alexander Ma recently reshuffled his own local real estate when he listed his Vaucluse mansion for $30 million and sold it in March, and spent $55 million on two waterfront houses on Vaucluse’s Carrara Road to redevelop them.

A darling of a buy

Rachel Laundy, the former wife of publican and reality TV contestant Stu Laundy, has returned to the property market following their split five years ago, buying a “strata maisonette” in Darling Point for $2.55 million.

Laundy has been absent from property titles since she and Stu sold their Mosman home in 2014 for $4.8 million to Carina Shanyu Huang, daughter of Chinese billionaire and Beijing lobbyist Xiangmo Huang.

Three years later Laundy’s profile skyrocketed when he appeared as a contestant on The Bachelorette reality TV show, and won the heart – albeit only for six months – of Sophie Monk.

Records show Rachel Laundy’s purchase through Bradfield Cleary’s Georgia Cleary was from long-time Westfield senior executive David Ruddick, now based in the US as executive vice-president of Unibail-Rodamco Westfield.

Cosying up in Clontarf

Racehorse owner and property investor Paul Fleming and his wife Allison have bought their matrimonial home, paying what sources say is about $7 million for a Clontarf residence on waterfront reserve.

Fleming, the son of the late grocery tycoon Jim Fleming, was previously a Mosman local before he sold his waterfront home on Shellbank Avenue in late 2017 for $11.05 million to fund manager Charles Genocchio.

The Flemings’ new home is no slouch in the luxury stakes. Spread over four levels and set on Bradys Point the five-bedroom residence has a wet-edged pool and views across both the The Spit and Sandy Bay with direct beach access.

Jake Rowe, of Rowe Partners, declined to reveal the sale price but was asking $7 million-plus before it sold.

Trading places in Fairy Bower

Outdoor sports advertising boss Ray Balcomb and his wife Julie are trading places on Manly’s exclusive Fairy Bower thanks to their recent purchase of more than $10 million.

The former Duffys Forest locals snapped up the Californian bungalow of Aircraft Supplies Industries managing director Mark Langbein ahead of the scheduled auction through Michael Clarke, of Clarke and Humel.

The 1400-square-metre property on the high side of Bower Street is expected to be a renovation job for the Balcombs before they move in, given the high-end work they undertook on their Duffys Forest acreage before they sold it a year ago for a suburb high of $10.25 million.

Locals say we can expect to see the Balcombs’ oceanfront residence, also on Bower Street, that they bought in 2013 for about $7.25 million hit the market soon for more than $15 million with the combined efforts of both Jake Rowe and Michael Clarke.

Saying cheers to Point Piper

Hoteliers Joanne Cassar and Michael Higgins look set to swap Milsons Point for the Point Piper waterfront following Cassar’s $8.7 million purchase of a penthouse in the Sienna building through buyer’s agent Peter Kelaher.

Tim Abbott, of Ray White Lower North Shore, had a $9 million guide on behalf of Qingxiang Shi, who bought it new for $8.25 million in 2009 after the developer Michael Bezzina went into liquidation.

Cassar and Wiggins are the owners of the Oxford Hotel in Drummoyne which they bought from Iris Capital Group for $33.5 million in 2015, having sold the Royal Exchange Hotel in Surry Hills that same year for $19 million.

Stacking on another bolthole

Paul and Fionna Stack, of Stacks Finance and the Stacks Law firm family, might be based in Taree but they’re not short on Point Piper boltholes either given they’ve bought a third apartment in the 1930s building Troon building.

The $2 million ground-floor pad in the art deco block of five was sold by a company solely owned by Sameh Ibrahim, executive chairman of consultancy service Property Development Systems, who in turn also paid the same $2 million figure for it in 2017 from former Telstra boss Ted Pretty.

The Stacks first bought into the building in 2003 when they bought the whole-floor penthouse for $2.8 million, and added a first-floor apartment late last year for $1.655 million through Richardson & Wrench’s James Dunn.

The Stacks now have majority ownership of the well-positioned Wunulla Road property and certainly the requisite 75 per cent if they wanted to try to force a redevelopment of the block.

Logistics prove sound in Ocean Pines

Early tech investors Charles and Claire Gibbon look like they have cashed in on some of the success of logistics software company WiseTech Global given their $11.3 million purchase of the South Coast property Ocean Pines.

The property set a South Coast auction high for fashion pioneer Robby Ingham when it sold under the hammer for about $3 million over the reserve at the highly contested auction of Ray White’s Craig Pontey and Neil Campbell. It was left to a caveat lodged on title to give away the buyer’s identity.

Ingham had paid only $7 million for the 40-hectare oceanfront site in 2012, and the only material improvements since were new fences and a bore. More expensive would have been the DA-approval for a 3000-square-metre residence by architect Nick Tobias thanks to an appeal to the Land and Environment Court.

The WiseTech Global chairman founded venture capital fund Shearwater Growth Equity last year just months after he bought the 1850s Woollahra home of artist Elizabeth Wadsworth for $9.5 million.

The couple are no strangers to the South Coast, having long owned a weekender in Bellawongarah down the road from the weekenders of WiseTech Global’s billionaire founder Richard White.

On the move from Randwick to Bronte

Roger Feletto, managing director and co-head of investment bank Greenhill Australia, looks set to swap his Randwick home for Bronte given his wife Alison’s recent off-market purchase for $9.35 million.

Rumour has it the architect Mary Ellen Hudson-designed residence was sold by Bethwyn Richards, of The Agency, in an off-market deal. The property last traded in 2015 for $8.45 million when sold by Scott and Jo Springett, who commissioned it.

No sign yet what the Felettos plan for their Randwick home.