Hotelier Marcus Levy gives up on off-market, lists Vaucluse house for $21.5 million

The optimism of spring often shakes a few secret high-end offerings onto the market for all to see, and this season is no different. Take the launch of the Vaucluse residence of hotelier Marcus Levy and wife Vanessa Sanchez-Levy for $21.5 million.

This is the recently completed Andrew Tzannes-designed house that was in the sights of Winky Chow last year before she instead picked up the Darling Point trophy home of freight and transport boss Terry Tzaneros for $31.8 million.

It would have been an ideal purchase given Chow’s father, Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing, lives across the road in the $70 million mansion La Mer, which he bought from James and Erica Packer in 2015.

The residence has been rebuilt since it last traded for $6.36 million. Photo: Supplied

The Levys purchased the Wentworth Road property in 2015 for $6.36 million and commissioned the contemporary three-storey residence with five bedrooms and bathrooms, study, home cinema, gymnasium, rooftop terrace and swimming pool complete with Hare and Klein interiors.

Danny Doff, of Laing+Simmons Double Bay, has the listing.

The glamorous property features Hare and Klein interiors. Photo: Supplied

Meanwhile, Sanchez-Levy’s developer brother Chris Sanchez and wife Kate have bought a $6.375 million house in Bellevue Hill.

Also making its debut on the market after years of being a rumoured off-market offering is the Point Piper home of Rubicon founder Gordon Fell and his wife, Pip: Routala.

Gordon Fell is selling his architect-designed house in Point Piper. Photo: Supplied

Set at the northernmost tip of Point Piper, it was built in 1999 and designed by architect Michael Dysart with a Myles Baldwin-landscaped garden.

• Related: Australia’s first $100 million sale?
• Related: Rubicon founder’s home lists for $55m
• Related: Sydney Uni chancellor buys $20m pad

It briefly set a national high of $28.75 million when sold by horse breeder Warwick Miller in 2007, and returns to the market for $55 million through Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger.

Brad Pillinger has given it a $55 million price guide. Photo: Supplied

Leslies sell holiday home for $2.99m

Five years after former 60 Minutes frontman Ian Leslie and his wife Jan listed their Pittwater holiday home it has sold for $2.99 million.

Ian Leslie has sold this Lovett Bay hideaway. Photo: Quentin Jones

Originally listed with $3.5 million hopes, it has sat patiently on the high-end market shelf until recent months, when the asking price was dropped to $2.99 million by LJ Hooker Mona Vale’s Lachlan Elder, after which it promptly sold.

The former 60 Minutes reporter had talked his wife into buying the 1920s cottage, Wyndella, on two adjoining titles in 1992 for $685,000, and began a restoration project that extended to include landscaping the surrounding bush into a series of interconnecting outdoor rooms.

The Leslies purchased the property in 1992 for $685,000. 
Photo: Supplied

Grounds for an upgrade

The Dural estate of David Ansell, head of Dutch coffee giant Jacobs Douwe Egberts, and his wife, Jodi, has hit the market for more than $7 million, given the couple’s plans to spend more time at their Boomerang Beach holiday house.

David Ansell is hoping to sell his Dural estate for more than $7 million. Photo: Supplied

The two-hectare property with stables and arena, tennis court, pool and a self-contained apartment to go with the six-bedroom mansion has been renovated since the couple purchased it in 2015 for $4.07 million.

Ansell, who sits on the board of Blackmore’s, has listed it with Darren Curtis, of Christie’s International.

The property includes stables, a tennis court, a pool and a self-contained apartment. Photo: Supplied

Wright stuff on offer

The landmark Castlecrag house with its distinctive Martello tower is up for grabs, ending 44 years of ownership by retired intensive care specialist Bob Wright and wife Jennifer.

Pangloss, complete with a Martello tower, has hit the market in Castlecrag. Photo: Supplied

The sandstone house (named Pangloss after the eternal optimist from Voltaire’s Candide) was designed in the late 1930s by acclaimed architect Walter Burley Griffin and modified by his associate Eric Nicholls for wealthy Marxist intellectual and founding member of the Communist Party of Australia Guido Baracchi and his wife, playwright Betty Roland.

Retired associate professor Bob Wright, known as the father of the modern NSW Ambulance service after heading up St Vincent’s intensive care unit for more than 40 years, paid $78,000 for the property in 1975.

The sale will end 44 years of ownership for Bob and Jennifer Wright. Photo: Supplied

Expect to pay $3.2 million to $3.25 million at the September 27 auction through Ray White Lower North Shore’s Bernard Ryan.

End of an era in Bellevue Hill

The Bellevue Hill estate of late Singaporean tycoon Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat has sold for $15 million, ending 33 years of Khoo family ownership.

Ngarita in Bellevue Hill has sold for $15 million. Photo: Supplied

It was a pre-auction offer through CBRE Residential’s Robert Alfeldi and his co-agent Bart Doff, of Laing + Simmons Double Bay, which secured the grand 1924-built mansion known as Ngarita.

Khoo purchased it for $1.5 million in 1985 for his then-wife Rose Marie, a year before he was ranked Australia’s richest person by the BRW Rich List with the late Robert Holmes a Court.

The Khoo family had owned the mansion for 33 years. Photo: Supplied

The buyer was 28-year-old Point Piper local Kunyu Zhang, who is a part-owner and director of investment firms Bridgehill Management and FR Agricultural Investment.

Opportunity dawns

Still with the long-held family homes of Bellevue Hill, the grand Federation arts and crafts-style residence Dawn is set to go under the hammer on November 8.

Dawn in Bellevue Hill will go under the hammer in November. Photo: Supplied

It last traded in 1980, when purchased by the late Steven Rich, who created Traveland agency, and his widow, Gayl. It is now held in a company name, of which the co-directors are Gayl’s children Nicolet Long and Jodee Rich, founder of the social networking website PeopleBrowsr.

Original hopes of $16 million when listed in March with another agent have been revised to between $10 million and $11 million by Ray White Double Bay’s Michael Finger.

The price guide now sits between $10 million and $11 million. Photo: Supplied 

Incidentally, expect to see more of Finger and his agency co-director Craig Pontey on the listing trail after they sold the business to the shop’s senior sales gun Elliott Placks.

Ring lands in Byron

Stephen Ring has purchased this Byron Bay getaway at Wategos Beach. Photo: Supplied

Stephen Ring, who in late 2015 pocketed a speculated $1 billion selling the Swisse vitamins business his father started in the 1970s, has bought a Byron Bay getaway on Wategos Beach.

Settlement will reveal how close to the $10 million asking price was achieved by Vicky Innes, of Byron Bay Property, on behalf of art collector Greg Hargrave, former chief of labour hire firm Skilled Group.

The property had an asking price of $10 million. Photo: Supplied

The Marine Parade property last traded for $7.55 million in 2009, when sold by fellow Melburnian, orthopaedic surgeon David Kirwan.

The White House next door was sold in May for $7.6 million by Boorowa farmer Charlie Arnott, of the Arnott’s Biscuits family.