How Melbourne real estate agents to the stars sell celebrity homes

Some Melbourne real estate agents have little black books that read like a roll call of the city’s rich and famous.

Stickybeaks are at every open for inspection, but if the vendor is a celebrity or affluent, the privacy stakes are higher.

Luxury real estate agents have seen it all, from fans at auctions to wealthy owners taking security into their own hands.

One eastern suburbs agent said a vendor was concerned about strangers during his Toorak mansion’s open for inspection. So he sat across the road in his luxury car and activated the garage roller door to squash anyone who “didn’t look rich enough”. The agent had to tell him to stop.

At this lofty level of the market, a signature on a contract isn’t the only goal. Discretion and protection is just as valuable as the highest possible sale price.

Pop sensation Kylie Minogue has owned an investment property in Armadale since 1990. However, tenants inspecting the home over the years would have no idea the neat but humble cottage belongs to a global icon.

It is understood agency Williams Batters has long been the rental manager, liaising with Minogue’s London-based office. The agency’s spokesman declined to comment.

This year, Marshall White director Marcus Chiminello​ handled the listing of Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s Toorak apartment.

Chiminello sold the Smorgon family estate in Toorak for about $20 million, and former state treasurer Alan Stockdale’s Armadale warehouse conversion.

He said often a famous vendor’s identity is impossible to detect during open for inspections.

“Generally speaking – for anyone high profile who requires a level of privacy – it is done by private appointment or prior registration,” Chiminello said.

“There is a lot that needs to be monitored and managed during the process   – it is not your everyday home.

“Most homes that we sell, unbeknown to the majority walking through, do belong to someone high profile, whether they are high profile in sport or business, or whatever their field of profession is, and we often have a lot of personal items removed because they can become a distraction.”

Businessman Greg Hargrave, of the Skilled Group, listed in April his landmark South Yarra manor Wavendon, which he bought from movie director Fred Schepisi.

The historic and very private property, which industry insiders speculated would break the $24 million Melbourne house price record, had only one exterior photo in its advertising.

Kay & Burton managing director Michael Gibson, one of the go-tos for the top-end of Collins Street, is representing Hargrave.

Nelson Alexander director Arch Staver – popular among well-known vendors in the hip inner north – said even when a property belonged to a famous face, agents could not  discriminate among prospective buyers.

Staver’s office listed radio comic Hamish Blake’s Gore Street terrace in Fitzroy, and he auctioned actor Vince Colosimo’s Northcote property, both last month.

“It is a bit presumptuous to discount people and you have to treat every inquiry as potentially a genuine inquiry,” he said. “If it is publicly listed and publicly open, I don’t think you should be trying to leave anyone out of that process.”

Staver said high-profile vendors were generally happy to publicly list a property if they had vacated, which had been the case in some of his more recent sales. 

Sotheby’s director Phillip French has tennis star Lleyton Hewitt’s $10 million city penthouse on his books.

He said he carefully screened would-be buyers who wanted to inspect the apartment on St Kilda Road – sometimes, financial bona fides are requested.

French said confidentiality agreements between agents and prominent vendors were not uncommon, and a lot of note-worthy Melburnians chose to sell off-market.

“Discretion is really important, because it is a very small market in our area and people do mingle in the same circles, and their children go to school together,” he said.

Albert Park is a traditional bastion of prestige real estate and Hocking Stuart’s David Wood secured a $12 million suburb record from Flight Centre founder and BRW Rich Lister Geoff Harris.

Earlier this year, he marketed The Project co-host Gorgi Coghlan’s beachfront pad in Port Melbourne, which she sold at public auction just a few days after the Logies.

When V8 car racing legend Mark Skaife​ sent his Toorak family home to auction in February, a die-hard fan turned up. However, he didn’t cause a disruption for RT Edgar auctioneer Mark Wridgway​. For this Holden aficionado, just standing in Skaife’s lounge room was as thrilling as taking a fast lap with his idol.

STAR VENDORS

Hamish Blake
Comedian
SOLD a Fitzroy terrace in August for an undisclosed price 

Vince Colosimo
Actor
SOLD a Northcote terrace in August for $1.81 million 

Livinia Nixon
TV presenter
SOLD a Middle Park terrace on Saturday for $2.35 million

Mark Skaife
Motorsport great
SOLD a modern Toorak mansion in February for $3.92 million

Nick Maxwell
Ex-Collingwood captain
SOLD a weatherboard Spotswood home in August for $1.14 million

STILL ON THE MARKET

US Open winner Lleyton Hewitt‘s supersized St Kilda Road penthouse

Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger‘s grand Prahran Victorian