Isla Fisher bought her first home in Sydney as a teen. She’s selling for $1m

Hollywood heavyweight Isla Fisher has only ever owned one home in Sydney, buying a Woollahra apartment aged 19, just six months after she first appeared on television screens as Shannon Reed in the soapie Home & Away.

It was 1995 and Fisher paid $171,500 for the two-bedder in the late art deco block Wiltshire Towers.

She has done well since, and not just in terms of scoring a starring role in hit movies like Wedding Crashers, Confessions Of A Shopaholic and The Great Gatsby.

Almost 30 years after she purchased it the apartment returns to the market with a $1 million guide through Michael Minogue, now at Justine Kidnie’s JK Agency.

The pad comes with an estimated rental return of $780 a week, having been slashed from $680 a week in 2018 to $400 a week after COVID hit. It mirrors the fate of another high-profile listing this week, the Dulwich Hill investment house owned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which had its rent slashed to $660 a week then.

Fisher’s selling plans come a few months after she and Sacha Baron Cohen announced they had quietly split last year.

Equestrian upgrades

The Burradoo equestrian estate, Stables on Songline, owned by former V8 Supercars driver Paul Weel and his wife Emma has been listed for sale, which will be no surprise to regular readers.

In May, the Weels emerged as the $14.5 million buyers of the Bowral property Highground after an impressive “paint and paper” renovation by Tom and Emma Lane of the Oroton fashion family.

The Weels are recent arrivals on Southern Highlands property records. They purchased Songline in 2021 for $7.2 million, complete with the full suite of equestrian facilities, including an Olympic-sized arena, four barns, stables with wash bays, and a tack room.

The five-bedroom residence has since scored new interiors by designer Sue Robbie, as well as a new kitchen, barbecue terrace, extra bathroom and a nine-car shed.

DiJones’s Bradley Cocks has set a guide of $7.85 million.

The Weels were formerly Queensland trophy home owners, but sold their Gold Coast home earlier this year for $16.95 million to billionaire political aspirant Clive Palmer.

Cammeray highs

The Cammeray trophy home of architect, developer and former restaurateur Dominic Choy and his wife Irena is up for sale with hopes of $28 million to $30 million, which, if sold at that level, would double the suburb’s highest sale result.

Choy has done well since arriving in Australia aged 15. He founded a chain of restaurants in the 1980s, developed The Peak apartment building at Haymarket and debuted on the Forbes rich list in 1993.

And yet, it is his daughter Dominique who is by far more famous. A former pop princess and model, she is a rapper known as Dizzy Dizzo and is married to Taiwanese actor Sunny Wang.

The Choys have lived in Cammeray since 1997, when they bought their 1300-square-metre property on the deep waterfront, setting a suburb high of $3.78 million.

The six-bedroom, six-bathroom residence was listed earlier this year with hopes in the mid-$30 million range but has been relisted recently with Atlas’s Adrian Bridges. The suburb high was set at $14 million earlier this year.

Listing kicks off

A rapid-fire campaign to sell the Lilyfield home of rugby league personality Paul Kent was kicked off this week ahead of a September 28 auction and a $4.2 million guide.

The freestanding house with four bedrooms on almost 300 square metres last traded in 2018 for $2.35 million but returns to the market amid a torrid time for the former Daily Telegraph columnist and Fox Sports presenter.

In July, he pleaded guilty to affray after he was caught on camera in a drunken brawl outside a Rozelle pub and was sacked by News Corp in May.

Initially listed with a $4.2 million guide, it was dropped to $3.8 million on Friday by Raine & Horne’s Alex Lyons.

Bayview’s Versailles

Chris Gregg, who founded financial software company Lightyear, and his wife Justine have purchased Bayview’s landmark Chateau Narla for $13.85 million.

The couple paid cash for the luxury acreage, and it comes just months after Lightyear was acquired by UK Software giant Access Group.

The six-bedroom, 10-bathroom mansion with tennis court and swimming pool and “curated gardens that mimic a Versailles Chateau” was initially listed with $20 million-plus hopes by Thompson Controls chief Glenn Botha but revised to $14 million before it was sold by Christie’s Darren Curtis and Belle’s Greg Griffin.

Still with tech entrepreneurs, Timebeat’s David Snowdon and Rani Snowdon have purchased a house in South Coogee for $17.15 million.

David Snowdon founded the tech company Metamako, which was acquired by Silicon Valley computer networking giant Arista Networks in 2018.