Laser Clinics co-founder Alistair Champion buys $20m Rose Bay beachfront digs

Alistair Champion, the Laser Clinics Australia co-founder  who featured on the AFR’s Young Rich List until he turned 40 two years ago, has ended his recent trophy home hunting efforts by buying a beachfront house in Rose Bay with his wife, Kate.

The home of the late Susan Feller, OAM, was listed with $20 million hopes in August by Sotheby’s Michael Pallier, who declined to reveal the buyer or sale price, leaving it to independent sources to reveal Champion’s purchase. Settlement will reveal the sale result.

The Collins Avenue property was bought by the Feller family in 1989 for $4.15 million from art historian and critic Sandra McGrath, wife of banker Tony McGrath, and a redesign by architect Michael Suttor commissioned by the Fellers soon after. Another redesign followed in 2014 by architect Susan Rothwell.

The Champions are no stranger to renovations of their own. Their Woollahra mansion Icilus that they bought two years ago for $13 million has been renovated throughout since then, and the result shown off in the August issue of Vogue Living.

No sign yet if the Champions plans to sell Icilus, but expect to see an orderly queue of Woollahra agents line up outside the Woollahra property just in case.

Manly’s fairy grants a wish

Manly’s Fairy Bower has reaffirmed its place as the Point Piper of the northern beaches thanks to the recent high of more than $17 million secured by the beachfront reserve home of outdoor advertising boss Ray Balcomb and his wife, Julie.

Credit for the bullish result goes to Tracey and James Smail, the latter of whom founded the giftware, toy and homewares distributor Independence Studios in 1987 and sold it two years ago to Marlin Brands.

Clarke & Humel’s Michael Clarke and Cherie Humel were hoping for more than $16.5 million when two buyers went to head-to-head for the property, forcing the result well above expectations. The agents have declined to comment, but sources say it went for more than $17 million.

Even with a redesign by architect Vince Squillace in recent years, the result is a decent gain on the $7.25 million that the Balcombs paid for it in 2013, and tops the previous high of $16 million set a year ago when the house up the road was sold by former chief of collapsed education and training provider Vocation Mark Hutchinson and his wife, Sophie.

It remains unknown if Smail plans to sell the double waterfront holding he calls home in Seaforth, but in the tight listings climate he can expect the same sort of queue of agents as the Champions in Woollahra.

Designs on a quick sale

The Woollahra home of medico Machamada Kariappa was no sooner shortlisted for the Woollahra Design Excellence Awards this year than it went up for grabs for more than $10 million.

The 455-square-metre property with a swimming pool (and direct neighbour to Rupert Murdoch’s eldest daughter Prue MacLeod) last traded in 2015 for $6.05 million when sold by Graeme and Susan Shaw, who started New Zealand’s exclusive Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown that is now owned by US hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson.

The Kariappas then commissioned architect Sam Crawford to redesign it behind the 1860s facade, creating a striking five-bedroom residence wrapped around an internal courtyard.

It is listed with James McCowan and Michael Pallier, of Sotheby’s International.

Rose stopping all stations

Former Showtime Australia boss Peter Rose and his wife Christine have set a November 8 auction for their historic cattle farms Bannaby Station and Cross Station near Goulburn.

Rose, a global digital media consultant for Rupert Murdoch’s Foxtel, bought the 1840s-settled Cross Station in 2006 as the 300-hectare property was contiguous with his then hobby farm.

Two years ago the neighbouring 770-hectare Bannaby Station was added to the holding, complete with the historic 1886-built woolshed and shearer’s quarters.

Improvements since have included new fencing, dams and the planting of more than three kilometres of trees.

The properties are being offered for more than $3.5 million together or sold separately through Sotheby’s International’s recently appointed rural director David Medina.

Parisi pair shift waterfronts

Julian Parisi, the former Goldman Sachs investment banker who swapped the world of finance to reignite the family’s wholesale fresh food business with his legendary greengrocer dad Chris Parisi, has bought on the Birchgrove waterfront for $6.3 million with his wife, Cynthia.

Renovation queen Cherie Barber sold the free-standing house after she had undertaken a fitting renovation after spending $4.05 million to buy it in 2014.

It was listed with Cobden & Hayson’s Mark Bowis and Ben Southwell before it sold and comes as Parisi pockets $3.5 million for his Drummoyne waterfront apartment.

Meanwhile, Chris and wife Emily Parisi have traded in their waterfront home in Chiswick for a suburb high of $7.15 million through Matt Ward, of Ward Partners.

The sale result almost doubles the $3.6 million the couple paid for the duplex in 2013 when sold by Mrs Australia 2012 Veronica Cristovao and her property developer husband, Duarte.

Neighbours eye the prize

High-end home owners continue to be the best judge of their neighbour’s home values, as witnessed by sources at the recent auction of the Cary family’s long-held Bellevue Hill home.

The corner house was listed last month with a $7 million guide by Sotheby’s Michael Pallier, Sandy Shuvaloc and Joseph Raskin following the death of Margaret Cary, wife of the Tyndall Property Trust chairman Peter Cary. 

Three registered bidders enthusiastically pursued it before it was ultimately sold under the hammer for $8.3 million to next-door neighbours, optometrist Glynn-Evan Prosser and his wife, Anne.

The Prossers have owned their current Bellevue Hill home since 2013 paying $11 million from Mark Greig, son of the late cricket commentator Tony Greig.

Mystery over Vaucluse sale

Michelle Coe, the widow of the late Allco founder David Coe, has sold her Vaucluse home for more than $12 million.

This is the non-waterfront residence that was bought by Coe in 1999 for $4.275 million when the Coes owned the trophy home next door Coolong, which they sold in 2088 for a then-record of $45 million to currency trader Ivan Ritossa.

Industry watchers say it would have made an ideal buy for any of the immediate neighbours who are keen to expand their waterfront holding. Think Ritossa, property developer Phil Wolanski or banker Ron Malek.

Randall Kemp, of Ray White Woollahra, listed it only briefly before it was removed from websites, and we’ll leave it to settlement to reveal the buyer.