Lawyer Sarah Cooke sells Point Piper trophy home for about $40m

Expat lawyer Sarah Cooke, the wife of Monaco-based hedge fund trader Dominic Redfern, has sold her Point Piper trophy home for about $40 million.

The sale comes 18 months after it was first listed for sale with jaw-dropping $60 million hopes.

The designer residence is one of the most expensive sales this year, but settlement will reveal if it tops the estimated $40 million price secured earlier this month for the nearby Wolseley Road home of Sydney Football Club chairman Scott Barlow and his wife, Alina.

Alex Lyons of Raine & Horne Double Bay was unable to reveal the sale price or comment on the buyer, confirming only that it had sold late on Tuesday night.

Lyons had most recently listed it with a $40 million to $44 million guide with the Raine & Horne principal Ric Serrao.

Cooke purchased the 960-square-metre waterfront property in 2006 for $7.95 million from father and son builders Gustavo and Angelo Ferella, who at the time were embroiled in a costly dispute with their neighbours, the Otvosi family, over their own plans for the site.

Cooke commissioned the designer three-level residence by architects James Stockwell and Jonathan Temple, with the job further developed by award-winning architects Huw Turner and Penny Collins.

The striking residence features a roll-call of high-end finishes, from the vaulted copper ceiling, Wondabyne sandstone and karri hardwood to the marble cabinetry and islands in the kitchen, custom joinery in the home cinema and a poolside spa and shower room on the harbourfront.

It is one of only three houses on prized Wingadal Place, set in the protected inlet of Point Piper with views to the Harbour Bridge. Next door is the more than $100 million mansion of Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond. The other neighbour is stock trader “Andy” Wenlei Song, who bought it for $60.66 million five years ago from luxury car importer Neville Crichton.

The sale comes amid one of the biggest property booms in decades. Among the top sales this year was a boathouse, also in Point Piper, which sold for more than $37 million amid widespread rumours it was bought by News Corp heir apparent Lachlan Murdoch.

Point Piper also claims the fourth-highest sale this year. A waterfront house once planned for redevelopment by convicted murderer Ron Medich was later an investment property of Seven’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam before it sold in March for more than $32.5 million. An adjoining block of land has an option on title to sell for about $27 million.