Margaret Pomeranz downsizes from $4.5 million beachfront house in Patonga

Margaret Pomeranz is downsizing from her beachfront home in the coastal hamlet of Patonga, trading in her long-held house amid rumours she has bought $3 million digs nearby.

The TV industry slashie (think producer, actor and writer) was co-hosting SBS’s The Movie Show with David Stratton when she bought the original three-bedroom cottage in 1995 for $345,000. About a decade later the pair of iconic film reviewers moved to the ABC to co-host At The Movies.

Pomeranz listed her long-held cottage with Raine & Horne Ettalong’s Andrew Tregent following her purchase of a smaller, north-facing house on the Patonga creek front.

The sale price remains undisclosed and is understood to have sold for close to the $4.5 million asking guide, making it a runner-up to the local record high of $6.03 million set last year by the purchase of power tool wholesaler David Mills.

That record might change if things go in favour of Teresa Gallagher and Tony Pitt, chairman of ASX-listed funds management group 360 Capital. The couple have a $6 million guide on their beachfront house through Coast Realty’s Stuart Gan.

Patonga is not without a few other identities locally. Cricketer Steve Waugh and his wife Lynette have owned their beachfront house since 1997 and director Neil Armfield has owned there since 1995.

Noosa’s swelling billionaire ranks

Billionaire NBL owner Larry Kestelman has joined the ranks of Noosa’s rich-list set buying a Hamptons-style house on the waterfront for $10 million.

The Queensland holiday hot spot has long lured well-heeled holiday goers, but the profile of buyers has become dramatically wealthier in recent years even by its own cashed-up standards. Recent buyers in the area are mining magnate Gina Rinehart, telco entrepreneur Michael Omeros, stockpicker Geoff Wilson, and Therese Rein and former PM Kevin Rudd.

Kestelman, who co-founded the phone and internet company Dodo which was sold in 2013 for $230 million, is ordinarily based in Melbourne, from where he runs the National Basketball League and chairs his LK Property Group.

His newly acquired five-bedroom house on Noosa Waters with everything from a swimming pool to Ralph Lauren chandelier was sold to Kestelman’s corporate interests by luxury property designer and developer team Trent and Kristy Giumelli.

Meanwhile, Rinehart’s newfound affection for Noosa has spread to the senior executive ranks of her privately owned mining company Hancock Prospecting.

Hancock’s general manager of business development Dan Wade, whose home is a $1.6 million house in Perth, has bought a $20 million house on Noosa Waters after a protracted two-year settlement with no finance required.

Wade signed his name to the title of the waterfront residence in August 2020 just a few weeks before he exchanged on another waterfront house a few doors away for $10.91 million, again with no loan attached.

Wade is a keen follower of his boss’s taste in real estate. His other Queensland property interest is a riverfront house in Brisbane’s Hawthorne bought for $9.9 million just two doors away from Rinehart’s Brisbane trophy home.

Rinehart’s appetite for the Noosa area is fast becoming the stuff of legend given $76 million worth of property interests at nearby Sunshine Beach – including a $34 million house she is yet to settle on and a $9.75 million cottage she recently bought from Therese Rein.

Sharman heirloom

Theatre and film director Jim Sharman, whose productions include 1970s hits The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jesus Christ Superstar, has long shared his Randwick block of four apartments with fellow creative friends and colleagues, but not for much longer given his decision to sell the family heirloom.

An October 8 auction has been set for the pristine art deco building, ending more than 80 years of ownership by the family since it was purchased by his grandfather, boxing tent pioneer Jimmy Sharman.

Records show “Melbourne showman” Sharman paid £5000 for the block in 1941 when his boxing troupe was successfully touring across the country, before his son, also Jimmy Sharman, took over the family business in 1955.

The original condition and abundance of detailed art deco detail likely owes much to the longevity of the Sharman ownership, most recently as Jim’s own home, complete with his studio and office at the rear.

BresicWhitney’s Shannan Whitney and Darren Pearce have a $6 million guide.