Michael Clarke gets the jump on Spring action with early launch of Bondi Beach pad for $8m

Cricket star Michael Clarke is getting in early on the spring selling season by listing the Bondi Beach apartment he bought a decade ago from his mate, celebrity accountant Anthony Bell.

Clarke paid $6 million for the three-bedroom spread as his then home, sharing it briefly with model Lara Bingle – now Mrs Sam Worthington – before they split a year later.

In recent years the apartment has been a high-earning investment for the former Test cricket captain, reaping about $5000 a week while Clarke and his wife Kyly kick back in the Vaucluse residence they bought in 2014 for $8.3 million.

Clarke’s 200-square-metre spread in the Cadigal building overlooking the iconic beach has a guide of $8 million exclusively through Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay, easily topping the building’s high of $7.3 million set back in 2012 when downsizer Valerie Corrigan, wife of waterfront reformer Chris Corrigan, bought into the block.

History up for grabs in Woollahra

The historic Woollahra residence Culwulla hits the market this week given downsizing plans by former investment banker-turn-renewable energy head Richard Caldwell.

The Victorian mansion is one of four on Trelawney Street that was reportedly built in the 1880s for the four daughters of the David Jones retail family founder and was owned soon after Federation by federal parliamentarian Walter Moffitt Marks, who named it Culwulla.

Caldwell and his late wife, the highly regarded Freehills partner Fiona Gardiner-Hill, bought the property in 2006 for $6.4 million from former vintner Louise Horsley, wife of Slipstream Resources chief bean counter Patrick Horsley.

The six-bedroom residence with formal and informal living areas is set on 780 square metres with a prized north-facing established rear garden.

Ray White Double Bay’s James Keenan has set a September 11 auction amid expectations of about $10 million.

Bean there, done that in Dural

Bloodstock guru James Harron and his wife Alison have bought back into the prestige housing market following the $5.47 million sale of their Paddington terrace late last year.

The couple have taken to Dural, buying the luxury acreage Aveley from the Australian head of Dutch coffee giant Jacobs Douwe Egberts David Ensell and his wife Jodi through Christie’s International’s Darren Curtis.

It’s a fitting purchase by the boss of his eponymous James Harron Bloodstock given the two-hectare property comes with stables and arena, not to mention glamorous extras like a tennis court, swimming pool, six-bedroom mansion and a self-contained apartment.

Mining good returns in Northbridge

The ripple effect of Gina Rinehart-owned Hancock Prospecting’s $600 million takeover of coal outfit Riversdale Resources is being felt in the Northbridge waterfront market.

Within months of cashing in his Riversdale shares, the group’s former managing director Steve Mallyon and his wife Fiona have bought the six-bedroom residence of former HSBC chief John Dickinson for more than $14 million.

The three-level residence was a rebuild by Dickinson following his purchase for $1 million in 1993, completed with six bedrooms, two kitchens, billiards room, fitness room, cellar, guest suite, sauna, tennis court, swimming pool and a private mooring.

It should be just the thing to replace the Mallyons’ Georgian-style mansion in Killara.

Christie’s Darren Curtis listed the property for Dickinson back in late 2017 with a $15 million guide, and declined to comment on the sale price almost two years later, but was asking more than $14 million before it sold.

A caveat lodged on title shows the Northbridge property is set to settle in Fiona’s name.

Closing the book on Southern Highlands

Author Pamela Loveridge is selling her Southern Highlands property Windarra Cottage for $1.7 million.

The Double Bay-based Loveridge – who wrote fiction titles The Neanderthals and The Spear Thrower, among others – bought the Burrawang property as a weekender in 2008 for $842,500.

The 2200-square-metre property is listed with Kate McCullagh, of Di Jones.

Record in focus in Annandale

Photographer and designer Leslie Solar and her partner Keith March, of his eponymous construction firm, have set a suburb record with the off-market sale of their Annandale home.

The four-bedroom Federation house on 436 square metres has been renovated and extended at the rear since the couple bought it in 2011 for $1.9 million, ending more than a century of Lyons family ownership.

BresicWhitney’s Chris Nunn was planning to take the Trafalgar Street house to market before it sold on the quiet, topping the suburb’s previous $4.86 million high set by the landmark Victorian gothic mansion the Abbey in 2009 when bought by Michael Hogan and NAB’s board member Ann Sherry.

Li sells up in Duffys Forest

In Duffys Forest, the resort-style acreage of China Pioneer Pharma’s Paul Xinzhou Li is up for grabs for $7.2 million.

Li, who was ranked one of China’s richest people by Forbes in 2014 with a worth of $US830 million, bought the property Kimbelsea in late 2016 for $6.5 million from Great Divide Tours director Brian Douglas and his wife Carol Cridland, who had commissioned the five-bedroom residence complete with games room and home theatre.

The two-hectare property with a tennis court, billabong-style swimming pool and tennis pavilion with change rooms and wet bar is listed with Taylor Snell, of Sydney Country Living.

Downsizing Mosman-style

Sally Doherty, who co-founded investment firm CP2 with her late husband Peter, looks to be downsizing from her Federation mansion in Mosman to a Balmoral slopes triplex she has bought for $8.75 million through LJ Hooker Avnu’s Michael Coombs.

The purchase by Doherty, who sits on the board of Melanoma Institute, tops the block’s $7.7 million sale earlier this year by recruitment boss Jeromine Alpe to Barbara Ell, former wife of billionaire Bob Ell.

Expect to see the nearby Prince Albert Street residence that the Dohertys bought in 1993 for $1.18 million to hit the market with Coombs shortly for more than $8 million.

Crammonds set to downsize

Financial services whizz Patrick Crammond, head of Southern Cross Financial Advisers, and his wife Ailsa are set to downsize from their Vaucluse home given a September 12 auction.

The five-bedroom residence has been renovated since the couple bought it in 2008 for $5.25 million from Janette Weir, wife of LJ Hooker board member and Walker Douglas co-founder Bryan Weir.

The five-bedroom residence with a swimming pool on more than 1000 squares been renovated since including interiors by Arent & Pyke and landscaping by Garden Life. Raine & Horne Double Bay’s Alex Lyons and Ric Serrao are asking $8 million to $8.8 million.