Mike Willesee sees the upside to a tight market, lists Bondi Beach pad

Veteran television presenter Mike Willesee clearly sees the upside to the market’s current shortage of listings by putting his Bondi Beach investment pad up for auction with an asking price of some $2 million.

The two-bedroom spread with a north-facing, wraparound terrace is in a block of six apartments that was developed by John Touma Constructions in an unhappy post-GFC market, and was sold new to Willesee in 2011 for $1,575,000.

Records show the 220 square metre spread with a north-facing return balcony, two bedrooms and two bathrooms has most recently been earning $1340 a week in rent. Danny Doff, of Laing+Simmons Double Bay, has the listing honours.

Mike Willesee’s Bondi Beach investment pad. Photo: Michael Armstrong

Walter Burley Griffin opportunity

Castlecrag’s historic Duncan House, which was the last house in the suburb designed by renowned architect Walter Burley Griffin, is for sale.

Built in 1934 for Frank and Anice Duncan, it features a distinctive facade of sandstone and knitlock concrete blocks and scored a bedroom redesign in 1943 by architect Eva Buhrich.

The late Dick Crebbin, who was chairman of the Marrickville Holdings margarine manufacturing company, and his wife Joan purchased it in 1997 for $1,075,000, having sold their nearby Penhallows estate.

Heidi King, of LJ Hooker Castlecrag, is yet to release a guide but you would expect to pay about $3 million at the March 18 auction.



Duncan House in Castlecrag.

O’Halloran makes game plan in Annandale

When former West Tigers player Mark O’Halloran returned from his stint in England in 2006, where he played in the Super League for the London Broncos, he signed with the Penrith Panthers but still returned to live in his Tigers homeland.

O’Halloran bought his Annandale worker’s cottage in the last days of 2006, paying $550,000. Since then there’s been a complete redesign of the property thanks to his interior designer partner Jacinta Woods, of the Woods and Warner design firm.

The living areas have been opened up, it has a new kitchen and a funky black mosaic-tile bathroom, an attic study and decked rear courtyard.

On Thursday night, after only a week on the market and long before the scheduled March 9 auction, the couple sold for $1,425,000. The bullish sale price, through Cobden & Hayson’s Ben Southwell, was well above the initial listing guide of $1.3 million.

Still in Annandale, the grand Victorian mansion of QBE Group’s general counsel Carolyn Scobie is up for grabs for the first time in 20 years.

Scobie bought the 1882-built mansion on Johnston Street for $860,000 and has added a heated swimming pool and new bathroom since then.

Julie Hatch, of Cobden & Hayson, and Matt Carvalho, of BresicWhitney, are asking $3.5 million.

Former Tigers player Mark O’Halloran and his interior designer partner Jacinta Woods are selling their Annandale home.

​New Horizon for Sutton spread 

Car dealer Neil Sutton has returned his whole-floor spread atop the iconic Harry Seidler-designed landmark Horizon building to the market with expectations of selling anywhere between $10 million and $12 million for a done deal.

Set on level 40 with 490 square metres of internal living space, that equates to $23,000 per square metre, which hilariously translates to quite a good deal in well-heeled circles.

Sutton purchased it for $6.7 million in 2009 from billionaire property developer Bob Ell, and listed it in 2015 with a $15 million guide.

Given the option of leasing it now for $8000 a week, Sutton has instead opted to list with Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay.

Sutton has listed his whole-floor spread in the Horizon.

Hamptons in Palmy 

In Palm Beach, dentist Ian Pelling and his wife Barbara have not long completed a total rebuild of two Hamptons-style beach houses on the Pittwater side of the peninsula only to list the whole shebang for $3.5 million to $3.6 million.

The couple sold their former ocean-view home on nearby Norma Road in 2014 after a complete renovation to buy two 1930s-era weatherboard cottages on one block for $2.25 million.

Three years and plenty of high-end finishes later, that Nabilla Road property is for sale through Noel Nicholson, of Ray White Palm Beach, who sold their previous renovation job.

Holiday at home

Where do Avalon Beach locals go to get away from it all? Well, for Reece and Sian Wooldridge, the owners of sports equipment manufacturer PILA Group, there’s their recently purchased beachfront weekender at Whale Beach.

For those not familiar with the northern beaches, Avalon and Whale Beach are neighbouring suburbs, which puts the Wooldridge family’s new weekender 3 kilometres from their home in Ruskin Rowe. 

The original cottage was sold by Coca-Cola group general counsel George Forster, who listed it in 2015 with a $4.65 million asking price through Cathy Agosti, now at LJ Hooker Avalon. A source put the sale result at $4.2 million.

Dentist Ian Pelling and his wife Barbara are selling their recently renovated Palm Beach property.

Healthy result for fitness leader

Two years after Fitness First founder Tony de Leede first listed his Bondi Beach apartment it has sold, thank the gods, scoring the health and fitness entrepreneur $3.8 million.

The sale result – through McGrath’s Edward Reid – is more than $1 million above what he paid for the three-bedder in The Bondi in 2010.

De Leede, who also founded Queensland’s Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat, had initially wanted $4 million.