Mindfulness teacher who wanted $20m for Bayview estate sells for $9.8m

The Bayview home of Billabong Retreat co-founders Tory and Paul von Bergen sold this week, ending a six-month sale campaign that rode the market downturn to a 50 per cent discount on their initial $20 million hopes.

Such is the increasingly sorry state of the 2024 market.

If anyone can take a philosophical approach to the result it should be Paul: a one-time suit in the corporate world who swapped the promotion of fizzy drinks, cigarettes and alcohol to follow the teachings of yoga guru Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.

The von Bergen residence has been totally redesigned and renovated since it last traded in 2019 for $4.75 million. Known as Amaroo, the six-bedroom residence came with lots of zen-like extras such as the 10-person cedar hot tub, a swimming pool and spa, a 10-person Finnish-style sauna, a fire pit and landscaped gardens across two hectares.

It was enough to inspire a bullish start to the campaign in May, though the guide was soon after dropped to $17 million, then $15 million, and most recently $13.5 million by Ray White Prestige’s Noel Nicholson.

There was no disclosure on the price by Nicholson, or by Cohen Handler buyer’s agent Thomas Alpe, but local sources put it at $9.8 million.

Amaroo wasn’t the only Bayview estate to start its campaign at $20 million. The nearby residence Chateau Narla was listed for just that amount by Thompson Controls chief Glenn Botha last year but sold for $13.85 million in July to Justine and Chris Gregg, founder of financial software company Lightyear.

Trading whiz goes beach

Andrew Killion, chief executive and co-founder of trading firm Akuna Capital, looks to have swapped Vaucluse life for the eastern beaches, paying about $20 million for a beachside property in Tamarama.

Killion made a big name for himself among property watchers in the COVID market of 2020 when he returned home from Chicago and paid $30 million for the Vaucluse mansion of media scion Alexander Ma.

Since then, he’s settled back in at home in classic finance style, using his Polka Dot Ventures corporate vehicle to give the teals a boost in the 2022 federal election, giving $50,000 to local independent MP Allegra Spender and $325,000 to teal backer Climate 200.

Killion settled on his new digs on Friday afternoon, lining the pockets of Central Coast Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth more than six months after it exchanged through the Pillinger boutique agency headed by Brad Pillinger.

Charlesworth, who is chief of British telecom consultancy Mediatel, bought the duplex in two parts, first in 2000 for $1.27 million, and the remainder in 2012 for $2,165,000.

Morella’s buyer

Tony Antonios, who heads up finance broker IGM Group, has emerged as the $8 million-plus buyer of Mosman’s derelict landmark house Morella.

Records are yet to reveal the exact result, but it is somewhat discounted from the hopes of $9.65 million earlier this year.

The distinctive Clifton Gardens house on Chowder Bay was built in 1939 for Stanford X-Ray co-founder Leo Parer and remained in family hands – albeit abandoned for decades – until 2016 when it was bought for $6.6 million by then 27-year-old Edward Wei, of China’s property giant Zobon Real Estate and Shanghai United.

It is heritage-listed, which saved it from Wei’s bid to demolish it in 2019, but in 2022 it scored approval for a Jackson Teece redesign.

Mountain man in Vaucluse

Blue Mountains pharmacist Karim Rizkalla has popped up as the buyer of Vaucluse’s Palm Springs-inspired home of medicinal cannabis industry boss Matt Cantelo.

The result was meant to be kept a secret until settlement, but property portals have put it at $26 million, which will return Cantela more than $1 million for each year he has owned it, given he paid $19.5 million in 2018.

Rizkalla is one of the (few) success stories of this year’s market. In February, he bought a Darling Point penthouse – in need of renovation and with no kitchen – for $5.85 million, and before he could get stuck into a few necessary improvements he was approached to sell it by Lady Katrina Denzil Hobhouse, of the Macarthur-Onslow farming dynasty.

At $8.65 million who could say no? Certainly, not Rizkalla.

Buy before sold

As Deborah and Mark Ryan await a buyer for their Paddington home, the couple have bought a house in Vaucluse for $8,825,000.

Ryan, a long-time adviser to the Lowy family and former executive director of the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, had initially listed the Paddington terrace with $16.5 million hopes but dropped his guide to $14.2 million before it was withdrawn from the market.

The couple’s new digs was sold by Maroubra-bound Jacqueline Maxton, wife of lawyer and Allens partner Alan Maxton.