Myer mansion in Toorak sells after $20m to $22m campaign

Millions of Australians have browsed their department store, but few would have walked the halls of their Melbourne mansion.

A “magical” Myer family estate in Victoria’s record-breaking suburb has sold after a campaign in the range of $20 million to $22 million.

The iconic home of the late businessman and philanthropist Baillieu Myer and his wife Sarah Myer in Toorak transacted on January 6 via private treaty, the Domain listing shows.

The sale sum is undisclosed. Forbes Global Properties’ listing agent Michael Gibson declined to comment on any aspect of the transaction when approached.

SOLD - Price Withheld

4 Grant Avenue, Toorak VIC 3142

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He handled the campaign alongside colleague Robert Fletcher.

The handsome property was for sale for the first time in 70 years – held dear by the prominent retail family for generations.

The ornate façade is heritage protected, but there is scope should the buyer have an appetite for gentle change.

Its decorative interior presents as a perfectly-preserved time capsule of a period when shopping at the Myer emporium was the most elegant outing in Melbourne.

Respected Australian architect Rob Mills provided the Forbes’ campaign with sketches of how a contemporary rendition could be respectfully achieved.

These provided possible inspiration for the purchasers from one of the best architects in the world. Mills has also admired the property for years, he said in the campaign video.

Alongside Mills, there is a catalogue of distinguished names associated with 4 Grant Avenue.

“A circular gravel driveway gives the appropriate sense of occasion on approach to the property: a 1936, Regency-inspired residence by architects Yuncken, Freeman & Griffith, designers of Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl,” the Forbes listing on Domain says.

“Its beautifully manicured grounds with ponds and topiaries, completed in 1937, are the work of Edna Walling, one of Australia’s most celebrated and influential landscape artists.”

Gibson previously told Nine that many Melburnians would have been curious when they passed the home through the decades.

“I have been in this industry a long time, there are a few really iconic homes in Melbourne and in Toorak, and 4 Grant Avenue would be in the top two or three in terms of a house that people have talked about over the decades, and talked about what a beautiful house it is,” he said.

“It is iconic. The interior of the home is straight out of Myer from the department store of the sixties – it has this magical charisma that takes you back in time.”

Forbes Global Properties ended 2024 with the highest sale of the year in Melbourne – a $70 million deal on Macquarie Road in Toorak. The Age reported the not-yet-public sum as close to $70 million.

Gibson confirmed to The Age the property sold, but declined to comment further.

The transaction was the fourth-highest nationally for 2024.

The Victorian house price record of $88 million was set the sale of another landmark a Toorak address.