Rose Bay trophy home passes in at $23.25m as negotiations drag into the evening

About 150 people were in attendance on Saturday to see the Rose Bay trophy home of property baron Stephen Burcher passed in at auction on a bid of $23.25 million, with negotiations continuing upwards of that late into the afternoon.

Ben Collier, of The Agency, was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print, but at that level the property is expected to sell later on Saturday for more than Sydney’s previous auction record of $23 million set by the Le Manoir estate in Bellevue Hill in 2009.

The highly anticipated auction is the first big-ticket residence to hit the market in Sydney this year, carrying a guide of $25 million.

According to a source in the room there were six registered buyers, but not all placed a bid. The highest offer was from a buyer from China.

Strong buyer interest forced Mr Collier to change the sales campaign from expressions of interest to auction a week ago to create more transparency among buyers and offer the vendor more leverage to negotiate.

Given privacy concerns, media and other selling agents were not allowed to attend the auction, although competing agents were handing out their cards to would-be buyers as they left the property.

Burcher, who heads the Burcher Property Group, bought the three-level residence in 2010 for $12.5 million from developer Michael Issa and his wife Anastazija Balaz.

A major renovation since involved a redesign by architect Bruce Stafford, interiors by Hare + Klein, and landscaped gardening by Anthony Wyer.

The five-bedroom, five-bathroom residence is set on a waterfront block with a private boat shed, harbour-front swimming pool, and an internal lift across three levels.

“You don’t ordinarily see trophy homes of this calibre draw the sort of buyer demand that would warrant an auction because the buyer pool in that price range is far smaller,” Domain senior research analyst  Nicola Powell said earlier this week.

“But an auction will draw that competition out into the open, so this should be a good test of the top end of the market.”

Last year businessman and art collector John Schaeffer sold the historic Bonnington mansion in Bellevue Hill under the hammer for $20.32 million to fund manager Ari Droga and his architect wife Lisa, making it the second-highest auction result.

The third-highest auction result was set in 2010 when a harbourfront house in Point Piper sold for $17.3 million to Caledonia Investments executive chairman Mark Nelson.