Settlement season offers game of home musical chairs for eastern suburbs who's who

As Christmas nears and property shoppers rush to settle their high-end home purchases before the holidays, a string of sales has revealed the many investment bankers and local identities trading one eastern suburbs property for another.

The paper trail does more than confirm where the who’s who are buying, but just how much values for high-end real estate have soared this year despite dire projections on the back of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Take UBS managing director Luke Bentvelzen, who sold his contemporary Paddington terrace in November for $5.15 million to Kate Dupree, daughter of the late arts patron Annette Dupree – almost doubling the $2.685 million he paid for it in 2013.

The same day The Agency’s Ben Collier settled on that sale, he also settled the sale of Dupree’s nearby Paddington three-level terrace designed by architect Ian Moore fronting Trumper Park for $6.5 million, well above the $4.8 million she bought it for in 2016.

Taking the keys of Dupree’s parkside home are investment banker Matthew Tehan and Charlotte Ostor, co-owner of Vertikal Indoor Snow Sports, who sold their waterfront apartment in Double Bay’s historic Gladswood House for $8.2 million off-market through Ballard’s Clint Ballard.

Records show the buyer of Tehan and Ostor’s pad is Ian Everingham, co-founder of lingerie distributor UnderCoverWear, and his wife Christine, making it a downsize from their Woollahra home.

The Everinghams had owned their Woollahra home since 2004, paying $4.2 million. The four-bedroom residence on Roslyndale Avenue was listed in April for $7.95 million by BradfieldCleary’s Georgia Cleary, and settlement records show it sold in September for $7.77 million to prominent investment banker Paul Espie, and his wife Roslyn.

The Espie downsize produced one of this year’s highest sales results when in August they sold their Darling Point trophy home Callooa for $24.7 million, ending a two-year sales campaign by Peter Blacket, of The Blacket Agency, and Michael Dunn, of Richardson & Wrench Double Bay.

The Victorian Gothic-style residence last traded in 1988 for $5.25 million when purchased by Espie, founder of Pacific Road Capital and a director of Liberal Party think tank the Menzies Research Centre.

Jason Huljich, co-chief of ASX-listed property fund Centuria Capital and a member of one of New Zealand’s richest families, is trading up from the Elizabeth Bay waterfront penthouse he listed for $4.5 million with McGrath’s William Manning, and sold for $4.7 million.

“Between now and Christmas there’s always a run of settlements and, given the late run of sales in recent months, this year will be no different,” said McGrath’s William Manning.

“With settlement season upon us the market is only gaining momentum, and I see the market ending in a rush of top sales results.”