So long Sydney, it's been lucrative: Cate Blanchett sells in The Astor

Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton have closed a chapter on their Sydney life, selling their last remaining Sydney home, a luxury two-storey apartment in The Astor.

This is the largest apartment in the historic 1923-built landmark building that was purchased five years ago for $8 million from Wizard Home Loans founder Mark Bouris as their Sydney bolthole when the high-profile couple moved to the United Kingdom.

It was listed in March for $12 million by Christie’s Ken Jacobs, who declined to reveal the sale price, leaving it to well-placed sources in the building to suggest it is The Astor’s first sale in the double-digit millions.

The couple’s only remaining local real estate is an investment apartment bought on the Elizabeth Bay waterfront for $1.92 million in 2013.

The Hollywood star and her playwright husband have had a lucrative time as Sydney home owners since 2004 when they purchased their first significant piece of real estate, the Bulwarra mansion in Hunters Hill for $10 million on the advice of their buyer’s agent and vendor advocate Deborah West, of SydneySlice.

A major renovation and extension of the Hunters Hill estate helped almost double its price when they first sold it in 2015 for $19.8 million, although that sale later fell through when the buyer, property developer Richard Mingfeng Gu, defaulted on the deal. The property still set a suburb high when it was resold in 2017 for $18 million.

In 2014 they added a riverfront holiday home at Berowra Creek for $1.495 million, bought from Fortescue Metals chief executive Elizabeth Gaines, which was sold last Christmas for $1.7 million.

The couple’s purchase in The Astor placed them among a long list of Sydney’s elite who have called it home since it was built in 1923 as the city’s first residential “skyscraper”.

Early residents included artist Portia Geach, arts patron Samuel Henry Ervin and philanthropist Dame Eadith Walker and more recent residents like adman Harold Mitchell and the late industrialist Sir Tristan Antico.

The building’s other most notable resident was Barry Humphries, who illegally amalgamated two apartments to create a two-level home about 35 years ago. That double apartment was bought by Mr Bouris in 2005, who added an adjoining three-bedroom apartment a year later to create the Blanchett-Upton holding of more than 400 square metres.