Southern Highlands' bumper run of 2019 delivers a who's who of shoppers

Well-heeled property shoppers have delivered the Southern Highlands market a bumper run of prestige sales in the second half of this year, mirroring Sydney’s late run of high-end deals.

Leading the district’s top results is the Kangaloon property Widgee Waa, with a $15 million sale by legendary investment banker Mark Burrows to tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Local expectations when it was listed in June put the property at $12 million to $13 million, despite no official asking price by Chris Meares, of Meares & Associates, and Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International.

However, Cannon-Brookes was forced to dig substantially deeper to secure one of the area’s largest landholdings, with records showing the sale matched the district’s long-held $15 million high set in 2007 when the late Reg Grundy bought the Sutton Forest property Comfort Hill.

It was not this year’s only Southern Highlands record. Earlier this month the Burradoo high was reset at $5.875 million when the Colonial-style property Patchdale sold to Sylvania waterfront trophy home owner Caroline McBride, wife of Ted McBride. McBride’s Cate Investments company bought Bowral’s landmark Grand Arcade for $9 million in 2017.

Karl Zabel, of Drew Lindsay Real Estate,  would not comment on the sale, despite rumours he negotiated the deal months ago. Records show Patchdale last traded four years ago for $3.275 million when sold by Boost Media chairman George Buschman and his wife, Belinda.

The Avoca high was also reset for the second time in two years by the 40-hectare property Scotsburn.

Bought in 2017 for a high of $8.1 million by Josie Knox, wife of Guyra grazier and hotelier Jim Knox, it was sold for $9.25 million to Lai Zongyang, whose family is behind property giant Zone Q Investments, the Australian arm of China’s JiaHe JianAn Group.

The turnover has seen the median house price for the Southern Highlands rise 2 per cent to a median of $775,000 and vendor discounting fall on average in the second half of this year, according to Domain economist Trent Wiltshire.

Fewer high-end properties for sale has also seen a sold sticker finally plastered on some properties that have been on the market for years, according to Mr Wiltshire.

That won’t be news to former Liberal Party leader John Hewson, who listed his Exeter property Invergowrie a decade ago with $11 million hopes and sold it in March for $6.2 million.

Pastoralist Roy Chisholm, son of the late Tony Chisholm, who was the godson of King Edward VIII, bought the Little Minnows cattle farm in Bowral for $5 million from veteran fund manager John Murray and his wife, Catherine.

Chisholm’s purchase comes two years after he sold the family’s Northern Territory Napperby Station for $20 million after almost a century in family hands.

Former ABC chairman Justin Milne and his wife Anna Cicognani had no sooner sold their Rozelle house in October for $4.975 million than they settled on the Kangaloon farm Valley View for $5.1 million.

Former independent MP Kerryn Phelps and her wife Jackie Stricker-Phelps sold their Bowral property for $3.25 million, more than doubling the $1.525 million they paid four years ago.

Point Piper-based retired surgeon and former rugby league player Bill Roney and his wife Sara bought Eleuthera Farm Cottage for $6.35 million from Jo-Anne Mason, and filmmaker and director Tony Williams and his producer wife Anna Hewgill sold their Robertson property for $3.8 million to investment banker Ray Shorrocks and his wife, Stephanie.

And as the year’s top sales were being totalled, the Sutton Forest property owned by gas energy analyst Bruce Robertson and his wife Fiona had found a buyer at close to $4.1 million.