Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes lead ABC stars to market, buy $2.85 million Coogee pad

Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes may well be among the ABC’s busiest journalists of late – what with Holmes covering the Tokyo Olympics and Grant in his role as international editor, rotating host on political chatfest Q&A and his China Tonight series, among other commitments – but they have still made time for that quintessential Sydney pastime of reshuffling their home real estate.

Records show the Auburn-based couple are relocating to Coogee Beach, where they have purchased a split-level penthouse atop a block of nine near the northern end of the beach for $2.85 million.

The move east comes as Holmes has sold a long-held pad in the heart of Avalon Beach for $1.3 million, which was a decent capital gain on the $567,000 she paid for it in 2009.

Meanwhile, fellow ABC broadcaster Indira Naidoo has made her debut on the Sydney property market, buying a studio in Elizabeth Bay’s landmark art deco building Tara with her television-producer partner Mark Fitzgerald, best known to Gen Xers as the creator of late-night music show Rage.

The long-time residents of the nearby Rockwall Apartments complex paid $472,000 for the apartment in the iconic 1930s block where one of the long-time owners happens to be Eileen “Red” Bond, who still owns a studio she purchased in 1986 for $48,000.

For Fitzgerald’s part, his purchase comes a year after he sold his childhood home in West Pymble that was built by his parents in 1958 for $1.58 million.

Still with the more affordable apartment purchases of ABC star favourites, one of the founders of satirical Chaser team Craig Reucassel and his wife Keisha Hopgood have bought a one-bedroom pad in Balmain for $690,000.

The recently renovated apartment on the first floor of a block of 10 opposite Birrung Park is expected to be an investment for The War on Waste presenter, given the couple already own a house in nearby Annandale, bought in 2005 for $560,000.

The no-fuss billionaire

Little-known billionaire Kie Chie Wong, an Australian emissary of a Sarawak timber-milling family, has purchased a 1970s house with classic retro finishes and a swimming pool in Dover Heights for $6.72 million.

To say it is an unassuming house for one of Australia’s billionaire class is an understatement – this is no $100 million Point Piper estate – but then the Wongs have long kept a fairly modest lifestyle in Australia and their new digs are a step up from their long-held, blonde-brick home on a busy road in Maroubra that has remained their permanent residence since they purchased it in 1980 for $75,000.

Wong’s fortunes have skyrocketed in the past 20 years in line with that of Fortescue founder Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest thanks to his initial outlay of less than $1 million in shares in the resources giant, making him the 41st richest person in Australia on this year’s AFR Rich List 200 worth an estimated $2.53 billion.

The 73-year-old investor and his wife Ann Lim, also one of Fortescue Metal Group’s biggest investors, bought the Dover Heights house in a company name, aptly called Harmony View given the property’s panoramic outlook to Sydney Harbour.

Big-time holiday home purchase

Online gaming entrepreneur Nik Robinson has developed a penchant for the Central Coast’s holiday homes. The founder and chief of Big Time Gaming has purchased a house opposite Avoca Beach for $6.05 million.

It was bought in the name of Robinson’s corporate entity Splendid Stuff, which last year also purchased luxury acreage at Kincumber, Seafarm, for just shy of $4 million.

No doubt helping to fund the more than $10 million worth of real estate for the North Bondi-based Robinson was the sale of Big Time Gaming in April to Swedish giant Evolution Gaming Group for 450 million euros ($722 million).

Racing for a penthouse half-share

England-based entrepreneur Graham Hellier has done a deal, of sorts, on his lavish three-storey “Skyhouse” apartment atop the Cove building at The Rocks.

The penthouse in the Harry Seidler-designed building last traded for $10.1 million in 2006 and was listed in 2018 with $21 million hopes but never sold.

Hellier owned it with his partner Lucy Monje until recently, and while he retains his half-share of the apartment, Monje’s portion has been recently transferred to hotelier and racing-car driver Rod Salmon for $9.375 million.