Superstar Rachel Griffiths and artist husband Andy Taylor make $2m return to Sydney

Hollywood superstar Rachel Griffiths and her artist husband Andy Taylor have made a homely return to Sydney’s property market seven years after they moved to Melbourne, buying a designer terrace in the inner city for more than $2 million.

The three-bedroom digs with no parking was listed with a $1.75 million guide before it sold and settled in a beneficial trust owned by Taylor.

The last time the Oscar-nominated actor was named on local title records was 2014 when she sold her holiday home in Palm Beach for $2.25 million, having recently returned from living in the US, where she starred in the HBO series Six Feet Under.

Griffiths and Taylor settled closer to family in her hometown of Melbourne, where they bought a Victorian-era home and which featured in Vogue Living Australia in 2018 soon after a fairly impressive renovation to a design by Powell & Glenn Architects.

The star of the Aussie movie classic Muriel’s Wedding was most recently seen on our screens on the ABC hosting a three-part series Finding the Archibald that celebrated the national Archibald portraiture prize.

Home fit for Thor?

Chris Hemsworth’s property interests have made headlines recently, firstly because of suggestions he wanted to buy acreage at Lennox Head and then this week as an interested buyer in the Sutherland Shire trophy home Nautilus owned by Steve Shelley, co-founder of tech firm Deputy.

Nautilus is just the sort of rock-star house that would appeal to someone like Thor and not only because of its many building accolades. Think showroom-style garages, subterranean “bat cave” entry from the waterfront, boatshed, private beach, bowling alley, panic room, day spa, yoga studios, what looks like a shooting range and, of course, 23 bathrooms.

Shame it’s not true though. Multiple sources have said the story, which played originally on radio and spread to other media from there, was fueled by the power of the Hemsworth name and a ubiquitous “no comment” from the Hemsworth camp and selling agents Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay, and David Highland, of Highland Property.

“We can’t say who is and isn’t looking at it,” was Highland’s more detailed response, but he did add they have strong interest from a few buyers in what is widely – and legitimately – regarded as one of Sydney’s best-built houses even with the more than $50 million price tag.

Ditto the acreage in Lennox Head. It was sold for $14 million by Elder’s Nick Bordin, but the Hemsworths not only didn’t buy it, they never looked at it.

Ahead of the curve

TV queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley isn’t the only Woollahra local cashing in on jaw-dropping sales prices of late – although few home owners are likely to match the $22 million she pocketed this week.

Rob Bowen, boss of Henley Homes, and his partner Skye Holden have almost doubled their money on their Woollahra home, scoring close to $16 million given their plans to move to the Mornington Peninsula in Bowen’s home state.

For decades the house was one of the late Kerry Packer’s “grace and favour” houses he offered to friends and family in need of high-end housing until son James Packer decided that after half a century of ownership that was enough favours and sold it three years ago for $8.375 million.

Rumours of the big-ticket sale come as a caveat on title names the buyer as Louise Manning, wife of bitcoin mining boss James Manning.

Meanwhile, the Mannings’ recently redesigned Victorian villa on nearby Edgecliff Road designed by architect James Garvan with Tamsin Johnson interiors is listed with McGrath’s Will Manning and Ballard’s Clint Ballard for $8 million to $8.8 million.

Manning’s home upgrade plans come as the bitcoin miner he heads up, Mawson Infrastructure, prepares to go public on the Nasdaq with a $1 billion valuation.

Simply the best

Harry Triguboff is clearly the best granddad around going by his purchase this week of a Bellevue Hill house for one of his family members for more than $15 million.

Daryl Rosen of Ray White Double Bay declined to comment on the off-market sale, but records show the house in question is owned by Alison and Neil Carter, the former fund manager who is now chief strategy officer at military weapons company EOS.

The Carters purchased it in 2013 for just $4 million, and a year later, a DA was approved for a major redesign by Smyth & Smyth architectural firm, adding a second level, new swimming pool and double garage.

Fans of historical sandstone

In Mosman, the historic home Musgrave House owned by Karen Lowe has settled for $13 million to near neighbour Cherry Fan.

Lowe and her 1890s-era mansion were caught up in the many frauds of conman Hamish McLaren when he persuaded her to apply for a $1 million loan to pay for renovations and subsequently stole more than $800,000 under the pretence of investing her money.

Lowe had listed it early last year with $15 million hopes with Atlas’s Michael Coombs, but it was withdrawn in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Lowe, also known as Karen Baker, purchased the 1800-square-metre property in 2006 for $11.25 million from ASX chairman Rick Holliday-Smith and his wife, Mary.

The Fan family live a block away on Sirius Cove, where Wei Lie Fan and Xiuqin He purchased a waterfront house for $7.3 million in 2015.