Sydney property: Hollywood director Howard Rubie's Castlecrag waterfront home for sale

The late, acclaimed Hollywood film director Howard Rubie had lived at his former fisherman’s cottage at Castlecrag with his wife Patricia for 43 years before he died in 2011.

When the Rubies bought it in 1973 for $30,000 it was the first time it had traded, having been built by the late Australian sculptor Vernon (Bim) Hilder, who sold it.

Hilder, who died in 1990, was a long-time local, having worked as a carpenter for the architect Walter Burley Griffin during the 1960s.

The two-storey house has been extended and renovated in the decades since, and sits on a sandy beach with a slipway and access to a deepwater mooring.

Rubie’s 50-year film career included winning an Emmy, being nominated for an AFI award and in the 1970s he was was regaled locally for first restoring, and then reviving performances, at The Haven amphitheatre.

The listing honours have been passed to Martin Ross, of Christie’s International.

Castlecrag’s median house price is shaping up to be one of the Sydney’s best performers of the past year, thanks in part to strong interest from Chinese buyers.

The suburb record was reset at more than $13 million in October when the non-waterfront estate Penhallow was sold by billionaire Paul Salteri and his wife Sandra to Zhiling Mai and Xinan Shen​ through Christie’s Ken Jacobs.

SNAPPED UP

Still photographer Lisa Tomasetti​ listed her Paddington apartment in the historic “Engehurst,” a converted Georgian mansion, earlier this month and sold it on Thursday night.

The original residence was designed by architect John Verge and built in 1834 for convict superintendent Frederick Augustus Hely, using convict labour.

Hely died a few years after it was completed, and half of the house was later demolished to make way for Ormond Street.

Tomasetti bought it three years ago for $880,000 when she sold up in Rozelle. It was listed with Di Jones’ Jane Schumann​ and Gary Sands with a guide of $1 million to $1.1 million and sold at the top end of that range.

HITTING THE ROAD

Music producer Gareth Stuckey is selling his Redfern home-turned-recording studio as he turns his audio talents to more live radio and television work.

The bunker-style property was bought by Stuckey in 2004 for $450,000 as an empty former bar under what was then the San Pedro Hotel. As his Gigpiglet​ recording studio took shape in the following years, the studio hosted artists like Sia, Alex Lloyd and Boy & Bear.

In recent years Stuckey is spending more time on the road with clients such as The X Factor and Nova Radio, leaving little need for his recording studio.

What’s more, in 2013 he snapped up an apartment down the road in Waterloo for $524,000.

With no use for the underground property (with two skylights) it goes to auction on March 19 auction for between $900,000 and $990,000 through McGrath’s Damien West and Brad Gillespie.

DOWN A SIZE

Fashion designer Rebecca Ruby has downsizing plans ahead, prompting the Paddington local to list her home of the last 15 years.

Expect to pay $6 million for the designer digs on Paddington Street at the March 12 auction through Ray White Woollahra’s Randall Kemp.

The four-bedroom terrace was built in 1999 by property investors Colin Gray and his architect wife Lissa, who then sold it in 2001 to Ruby for $1.8 million.

It is set on almost 200 square metres with a swimming pool and separate studio atop the lock-up garage. http://www.domain.com.au/162-paddington-street-paddington-nsw-2021-2012597204