Jenner House in Potts Point set to hit the market for $34 million-plus

Luxury car dealer Terry Mullens and his wife Wendy are set to put one of Potts Point’s few remaining historic marine villas, Jenner House, up for sale amid expectations it has more than doubled in value since they purchased it for $15 million.

According to Mr Mullens, the Regency Revival-style residence is to be offered at more than $34 million based on the suburb’s only other significant comparable sale, the marine villa, Bomera, which sold two years ago for that amount to billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta through LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf.

Designed by colonial architect Edmund Blacket and built in the 1870s for Lebbeus Hordern, of the retail dynasty, Jenner House set the suburb record in 2009 when it was last traded by horse breeder Tony Petersen.

Petersen, who purchased it from the Department of Defence in 1998 for $2.275 million, tried to subdivide the 1900-square-metre parcel on Macleay Street in 2007 but the DA was not approved after it was met with vehement opposition by the likes of the late Jack Mundey.

In 2014 the Mullens family had not long since completed a major restoration and renovation of the property than they briefly listed it for $25 million.

Vaucluse move at top of the range

The head of private equity firm Colinton Capital Partners, Simon Moore, and his wife Lucinda Cowdroy are set to emerge as buyers of one of this year’s most expensive houses, having purchased the Vaucluse mansion of Hong Kong arts patron Yang Yang for about $35 million.

The exact purchase price remains unknown given no disclosures from Christie’s Ken Jacobs and Darren Curtis, but sources say there were a handful of buyers competing for the eight-bedroom digs, knocking out offers from the likes of car-wash king Tony Sahade.

And to think they could have picked it up for just $21.5 million a decade ago when the house designed by architect Howard Tanner was sold by the late businessman John McNiven and his widow Joanna.

Moore is a long-time Bronte local, having purchased the beachside apartment of Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin in 2005 for $3.6 million, and trading up five years ago to an $8 million house close to the beach.

Setting records in Point Piper

Macquarie Bank’s top earner, Nick O’Kane, this week settled on his Point Piper purchase from Sydney Football Club chairman Scott Barlow and his wife Alina, confirming the property’s place at the top of the year’s house price list at $40 million sale.

It was an off-market sale by Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger, who then followed up the deal by selling former garbo Ian Malouf’s wife Larissa a beachfront house in Double Bay for more than $30 million.

The Malouf family have been one of this year’s top buyers, purchasing a second Double Bay beachfront house for $26 million, and a Palm Beach weekender for about $20 million.

But taking out this year’s top residential sale is Malouf’s daughter Ellie who is named as the $60 million buyer of developer John Boyd’s penthouse atop the ANZ Tower that sold through LJ Hooker Double Bay and Christie’s International. Not bad going for a 25-year-old.

For those without a built-in calculator, that’s $136 million worth of high-end residential purchases by the Maloufs in three months.

The Point Piper boatshed reportedly purchased by Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch has also settled, revealing a $38.5 million sale price through Ken Jacobs, which is a jump in value of 28 per cent in the less than four years since the family of developer Denis O’Neil sold it in 2017.

That makes freight and transport boss Terry Tzaneros and his wife Anne this year’s third highest house shoppers, to date, having paid $38 million for the Point Piper waterfront trophy home of London-based expat lawyer Sarah Cooke through Raine & Horne Double Bay’s Alex Lyons.

New Lendlease exec hits Mosman

Returning Hong Kong expat and Lendlease’s newly appointed chief financial officer Simon Dixon doesn’t start his new job until October, but has his new Sydney home sorted, settling on a Mediterranean-style residence in Mosman this week for $15.25 million.

The 1936-built house at Clifton Gardens was home to Fred and Maria Messara, family of thoroughbred horse breeder John Messara, in the 1960s and 70s and last traded in 1980 for $400,000 when purchased by Patricia Lloyd.

Settlement coincides with Dixon’s last days as CFO of listed property investment group HongkongLand, from which he resigned earlier this year to join the throngs of returning expats.

Cranes buy into Palm Beach

Fundie Glenn Crane, chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and his wife Caroline, daughter of the late Olympic yachtsman Colin Ryrie, have bought a Palm Beach getaway for $15.5 million from Mary Barry, widow of noted orthopaedic surgeon Hugh Barry.

It was an off-market purchase through LJ Hooker’s David Edwards, ending more than 30 years of ownership by the Barry family.

The Cranes are among Point Piper’s few born-and-bred locals, and long-time residents of the historic waterfront property that was once home to pioneering explorer and inventor Lawrence Hargrave until he died in 1915.