Title Deeds: Keys to $30.8 million Bellevue Hill home finally pass to Chinese businessman Wilson Lee

The keys to the Bellevue Hill trophy Leura have finally been passed to its new owner, Chinese businessman and keen yachtie Wilson Lee and his wife Baoyu Wu.

The Federation Queen Anne-style property sold for a Bellevue Hill high of $30.8 million a year ago through Ray White Double Bay’s Michael Finger, making it the most expensive property to sell under auction conditions, even if it did sell one day before.

Lee is chief of China’s wealth manager Noah Group, but better known locally for his super yacht Ark 323 which made the trip out here from Shanghai Noah Sailing Club last year to become the first all-Chinese crew to compete in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

Built in the 1890s for the prominent Knox family, the grand Victoria Road property last traded in 1986 when property developer Bill Shipton sold it for $7.3 million to Ken and Christine Allen.

Allen, head of calendar and printing firm Business Promotional Products, is predominantly based in London where the couple have a home in Mayfair.

Transport boss and surgeon relieved of holiday home

Melbourne’s transport industry boss Mark Rowsthorn has found a buyer for his Byron Bay holiday home, some 715 days after it was first listed.

Word from Wategos Beach is of a more than $8 million sale price, which should bring a smile to the face of Rowsthorn’s former wife Allison Gibson, thanks to a caveat on title lodging her interest in the property.

It’ll be a bit of good news to Rowsthorn too, given his recent headaches as boss of embattled trucking firm McAleese since it entered voluntary administration in August.

The East Melbourne-based Rowsthorn purchased the property set above Wategos Beach a decade ago for $6.2 million from former Midnight Oil bass player Peter Gifford, who now runs the risqué swimwear company Wicked Weasel.

The buyer is rumoured to be yet another Melburnian.

It was a similar story at last weekend’s auction of the former holiday home of orthopaedic surgeon Gordon Slater.

The Lighthouse Road property was sold mortgagee-in-possession after Slater’s Byron Bay Cookie Company went into receivership three years ago.

McGrath’s Ian Daniels had 10 registered bidders on the day, most of whom were still driving the price up long after it was declared on the market at $4.7 million.

Blame the inter-city rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne or the chance to spend a bomb on a holiday home that could do with a bit of work. Either way, the Sydneysiders and locals were left behind as a young family from Victoria took the prize for $6.2 million.

It ain’t easy being a downsizer

Retired federal MP Philip Ruddock and his wife Heather have learnt first-hand what’s really wrong with Sydney’s property market.

Forget low interest rates and all those foreign buyers driving prices up. The downsizers can’t find anything to buy to replace their long-held Pennant Hills home.

The Ruddocks have taken their Pennant Hills home off the market.​ Photo: Supplied.

Following Ruddock’s retirement from Parliament in May, the couple listed their Arts and Crafts-era home in July and started house hunting in the eastern suburbs, far from his former constituents in Berowra.

Despite good interest through Keith Soames, of Soames Real Estate, the former Liberal MP has withdrawn the property from the market until he first finds suitable digs in the east.

Cricketer’s Bronte home run

Retired Test cricketer Brendon Julian should be a fairly busy person of late what with his cricket commentator duties at Fox Sports, but he still made time recently to buy into Danny Avidan’s latest development on the site of the former Bronte RSL.

Settlement will confirm Julian’s rumoured purchase price of about $2.5 million off-the-plan for a two-bedder in Bronte Place.

Julian and his wife Suzanne are already Bronte locals, having bought a 1950s red brick number in 2007 for $5.3 million and rebuilt it into a contemporary home with a swimming pool.

Avidan, the former fashion mogul-turned-property developer, purchased the Bronte site earlier this year for a reported $10 million, and has already sold off all but six of the planned 21 apartments.

CBRE’s Ben Stewart is handling enquiries with remaining prices ranging from $1.55 million for a one-bedder-with-study, to more than $2 million for the two-bedders and more than $4 million for the only remaining penthouse.

Modernist masterpiece in Maroubra

Maroubra-based power couple John O’Neill and Susan Borham are selling their modernist-style Maroubra home to move closer to the CBD.

O’Neill, the former Destination NSW boss who took over from David Gyngell as chair of Surfing NSW, sits on the board of Deborra-Lee Furness’ Adopt Change, while his wife Borham is editor-in-chief of Luxury Travel and Australian Art Collector magazines.

John O’Neill and Susan Borham are selling their modernist-style Maroubra home.​ Photo: Supplied.

What was a Californian bungalow on almost 800 square metres was bought by the former Sydney Morning Herald journalists in 2005 for $1.21 million from the home’s original owners, Fred and Jean Giles.

Plans for a redesign were shelved soon after given the opportunity to create a quintessentially 1950s home with five bedrooms, formal lounge room and a vast open-plan living space overlooking a north-facing garden and swimming pool.

Susannah Anderson, of Di Jones, is asking $4.3 million ahead of the December 10 auction.

The home was purchased in 2005 for $1.21 million. Photo: Supplied.

Composer’s change of theme

Australian film and television composer Guy Gross and his wife, Monday Morning Cooking Club co-author Natanya Eskin, have put their Bellevue Hill home up for sale.

Details on the couple’s plans remain scant, but records show the couple purchased the Benelong Crescent property nine years ago for $5.25 million from barrister Robert Goot, AM, and his wife Roberta.

Before and after images reveal a decent renovation in the meantime, and a $5.75 million guide ahead of next year’s auction through Mark Goldman and Barry Goldman, of Sotheby’s International.

Guy Gross’ Bellevue Hill home.Photo: Supplied.

Paying to the gallery

When artist Shay Docking died in 1998 she left her Paddington terrace to the Art Gallery of NSW with the proviso that her husband, artist and arts administrator Gil Docking could remain there until he died.

Shay had owned the Cambridge Street property since 1965, buying it for £6750 from June Humphrey, the wife of the late, noted trade union official and dancer.

Gil Docking died late last year, aged 96, prompting the sale of the four-bedroom renovator’s delight.

Expect to pay $2.3 million at the December 5 auction through Catherine Dixon, of BresicWhitney.

Artist Shay Docking’s Paddington terrace is up for auction.​ Photo: Supplied.

Moving up the harbour

It looks like private equity investor Patrick Keenan and his wife Elizabeth are making tracks to Darling Point, and the gothic revival mansion Atherfield in particular.

The Keenans paid about $14.5 million earlier this month for the home of Brambles director Tony Froggatt and his wife Christine through Brad Pillinger, of Pillingers.

The result is more than double the Froggatts’ $6 million purchase price of 2002, when it was sold by the late St George chief Ed O’Neal.

No sign yet of the Keenans’ Vaucluse home on the market. That’s the one they purchased three years ago for $8.5 million from the Livanidis family, having set the 2010 high at $26.75 million when they sold their nearby mansion Carrara to stockbroker Walter Lewin.

 Patrick Keenan and his wife Elizabeth have bought the gothic revival mansion Atherfield in Darling Point.​

Record-breaker’s repeat performance

The historic Federation home of Clayton Utz partner Simon Truskett and his wife Fiona has set a Gordon record at $6.7 million.

The same property, Belalie, set a suburb high the last time it traded in 2002 for $3.4 million when sold by fellow lawyer Bill Henry, owner of Turtons.

Renovated since then, it was slipped onto the market last month through McGrath’s Phillip Waller, and a sales notification gave the price away.