Top 20 sales of 2010

But rather than inspire other bullish sales following the reporting of its sale in early September, it’s become another one-off in a slow market desperate for comparable sales data.

It didn’t help that everyone involved was saying nothing. The silence from its selling agent, Bill Malouf from LJ Hooker Double Bay, prompted sceptics who doubted the sale took place or who reckoned the price didn’t break the previous $45 million record.

Official settlement is not expected until next year when dentist David Penn, who heads clinical and technical research at Southern Cross Dental Laboratories, and his wife, Linda, the Lowes Manhattan scion, will take up residency on Wolseley Road.

Villa Veneto, the home of Andrew and Andrea Banks, had been on and off the market for three years, with initial hopes closer to $60 million.

The Penns, who made their initial inspection two years ago, have sold their Bellevue Hill residence for about $23 million.

Actor Nicole Kidman unsuccessfully offered about $25 million two years ago when she was minded to buy a house with plenty of lawn for her expanding family. The Victoria Road property has been bought by Tom Haikin, a former dental technician, and his wife, Lilly.

They are owners of the Australian franchise of the Max Brenner chocolate shop. Their Maroubra residence passed in at auction last month through Ray White agent Nader Hotait.

Ellsmore in top 20

Historic Ellsmore in Bronte, home of merchant banker Mark Carnegie and his ex-wife, Tanya Nelson, has been snapped up pre-auction, becoming the most recent entrant on the top-20 list. 

The price hasn’t been disclosed but Ellsmore’s selling agents, Michael Finger at Ray White Prestige and eastern suburbs agent Bethwyn Richards, had initial $12 million hopes.

These were subsequently buoyed to slightly higher expectations with international competition to the local buyers. On a 2770-square-metre holding, the Evans Street house has ocean and district views.

All five upper-level bedrooms have en suites. There is also a guest cottage. The house, redesigned by Joanna Lukaszewicz, was last sold in 1996 for $3.3 million by milliner Isabella Klompe and her late husband, Jack, the co-founder of Lend Lease, who had paid $1.6 million in 1990.

Ron Pomering had bought it for $810,000 in 1987 from nursing home operator, FAI Hospitals Limited.

A sale to drink to

The Vaucluse home of the late Andrew Curtis, who helped found Continental Distillers 48 years ago, was sold midweek for about $13 million.

Its Raine & Horne listing agents were surrounded by a bevy of buyers’ agents at the invitation-only auction.

The Vaucluse Road property is on 898 square metres, with five of the six bedrooms having harbour views in a design by architect Stephen Gergely. Continental marketed liquor such as Black Douglas Scotch, which had talk-show host David Frost in its campaigns.

The neighbouring four-bedroom house fetched $9.55 million recently.

Nice big earner

The year’s second-highest sale was when private-equity investor Patrick Keenan and his wife, Elizabeth, sold Carrara, their three-level European-style villa in Vaucluse.

It fetched about $26.75 million through Finger, who started its public marketing on the web in November last year. The buyer, stockbroker Walter Lewin, was among its initial inspectors.

Auction record

The top-20 list includes the record price paid at an on-site public auction. Five enthusiastic buyers pushed bidding to $17.3 million when an eight-bedroom harbour-front house in Point Piper sold through McGrath agents James Dack and Ben Collier.

It was sold to the joint chief investment officer of Caledonia Investments, Mark Nelson, and his wife, Louise, who have a two-year lease over the nearby residence Elaine, just along Seven Shillings Beach. The Nelsons’ near neighbours will be Caledonia’s other chief investment officer, Will Vicars.

It was sold by Nigel Butler, heir to the Butler and Norman bottle merchants fortune, whose family built the 1950s house. The $17.25 million underbidders were the deputy chairman of the Ray White real estate chain, Sam White, and his wife, Kate.

They have since spent about $17.5 million on the Rose Bay waterfront house of the director of local private-equity group Ironbridge, Julian Knights, which sold through Elliott Placks and Ashley Bierman from Ray White in conjunction with D’Leanne Lewis at Laing+Simmons, who briefly listed the house in late 2008.

The Whites’ Wallaroy Road, Woollahra, house has been listed for auction next Thursday with $7 million hopes through Placks. It last traded for $5.25 million in 2006.

Henry’s new high

The highest sale north of Sydney Harbour was the six-bedroom Palm Beach house sold by the Hayson family.

It fetched $14 million, almost doubling Palm Beach’s previous record sale for a non-beachfront property, which stood at $7.55 million, for a house on Mitchell Road, since 2005.

It was sold through David Edwards of LJ Hooker and Ken Jacobs of Christie’s Great Estates, snapped up before its scheduled November marketing. The $14 million buyer was expat Paul Henry from the Jersey-based but Asia-focused hedge fund Bennelong Asset Management, and his wife, Belinda.

Before launching Bennelong in 2004, Henry worked at Standard Bank London Limited, spent seven years at Macquarie Bank Limited and also traded at Peregrine Investments HK, Horizon Asset Limited and at Credit Suisse after graduating from the University of Sydney.

Bennelong now has more than $1.8 billion in assets under management. Henry also paid the highest price north of the bridge last year when he spent $13.2 million at Mosman.

It was a 1906 Smith and Cabban merchant mansion, Curraweena, sold through Richardson & Wrench agent Richard Simeon.

Capital growth

Mosman’s top sale this year involved the chairman of WA Capital Group, Brett Goodin. Goodin and his wife, Lorene, swapped homes after snapping up Sabina, sans mortgage, from former bookmaker Bruce McHugh for $10.1 million pre-auction through LJ Hooker agent Robert Jacobs in February.

The six-bedroom house with tennis court on 1505 square metres had previously traded for $4.8 million when bought in 1990 from Julian and Heather Buttrose. The Goodins sold their contemporary Morella Road house for $12.8 million, substantially higher than its $11 million price in 2007.

The four-bedroom house sold just before the Foreign Investment Review Board changes in April, to Milson Point’s Hong Gai and Yuping Chen through Stephen Patrick and Jacqui Rowland-Smith of Richardson & Wrench.

Villa saves the day

Six bedrooms and nine bathrooms . . . Villa Veneto at Point Piper, and Andrea Banks.

Without Villa Veneto, this year’s Title Deeds top-20 house sales list would be somewhat like last year’s, only softer.

Despite the continued lack of gravitas, estate agents have so far managed to secure 24 sales above $10 million this year, although one has since resold at $8.3 million in a demonstrable display of market deterioration.

Last year, agents notched up 32 sales above $10 million, with prices on the top-20 list ranging between $12 million and $23 million.

You know who you are

Which Mosman family, having sold on Bradleys Head Road for about $6 million, are prime candidates to spend $10 million plus on Balmoral Slopes? Their Queen Anne Federation house cost $4.25 million in 2001.

Which bullish $20 million Bellevue Hill sellers have snapped up two adjoining lots in Vaucluse for about $10 million?The properties, known as The Manor and The Lodge, last traded at $10.98 million in 2007.