Two iconic homes sell for $19.8m to the same buyer at huge auction weekend
Two iconic waterfront homes in Kirribilli, owned by different members of the same family, sold under the hammer for a combined $19.8 million at the weekend.
A mid-century home at 2 Stannards Place sold for $12.3 million, while the California Bungalow next door at 4 Stannards Place sold for $7.5 million. The properties were snapped up by the same buyer.
Di Jones Lower North Shore’s Nigel Muki and Piers van Hamburg and Colliers International’s Guillaume Vaulz and Henry Burke were the agents on the “once-in-a-lifetime” sale of the deceased estates on Sydney’s lower north shore.
Agent Nigel Mukhi, of Di Jones Lower North Shore, said the properties had originally been advertised for sale together. But a week before the auction was due a decision was made to sell them separately.
Six potential buyers signed up to bid on 2 Stannards Place and seven bidders registered for the auction at 4 Stannards Place.
“Unfortunately, due to COVID, we only had the registered bidders at the auctions, we had a COVID marshall there to make sure everyone was safe,” Mr Mukhi said.
The homes sold well above reserve – although Mr Mukhi would not reveal what the reserve for each home was. He said the buyer was unsure whether he would knock down and rebuild a single property on the land.
Family spokesperson Rachel Luchetti said it was a rags-to-riches tale, as her great grandfather migrated from Greece with nothing after World War I, setting up a milk bar and cinema and working hard to purchase number 4 Stannards Place in the 1930s.
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In the 1960s, his daughter, Ms Luchetti’s grandmother, bought the house next door to be close to family after she married.
It was a trend that would continue, with family members still living close by the waterfront homes – Ms Luchetti, as well as her parents, uncles, aunts and cousins all live within a kilometre of the properties, she said.
The homes held a lot of history for the family, as her great grandfather and her grandmother looked over newly built Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, which was completed in the 1970s.
The family were emotional after the sale, but happy the same buyer now owned the properties, Ms Luchetti said.
“It’s one of those things only people from these generations could do,” she said. “Someone comes from nothing in Greece and works hard to buy properties that gain value like that.”
The sale of the two properties were the biggest results reported at the weekend.
By the end of Saturday, Sydney’s auction clearance rate was one of the strongest for the year sitting at 77.4 per cent after 768 scheduled auctions and 539 reported results. There were 67 properties withdrawn from auction.
On Sydney’s upper north shore, about 20 minutes from Kirribilli, a property at 62 Springdale Road, Killara, also sold well above expectations.
The two-storey, five-bedroom home sold under the hammer for $4.92 million – $720,000 above the reserve.
The property was owned by LJ Hooker Avnu Mid North Shore’s Stephanie Hearne, who was both the selling agent and vendor on the day.
Six bidders registered for the auction, with four of them actively bidding for the keys.
The buyers were a family who had been looking for a bigger home for the past 18 months, Ms Hearne said.
“After the COVID-19 lockdown and people working from home people are looking for more space,” Ms Hearne said. “Our property had a studio apartment above the garage, so that got a lot of interest.”
In Sydney’s inner west, a five-bedroom home was snapped up by a buyer who had first looked through it when it was being built 10 years ago. It did not hit the market, however, until this year.
The vendor of 23 Birnam Grove, Strathfield, had built it as his dream home, but was moving on after finding a new dream – another property that included a tennis court, Belle Property Strathfield principal Norman So said.
The property sold for $5.3 million after five registered bidders, three of whom were active, competed on the sale.
One of the under-bidders on the property had been using some interesting tactics, by upping the price by the same amount – $95,000 – each bid.
“The ultimate buyer was bidding by $50,000 and $100,000,” Mr So said.
Despite the stormy weather in Sydney on Saturday, Mr So said buyers were out and about – many looking to get into the market before looser lending rules for mortgages were introduced by the banks next year.
They fear prices would continue to rise out of reach once more buyers entered the market, he said.
Also in the inner west, a two-storey, three-bedroom home at 15 Prospect Street, Erskineville, sold well above expectations for $1.83 million.
The sale price under the hammer was $160,000 over the reserve with Ray White Surry Hills director Shaun Stoker calling the result “phenomenal”.
“We had eight buyers register to bid on the day — five of whom were active — and that competition meant the sale price was well beyond the highest offer we’d received prior of $1,683,000.
“The campaign mainly attracted young couples but the eventual winning bidder was looking to downsize having recently sold their property in Drummoyne,” he said.
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