Former luxury car boss Matt Duncan makes $8 million return to Woollahra

Former luxury car boss Matt Duncan is making a high-end return to his Woollahra neighbourhood having bought the Victorian Italianate mansion of Di Ipkendanz.

Duncan has been based at the Wharf Terraces in Woolloomooloo in recent years in the $4.5 million apartment bought in his mum Glenda’s name in 2015 when he sold his former Woollahra home for $9.5 million.

It was while living in Woolloomooloo that the former Trivett chief was caught high-range drink-driving, resulting in him losing his licence but dodging jail time despite it being the second such offence in four years.

Sources say Duncan’s off-market purchase was negotiated by Ballard’s Alan Fettes for about $8 million, and follows Ipkendanz’s own return to Bellevue Hill and the circa $9.5 million house she bought from property fund manager Ben Finger and his wife Dana.

Ipkendanz’s sojourn in Woollahra followed the sale of her former Bellevue Hill home four years ago for $15.6 million to former Multiplex chief Andrew Roberts.

Duncan will be just the latest in a who’s who of owners of the Wellington Street property when he takes possession. Ipkendanz bought it in 2016 from businessman Costa Vrisakis for $6.35 million, who owned it for only a year having bought it for $6.5 million from accessories queen Sam Cooney, who paid $5.1 million in 2013 to former National Australia Bank senior executive Drew Bradford and his wife, Allison.

Moving on from Mosman

Word is Hardie Grant chairman John Gerahty and his wife Patricia are set to end their long-time residency in Mosman thanks to a recent double-digit buyer.

The couple have been Mosman locals for decades, most recently on Hopetoun Avenue where they undertook a large-scale renovation of the north-facing property after they bought it in 2010 for $6.6 million.

It was previously home to journalist Mark Day and his wife, Nicole Kidman’s publicist Wendy Day, until they sold it in 2004 for $3.975 million.

The latest deal is pinned on agent Stephen Patrick, of Richardson & Wrench Mosman, although he declined to comment. Settlement will confirm if the result reached rumoured $12 million heights.

The Gerahtys have joined the Potts Point crush, paying $12.5 million for racing legend Max Whitby’s pad, through Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay.

New job, new home for Ogrin

Julian Ogrin, who stepped down as chief of telco Amaysim last year to head up Foxtel’s fledgling sports streaming service Kayo Sports, now has a new home.

Ogrin and his wife Sandra were previously based on the clifftop at Dover Heights, where they bought for $4.4 million in 2016 and sold off-market last month for $5.5 million to Suzannah Blinman, wife of Neon Stingray start-up founder Chris Flintoft.

And records show the Ogrins have recently taken the keys to the Rose Bay residence of businessman Michael Hayes at a cost of $5.6 million through Richardson & Wrench Double Bay’s Kate Zuppicich, in turn freeing Hayes to move to his new $5.75 million digs in Bellevue Hill.

The contemporary residence was home to Sir Frank Lowy and his wife Shirley after they bought it in 1959 for £4250 from the late Northern Territory supreme court judge Alan Bridge, and sold it in 1973 for $105,000 to upgrade to their Point Piper mansion.

Hayes owned it less than two years having bought it in 2017 for $5,415,000 when he traded over from his former Darling Point apartment he sold that same year for $7.11 million to property developer Nabil Gazal.

Adelaide move mooted

One of Australia’s most experienced screen executives Courtney Gibson has listed her designer Leichhardt property for a March 2 auction amid talk of a move to Adelaide.

The selling plans come a year after the former chief of Screen NSW took up the top job at the South Australian Film Corporation and five years after she bought the property for $1.6 million.

Gibson’s Palm Springs-inspired property in a converted ribbon factory is yet another redesign by architect David Boyle, who redesigned her former Marrickville semi before she sold it in 2014 for $1.6 million.

Adrian Oddi, of BresicWhitney Balmain, who sold her Marrickville home last time, has a $2 million guide.

$10.7m Bellevue Hill windfall

Rick Karpin, boss at online betting company SUREpick, has scored a $10.7 million windfall on his long-held Bellevue Hill home.

The off-market deal was rumoured to have been negotiated by Ballard’s Alan Fettes and records reveal it was bought by Popcom communications boss Amanda Lacey.

Lacey and her lawyer husband Andrew are trading up from Rose Bay, where they recently sold their Wilberforce Avenue home with help from buyer’s agent Daniel Trelease for $5.6 million to Queens Park-based Catherine De Giorgio, wife of Macquarie Group director and former marathon swimmer Iain Melhuish.

Elizabeth Bay trophy home sale

The Georgian mansion Tresco on the Elizabeth Bay waterfront has returned to the trophy market for 2019.

The landmark 3300-square-metre property – built by prominent Victorian architect and Manly’s first mayor Thomas Rowe in 1868 – retains its $50 million asking price from when it was listed in 2017, but this time in the hands of LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf.

It is the long-time home of Janette Waterhouse and art collector and options trader David Waterhouse, a long estranged member of the prominent racing family, and last traded in 2004 for $11 million.

New neighbours for Morrices

Ian Morrice, who stepped down as chief of Metcash 18 months ago, and his interior designer wife Linda are seeking new neighbours for their recently completed residence in Lavender Bay for between $13 million to $15 million.

The couple bought the Bay View Street site in 2014 from lawyer John Lattin and his wife Helen, and commissioned architect Steven Isaacs to design two complementary detached houses with interiors by Linda.

The couple are retaining one of the properties as their own, and have listed the other with Belle Property Mosman’s Tim Foote.

$10m penthouse back on market

The Darling Point penthouse of ad agency executive Robin Chen and businessman Ying Huang is up for grabs for north of $10 million.

This is the two-storey penthouse originally designed by Dennis Rabinowitz for property developer Bob Rose and his wife Margaret, as their Sydney base.

Chen, a former senior executive at Starcom Mediavest ad agency and more recently at Zenith Optimedia, bought it in 2014 for $9.98 million, and it returns to the market with Alison Coopes, of her eponymous agency.

Time for a French sojourn

John Cunningham, the former managing director of luxury Italian brand Salvatore Ferragamo’s Australian arm, and his wife, True Green co-author Jenny Bonnin have listed their Palm Beach property, with plans to spend more time at their 18th-century stone house in France’s Eygalieres.

They are also on the hunt for a Sydney base.

There’s been a lavish renovation since the couple bought it in 2017 for $2.65 million. Peter Robinson, of LJ Hooker Palm Beach, has set a March 13 auction and a $3.9 million guide.

Mystery buyer in Killara

The Killara home of Lenovo’s Asia Pacific president Rod Lappin and his wife Sophie has sold in an off-market deal for $10.43 million to a mystery 39-year-old from China, Fang Wang.

The Kirribilli-bound Lappins did well from their five-year ownership of the 1918-built residence. They bought it for $6.75 million in 2014 and there’s been no obvious renovation before it was sold this time around by McConnell Bourn’s Scott Farquhar.