You Wish

6 Benson Avenue, Toorak
About $12 million

If ever you suddenly fancied a latte or glass of bubbles while dressing, you’ll find a friend in this avant-garde four-level Toorak palace. Its penthouse-style main bedroom has not only his-and-hers en suites, balcony, fireplace and red onyx spa, but a remote-controlled pop-up coffee machine and champagne fridge hidden within a marble plinth in the dressing room.

Alternatively, have a drink in the bar to be enveloped in mosaic-tile rose-garden artwork, or select a drop from the marble-walled basement cellar to sample in the cigar/tasting room or the cinema. Outdoors, quench your thirst by the pool/spa, watching the outdoor TV, or take the lift for sunset views from the rooftop terrace.

Opulence at the entry – a water wall and Marmoglass crystal white staircase – continues with living rooms that have entire marble walls and six-metre-high glass panes. Extras include a panic room, gym, sensor-opaque bathroom glass, a showroom of Gaggenau appliances and Iris Cristal Bohemia chandeliers.

The expressions of interest campaign by Sotheby’s Sarah Case, suggesting about $12 million for 6 Benson Avenue, closes on February 28 at 5pm.

32-34 Blair Street, Portsea
$5 million-plus

Andrew Abercrombie, Toorak-based entertainment lawyer-turned- Liberal Party powerbroker and businessman, is selling the limestone Portsea getaway he built, two years after upgrading to a clifftop property 10 minutes’ walk away.

He paid almost $10 million for the Wayne Gillespie-designed Mandurah in 2015 but is seeking something closer to half that for Provenance, built in 2000 on double the land size – a huge 3758 square metres.

The property at 32-34 Blair Street is a stone’s throw from the golf course and Point Nepean National Park. Selling agent Liz Jensen, of Kay & Burton, says it’s in a prime tree-lined street “protected from the mayhem and activity” but a stroll from bay beaches and Portsea Hotel.

The imposing two-storey house has five bedrooms, an infinity-edge pool, Modgrass tennis court and sprawling lawns. The main bedroom suite, occupying the upper floor, has a balcony to the north.

A separate two-bedroom self-contained guest cottage has sub-division potential.

The property can be inspected Saturday and Sunday at 3pm-3.30pm. Expressions of interest close at 5pm on February 7.

29 Leopold Street, Caulfield
$2.8 million-plus

Things have stepped up a notch since a humble California bungalow fulfilled home-owner expectations in middle suburbia, if this lavish residence is any guide.

No. 29 ups the ante in pleasantly average Leopold Street with a striking, almost-Brutalist exterior and top-end features and materials more commonly flaunted in Brighton mansions.

“There’s no expense spared and you can see it – everyone who comes in, their jaw just drops,” says Dingle Partners agent Anton Wongtrakun, who notes bluestone-tile facade, glass floor tiles, ebony Macassar kitchen joinery, New York marble gas fireplace and a five-metre-high glass sliding door to the pool.

It might be a practical family home – four upstairs bedrooms, four bathrooms and Gaggenau kitchen – but it’s also an attention-seeking entertainment venue. The rooftop terrace can host 100 for a barbecue-and spa-party, and the pool, pristine white-tiled with dashes of gold, lights up with special effects.

The auction is at 2pm on February 25.

92 Danks Street, Albert Park
$3.25 million-plus

In its first week on the market, the two-storey corner property at 92 Danks Street, Albert Park, drew not only a swell of buyer interest, but reconnection from two previous owners who had loved living there.

There’s equal measure of convenience and class in the leisure-driven pocket between the beach and the lake, and with St Vincent Gardens, transport and Bridport Street shops and restaurants nearby.

RT Edgar agent Gerald Betts says it is rare to find a circa-1890 house in this neighbourhood with such balance of historic charm and renovated family accommodation.

The first floor has four bedrooms, one with an en suite and one with a balcony, plus a shared bathroom and a study. Downstairs there is a fifth bedroom, an extra bathroom, under-stair laundry and formal lounge and dining rooms. The open-plan kitchen/living room opens to a courtyard and tandem garage facing Withers Street.

Three inspections a week lead up to the auction at 11.30am on February 18.