June 2012
41 posts
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Walter Burley Griffin's Last and Largest Home...
Walter Burley Griffin, one of Australia’s most prominent and well-known architects (and urban planner of Canberra…and Castlecrag) built several distinguished homes in Sydney’s Upper North Shore. None as large, however, as the c1936 6-bedroom Prairie style manse in Pymble known as ‘Coppins’. Situated on a massive 1.5 acre allotment on Telegraph Road - one of the...
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Top 20 Sydney Homes Sales in Last 12 Months →
Jonathan Chancellor provides a delightful rundown on the 20 most expensive home sales in the Sydney region. It took a $9m sale to make the list, with the top spot going to the $23m sale of Kalua in Palm Beach. It’s a fun list, and by now you all should know how much we love LISTS!
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
NSW
A 4-bedroom, two-storey, 530sqm Mcmahons Point penthouse listed with high-$6m expectations. Last sold for $6.5m (presumably off-the-plan) in Nov 2005, Martin Schiller of Savills will have to break that amount to present his clients from being price losers. The listing: 2/16 Bay View Street, Mcmahons Point.
Hamish Rogers has listed ‘Tarna Hall’, a “French...
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'Glenholme' Lists for $2.5m, Wants to Narrow In On...
A few weeks ago, the Radical Terrace wrote a rather exhaustive post on Ballarat’s prestigious Webster Street, home to the city’s most expensive real estate. In that piece, we mentioned the Victorian villa ‘Glenholme,’ as being the home that firmly established Webster St as the blue chip precinct in the nascent city:
An 1852 survey of land immediately west of the Ballarat...
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Fitzroy North: Redux
It was just three weeks ago that the Radical Terrace commented on the brouhaha surrounding the $4.2m sale of a Fitzroy North property fronting the elegant Edinburgh Gardens at 39 Alfred Crescent. It was indeed a notable sale, for prior to the sale of 39 Alfred Crescent only one home on the arching avenue sold above $2m (that outlier being the large plotted #85 which sold for $3.05m in Sep 2009)....
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A Newtown Home Wants To Be Geelong's #1
‘Drummond’, a Newtown record-breaker when it sold for $2.615m back in May 2005, is now on the market asking for another record breaking amount: $3.35m; if listing agent Dale Whitford achieves his asking, it will become Greater Geelong’s most expensive house. The stately multi-coloured brick mansion comes with swimming pool, tennis court, and a prime Newtown location. Although,...
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Oceanfront Tennis Tetris: Rare, Indeed!
A Collaroy oceanfront home (pictured above) with a coveted tennis court on a 1,365sqm block sold for $8.7m at auction this weekend. Even Jonathan Chancellor made mention of the “rare” nature of such a well-located tennis court. But it also begs the question, how rare are these tetris-playing oceanfront tennis courts? The Radical Terrace decided to find out. Our criteria:
First, we...
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Jonathan Chancellor in the Highlands
In his latest Title Tattle, Jonathan Chancellor covers the comings and goings of wealthy (and white) Sydneysiders who continue to trade multi-million dollar hobby farms in the desirable weekender destination 100kms south of the city. However, one interesting observation of his caught our attention:
“And ever on the lookout for the start of a possible trend, Title Tattle notes the first...
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Nelson Aspen Finds an NYC Apartment →
New York-based Sunrise host Nelson Aspen indulges the NYTimes in the ups and downs of finding an apartment in New York City.
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'Blowhard' for $2.25m
A rather unique ski chalet in the Australian Alps enclave of Hotham Heights listed today with a $2.25m ask. Curiously named ‘Blowhard’, the 4-bedroom home sleeps twelve and contains “five separate areas devoted to high end living and deep relaxation”. Furthermore, the interiors are “a palate of local timbers, stone, pebbles, latex, chain and fur.” Latex,...
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“Orientation was given more attention. The sun was still deliberately avoided....”
– Robin Boyd commenting on an Australian public who had yet to become obsessed with all things north-facing from “Australia’s Home: Its Origins, Builders and Occupiers”, Melbourne University Press, 1952, p75
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Edzell House Chops, Wants $8m+ For Yarra Frontage
Last November, it is the Radical Terrace’s understanding that ‘Edzell House’, a landmark 1891 Reed Smart & Tappin designed Queen Anne home at 76 (-86) St Georges Road sold for $11m. During Edzell House’s multi-year marketing campaign, plans for subdivision were flaunted. Most notably, MGS Architecture-designed plans for a riverfront abode with 5-bedrooms and a copper...
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
VIC
A two-storey weatherboard on Williamstown’s The Strand emerged on the market with modest mid-$2mil hopes. The Strand is Williamstown’s trophy street, not surprising seeing that its bayfront position offers some stunning views back to Melbourne’s CBD. The price record for the road was achieved back in May 2008 when 21 The Strand sold for $5.4m. Aside from that outlier, most...
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'Bangalore' Wants to be North Melbourne's Most...
‘Bangalore’, an 1892 Victorian Italianate villa located in North Melbourne is listed with $3.5m+ aspirations, bold by any stretch of the imagination for the suburb. The Radical Terrace has watched this home for a while. It’s been listed for many a month and we’ve waited in vain for pricing expectations to drop. However, it seems the recent flurry of prestige northern...
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Bedigo's Fortuna Villa: Everyone's Aflutter
Lots of press has been dedicated to the upcoming sale of Bendigo’s landmark Fortuna Villa. George Lansell, a Bendigo gold magnate, acquired the property where the Villa rests in the 1870s. According to Fortuna Villa’s website, “the wealth Lansell generated from the mines funded the continuous expansion of the mansion and grounds. The mansion was built in a number of...
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'Developers Won't Save Parramatta Road Alone' →
Elizabeth Farrelly (you may remember her from a previous Radical Terrace feature piece) scribed a well-thought out op-ed piece for the Sydney Morning Herald. Although nothing groundbreaking, the Radical Terrace definitely does agree with her that the quickest and most cost-effective way to breath life into Sydney’s broken transportation spine is by promptly adding light rail. Same goes for...
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
VIC
A 10-acre hilltop home in Merricks has listed for $3.0m-$3.45m. ‘Coora’ sits at the end of a desirable cul-de-sac that has commanded some high prices lately. Number 80 sold for $3.5m in May 2010 and number 94 for $4.5m in Apr 2008. The home is listed (for the first time) through Kay & Burton Flinders agents Rollo Moore and Prue McLaughlin and RT Edgar Flinders agents Michael...
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Parramatta Road: Sydney's Champs-Élysées?
Parramatta Road in 25 years (above) and Parramatta Road at present (below). Note subtle differences.
Remember when we debriefed you on the prospect of Parramatta being an urban wonderland many a month back? Well, last week SMH’s Stephen Nicholls began to leak information about yet another proposal for Parramatta Road improvements, this time from Urban Taskforce - a developer’s...
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Manly's 'Casa Mia' Update
Back in March, The Radical Terrace posted the colourful story of the c1930 Lewis Kaberry-designed ‘Casa Mia’ on Manly’s harbourfront. The mansion (pictured above) is now home to four apartments and was last seen shopping around with $4.2m hopes and the assumption that extensive renovations could take place. Well, it appears that Casa Mia’s plastic surgeon owner Dr Mark...
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Bill Bridges' 'Oops' Moment
Earlier this week we highlighted a triple-listed Neo-Georgian town residence in Woollahra. At that time, only 1/3 of the listings hit the open market. Today, Ballard Property Group agent Bill Bridges unveiled his take on the listing. The description reads well and the photos are the same! Yay for cross-broker communication! One minor issue though: the address and suburb are wholly wrong. 3...
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Tennis Tetris, Anyone?
Can you imagine the couples tennis rivalries that exist on Hawthorn’s Kooyongkoot Road?!?
Having a tennis court adds value to a house, right? Sure, it makes sense. Another amenity, another drawcard, a status symbol, tennis courts are synonymous with prestige real estate in Australia (especially in Melbourne). But is there a point in which a tennis court detracts from a home’s...
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'Radical take on market' →
Chris Vedelago, The Age, 9 June 2012
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Price Check on Webster Street: Ballarat's 'Street...
Webster Street, long known as Ballarat’s most prestigious street, runs west from the city centre and bee-lines it for the (sometimes-)Lake Wendouree. And unlike other country towns where new home developments on the fringe of town now attract the highest prices in the 21st century (we’re talking about you, Run-O-Waters, Goulburn, NSW!), Webster Street has maintained its market...
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Award-Winning Streamline Modern Darling Point...
Present-day Yarranabbe Road, home to some of Sydney’s finest real estate, was laid out as early as 1833, forming a shaky pathway to the iconic and still intact Gothic Revival mansion ‘Lindsay.’ And although evidence exists of an 1856 subdivision of Sir T.L. Mitchell’s land where our featured property - 99 Yarranabbe Rd - sits (see map below), the formal subdivision did...
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The Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
WA
A unique two-storey limestone Queen Anne/Federation-style mansion designed by Sir Talbot Hobbs in Peppermint Grove has listed for $9.75m. Hobbs is considered one of Perth’s foremost early architects. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home has a tennis court and glimpses of Freshwater Bay. William Porteous of his eponymous real estate agency has the listing: 50 Irvine St, Peppermint...
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Chancellor: 12 Trophy Homes That Are Getting No... →
Jonathan Chancellor over at Property Observer has chosen a geographically diverse array of 12 trophy homes that have been languishing on the market for at least a year (some listings dating back many more years). One highlight of the article is Chancellor’s mention that Point Piper’s Villa del Mare is ”almost certain to sell to Chinese buyers.”
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What's the Difference Between $3.6m+ and $4.5m?...
Two unique Mt Eliza listings emerged on the market today. One is a ‘Hollywood’-inspired ‘100sq (approx)’ mansion ‘set on 2/3 acre (approx.)’ asking $4.5m and listed through TJ Sparks agent Terry Sparks. The other is a ‘Grand 80sq. approx. residence set on’ [one-half acre] asking ‘over $3.6m’ listed through Nicholas Lynch agent Nicholas...
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Commercial Conversions on the Balmain Peninsula
66 Evans St, Rozelle, today (above) and pre-renovation in 2000 (below)
The rise, fall, and revitalisation of the corner shop - or milk bar, if you’re from Victoria - should surprise few inner suburban residents of Australian capital cities. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it was not uncommon for once well-patronized corner shops to close their doors in the face of competition from more...
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'Family Friendly' Terrace on the Woollahra Side of...
Jersey Road is a sacred locale in Eastern Suburbs real estate. Once named ‘Point Piper Street’ and serving as the main path from South Head Rd (now Oxford St) to Point Piper Estate in Darling Point (see 1858 Point Piper Estate parcel map when it was first divided and 1878 Sands Directory map below), the road now holds a far more important and unique honour: it is, undoubtedly, a...
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The Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
Margie Blok is reporting on the long-in-the-making sale of the beachfront Point Piper mansion ‘Deauville’ for “about $13.6m” after listing with $17m+ hopes last year. The 1930s home at 16 Longsworth Ave is in need of some TLC. Next door neighbour is Malcolm Turnbull - Australia’s very own Mitt Romney - who can often be seen strutting out in his budgies for a...
