July 2012
38 posts
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An (Almost) Original Woollahra Terrace To Auction...
A Woollahra terrace on ever-desirable Moncur Street is to go to auction with pricing expectations set around $1.5m; it’s so original, in fact, that it maintains an exterior fireplace likely used for food preparation originally. Although not all original features have maintained themselves: at some point the kitchen was quite bizarrely moved into an upstairs bedroom, with the front bedroom...
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A Pre-Land Boom Mansion Hits Market with $3.5m+...
Despite being laid out in 1837 by Robert Hoddle soon after he surveyed the Melbourne CBD grid, East Melbourne was not developed until the 1840s. Land was laid out for numerous religious and educational institutions (few of the latter still exist) and parkland. By the time gold was discovered in Victoria, members of the city’s growing professional class had colonized East Melbourne as the...
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Tilting the Camera Won't Make this Studio Any...
A studio apartment in the P&O-influenced Rushcutters Bay block “Tahoe” listed for $190k. For some reason, listing agents at Landmark East Property Services felt that a potential buyer would enjoy tilting their head 45 degrees to the right to enjoy images of the property. It’s funny, too, because all they needed to do was take a photo of the exterior of the aesthetically...
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Mid-Century Modern on Manly's Shelly Beach Lists...
A front-row seat on Manly’s ever-desirable Bower Street listed today with $4m+ expectations through Elders Manly agents Richard Davies and Luke Newby. We last saw this home on the market in late 2010 and early 2011 when it failed to attract a buyer with a $4m-$4.5m+ price. It was likely priced too high back then despite having many good things for it: the bones and floor plan of 34 Bower...
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The Greying of Indooroopilly's 'Greylands'; Now...
‘Greylands’, one of Indooroopilly’s earliest estates, came to market today with price expectations in excess of $4.75m through Johnston Dixon agent Josephine Johnston Rowell. It’s a rare property with a colourful history, although its current pricing indicates the tight prestige market in Indooroopilly, the Brisbane suburb once considered among the city’s most...
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Domain Now Offers Past Sales Information & APM...
Although we can only find examples in the ACT, it appears that Domain.com.au has “soft launched” a feature that taps into APM’s sales data for any given listing. Naturally, clicking the link to find more information funnels one into APM’s sales information machine which likely means one thing: lead generation. Nonetheless, nice work Domain. We wonder if RealEstate.com.au...
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Kirribilli's 'The Point' Aims to Make Some Dough
Now here’s a development that tests the limits of one’s patience. Beginning in August 2001, a property syndicate named “Sandoval Investments” began to buy up all the apartments in the 7-unit art deco block at 106 Kirribilli Ave. Between Aug 2001 and Oct 2002, Sandoval was able to secure all of the units, purchasing each one for around the $500k mark; all in, the...
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
VICTORIA
MT ELIZA - Lorien, Mt Eliza’s clifftop property that aims to set the bar for mid-1990s modern architecture (and fails miserably) now comes with an official asking price after fluffing around the listings for 2 months with “expressions of interest” not yielding the desired results. $7.5m is the price; James Crowder and Deb Ketting-Olivier of James Crowder Community...
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A Rare 1880s Victorian in the Otherwise 1920s...
‘Hartland’, an imposing 5-bedroom Victorian Italianate mansion situated in an increasingly desirable pocket of Hawthorn, listed with $3.5m+ expectations this week. Although anecdotally considered part of the Urquhart Estate, Hartland actually predates that development by nearly 40 years. During the first 4 decades after Hartland’s construction, the property was adjacent to the...
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Gerber Properties' & Harris Tripp's "Oops" Moment
Several days ago, The Radial Terrace highlighted a rare Victorian mansion in Ashfield that came to market. Not long after our rather complimentary history on the property, co-agent Arthur Paschalidis of Gerber Properties threatened me with a lawsuit.
According to his email:
“The house was posted on the internet yesterday and you were not authorised either by the agents marketing the...
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From $6m to $2.9m: Price Chopping in Byron Bay
Araucaria - a Mediterranean-inspired estate in the hills outside of Byron Bay - has been listed on the market for quite some time. 2 1/2 years, to be exact. But it draws particular attention from the Radical Terrace today for the epic price chopping it’s endured. Starting with an optimistic (but seemingly reasonable) price of $6m, the home now seems to be priced at around replacement...
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'Delmar'/'Inveran' Wants $3m+ and to Up Ashfield's...
‘Delmar’ - a rare 6-bedroom c1884 Victorian Italianate mansion on 1/2 acre in Ashfield listed for $3m+ today through Harris Tripp First National agent Virginia Nicoll.
Through the end of the nineteenth century, Ashfield was considered one of Sydney’s premier suburbs. In fact, from the 1850s onwards, a string of Inner West suburbs formed a necklace of desirable suburbs for the...
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'Polo Belt' Discounts Abound!
We’ve said it time after time after time, but it still remains a favourite past time of ours to assess the decreasing desirability of the Upper North Shore. Our latest case-in-point is the often-listed, never-sold ‘Matakana’ at 28 Lucinda Avenue in Wahroonga. The c1907 estate covers over 2/3 of an acre, comes with pool, tennis court, many a period feature, and a five bedroom...
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
VIC
SORRENTO - It’s not every day that a home with a desirable Point Nepean Road address lists in the middle of winter. Then again, not every home sits so uncomfortably on the inland side of the prestige road. Despite the property’s large lot (nearly 1/2 acre), the weatherboard home itself is left without a water view. It might even be considered a redevelopment opportunity. The...
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UPDATE: Tragedy in Brighton East: 'Otley' Sells at...
UPDATE: Hat-tip to ‘Edwardian’, one of the Radical Terrace’s favourite commentators, for letting us know that Otley did in fact sell at a loss. The final price? $2.665m. Not quite as bad as we expected, but most definitely still a loser…
It was only in March when we last saw ‘Otley’, a single story 1887 Victorian Italianate villa (with three story tower!),...
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Iain Halliday-Designed Renovation on Mona Vale...
That “Mona Vale discount” is back in force with this 4-bedroom blufftop home wanting what appears to be a rather humble $3.5m+. It is indeed a low price for Northern Beaches water frontage, but not for Mona Vale. The suburb seldom sees homes trading above the $3m mark (although street mate 46 Hillcrest Ave did sell for a record breaking $5.1m in Nov 2007). The subject property was...
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'Graceland' Wants to Break Beacon Hill's Price...
Beacon Hill, a suburb near Frenchs Forest to the north of Sydney, has a new home vying for top spot. The estate, situated on an uncharacteristically large 3 acre plot of land, last sold for $1.75m in Aug 2008. It has since then undergone a hefty renovation and addition, including a two-storey living area and kitchen and vanishing edge pool. All in, ‘Graceland’ apparently marries...
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Nice Scoop, Margie!
It hasn’t even hit the open market yet, but Margie Blok landed a solid property scoop: the listing of 75 Bay Street, one of Double Bay’s last-remaining original harbourfront homes. The home has been in the Pockley Family since the 1940s. The home was constructed in 1920 for Merriweather family and has a “tree of local significance” on the property. Seriously. Expect a...
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Robin Boyd Original Lists in Toorak for $2.5m+
Now here’s a Toorak listing that Kay & Burton wasn’t able to hegemonically stake claim: ‘Milne House’ on the corner of the busy Toorak and quiet Glenbervie Roads. Bennison Mackinnon agents Hugh Hardy and Andrew Macmillan landed the well-renovated trophy listing and slapped a reasonable sounding asking price on the abode: “Between $2.5m and $2.75m.”
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
VIC
IVANHOE - One of about only a dozen Ivanhoe homes fronting the Yarra River, 9-11 Riverside Road listed this week with hopes of smashing Ivanhoe’s price record through Miles agents Damien Carter and James Davis. The post-modern 6-bedroom rests on nearly an acre and comes with a riverfront tennis court. The home last sold for $2.47m in Nov 2003 and has doubtfully been refurbished since....
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Kay & Burton Land Yet Another Toorak Trophy...
Kay & Burton have landed yet another Toorak mansion listing. Of the 20 properties currently listed in Toorak above $5m, Kay & Burton can stake claim to 12 of them. The latest of their offerings is 779 Orrong Road and the price is $8m+.
The listing is most definitely a flip. Last sold for $6.8m in May 2010, the current owners have thankfully ripped out the unsightly portico, Keating-era...
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Sky High Pricing in East Melbourne: A $5.5m+...
123 Gipps Street, an elegant William Pitt-designed c1887 4-bedroom Victorian Italianate terrace situated in patrician East Melbourne, is back on the market once again. We’re not sure what it is about this home that lends itself to constant flipping, but in the last 7 years the home was traded hands three times:
Oct 2005: $2.15m;
Aug 2009: $2.85m;
Jan 2011: $3.1m.
However, this...
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Top Floor Unit in Australia's First High Rise...
‘Kingsclere,’ built in 1912 and considered to be Australia’s first high-rise block of flats, is an icon in Sydney residential development. Situated at the high point of Potts Point at the corner of Macleay Street and Greenknowe, Kingsclere was constructed by society architects Maurice Halligan and Frederick Wilton in the then-modern Edwardian style dressed in brick and...
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Development Breakdown in Darling Point
Back in March 2006, two neigbhouring inter-war homes-turned-flats on Darling Point’s western slope at 3 and 5 Loftus Road sold to developers Strada Group for a combined $8.5m ($5.1m for #3; $3.4m for #5). Within months of closing, development applications were submitted to Woollahra Council for “proposed demolition of the existing two dwelling houses and construction of a residential...
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Well This is Odd... →
Not even a full day after this blog highlighted The Age article reporting on SQM Research’s report of an overstock of outer suburban Melbourne residential real estate, Jonathan Chancellor at Property Observer dives into REIV data that tells a very different story: outer suburban Melbourne rental vacancies are the lowest in the state. We’re so confused.
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Melbourne is Overbuilt, Designing the World's... →
Chris Vedelago and Cameron Houston at The Age penned an article on recent SQM Research indicating Melbourne is home to tens of thousands of unsold homes on its urban fringe. Not surprisingly, everyone and their government representatives are chiming in with hyperbolic statements of doom and despair. Professor Michael Buxton, an RMIT planning expert, went so far as to say Melbourne...
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One of Brighton's Largest Mansions Chops Off Some...
Today, a land listing on The Esplanade in the heart of Brighton’s Golden Mile came on the market, asking $4m for its postage-stamp sized 825sqm lot. Although a raw chunk of land being listed on The Esplanade is likely Radical Terrace worthy in its own right, this listing carries even more significance as it’s being chopped off from the long-listed mega-mansion ‘Kinane’....
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Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week
SA
ALDGATE ‘Windcombe’, a true-to-form Palladian-style home in the Adelaide Hills is listed for $1.695m. Sold as a parcel of land in 2000 for $250k, the home that now stands was built soon thereafter and modeled after the 18th C Bath, England manor home of the same name. The home was shopped around on the market back in 2008, but it’s unclear to the Radical Terrace if it...
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Cult Compound in Denham Court for $6m+
Lingering on the market for some time now, a super-compound in Denham Court, the premier suburb of the far-flung Campbelltown area of Sydney, is available for $6m through Azam Dabbagh of Coldwell Banker South West Realty. The 25-acre estate comes with 16,000 square feet (1,600sqm) of living space and the architectural stylings of a miniature golf course. The 11-bedrooms make this estate eligible...
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Shocker: 'Militant NIMBYs' Are Bad!
Larry Schlesigner at Property Observer brought our attention to the McKell Institute’s latest research piece. Complete with the compelling title, “Sydney over the next 20 years discussion paper,” the report offers many a no-brainer reminder that terraces, semis, and other medium-density housing solutions are being stifled by the ‘militant NIMBYism’ of local council...
