1. Tzannes-Designed Terrace in Paddington to Auction for $3m+

    Hot in the heels of another impressive Paddington terrace listing, Jane Schumann and Gary Sands of Di Jones have scored another mullet house terrace listing designed by Sydney starchitect Alex Tzannes. The Paddington home sits north of Oxford Street on the desirable, if hodge-podge, Hopewell Street. The home sold in 1998 for $590k and in the early-2000s the owners enlisted Tzannes Architects to transform the house and take advantage of the rear lane access to add a garage and a light-filled rear extension. The home was completed in 2004 and subsequently won a bevy of awards for the architect’s work. The 3-bedroom home is to auction for $3m+ sometime soon.

    The listing: 26 Hopewell Street, Paddington

  2. A Radical Terrace in Paddington Soon to Auction for $1.6m+

    A terrace designed by architect Richard Archer of Archer & Wright in 1999 is currently on the market in Paddington going to auction later this month with expectations of $1.6m+. The stunning re-build morphed a derelict terrace (purchased for $247k in 1993) into an ideal bachelor’s mullet house with soaring ceilings, indoor-outdoor functionality, and a highly valuable car spot in the historic core of Paddington that is tough on parking, even by local standards. The home sold post-renovation in 2000 for $800k. 

    According to the architects: 

    “The creation of a strong angled axis to the interior planning allowed the careful removal of small zones of floor plate to bring light and verticality to the home, imbuing it with a dramatic sense of scale…A delicate counterpoint is established throughout this space between the natural textures of the original sandstone walls and the glossy tiled feature panels that plunge into the reflecting pond, the unfilled travertine terraces and the spare detailing of the custom designed joinery.”

    Jane Schumann and Gary Sands of Di Jones have the listing: 28 Little Comber Street, Paddington

  3. 1830s Double Bay Gothic Transformation Still Wants $6m

    Mort’s Cottage, one of Double Bay’s earliest intact homes, has re-emerged on the market after a several month absence. Last sold in Apr 2005 for $3.02m, the home underwent a $300k renovation and addition under the design of Thomas Jacobsen Architects. Not surprising given the historic nature of the property, the Woollara Council took over a year to approve the Development Application. And then, shortly after the glassy modern addition was completed (hello, mullet house!), the house emerged on the market through Di Jones agents Jane Schumann and Gary Sands in late 2011. A few months after the initial listing, Susan Wellings at SMH’s Domain reported in Dec 2011:

    “The owners of Mort’s Cottage (circa 1835) have unexpectedly found a property they adore, so they’re eager to sell their own historic five-bedroom, three-bathroom sandstone home - one of Double Bay’s earliest - on a level block just 200 metres to the harbour foreshore. As a result, they’re reducing their asking price from $6.5 million to offers above $5.5 million for the house…”

    Well, we’re not sure if the home’s owners ended up purchasing that “property they adore” anyways, but Mort’s Cottage is back on the market, this time with pricing indications that appear more optimistic than in December.

    The cottage itself was constructed in 1839 (not 1835 as indicated by the property’s site, 1835 was when the property was first subdivided and sold). It took its present name of ‘Mort’s Cottage’ from Thomas Mort who occupied the house beginning in 1848. However, 38 Ocean Avenue also took the following names over the course of its 175-year history:

    • Lillian c.1883
    • Posendorf c.1895
    • Namoi c.1916
    The home is considered to be of “Victorian Rustic Gothic Style” (considering the home was built after Victoria’s reign began in 1837, we won’t deride that piece of historical commentary) and has some kinship to another featured property built 30 years later - Glen Rhoda. Although we can’t find any historical imagery to back this claim, we presume the “gingerbread” wooden gables were an addition in the second-half of the nineteenth century and not around at the time of construction. 

  4. ‘Family Friendly’ Terrace on the Woollahra Side of Jersey Road Lists in Mid-$2mils

    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 Paddington aesthetic that lives on the road - with rows of uniform Victorian terrace houses, however the east side of the road scores an ever-so-desirable Woollahra 2025 address. Thus makes a “half-and-half” - where one side of the street holds one suburb address and post code, the other side another. These are fun testing grounds for the relative prestige of a suburb name. Back on Jersey Rd, the slightly better-endowed (architecturally speaking, that is) Woollahra side of the road has the added bonus of scoring a quartet of late Victoiran detached villas (numbers 17, 19, 21, and 23), a handful of oddly idiosyncratic one-off terraces (weatherboards and all!), and the handsome church-turned-condos at number 109, anchoring Jersey Road firmly as a particularly beautiful Sydney streetscape.

    (Fun fact: the alleyway behind Jersey Road - ‘Point Piper Ln’ - is, of course, named after its original big brother road.)

    So resting pretty on the east side of the road - next to the quartet of villas and with easy access to Oxford Street - number 9 emerged on the market this past week. Jane Schumann and Gary Sands at Di Jones landed the by-the-book Victorian terrace listing and rightly flaunt the terraces ‘family friendly’ qualities. And by ‘family friendly’ qualities we mean the terrace functions well as a kindergarten art classroom, at least if the listing photos indicate anything. But seriously, couldn’t they have taken some of these pictures down?  The 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1-car spot (the magical 3:2:1 terrace ratio!) and is looking for mid-$2mils. The home last sold for $1.5m back in September 2002, and comps speak well for high prices in this micro-neighbourhood seeing that Oyama, one of the four villas, sold for more than $7m earlier this month.

    Now for some finger painting (and a really big tree)… 

    The listing: 9 Jersey Rd, Woollahra

  5. Woollahra Mansion ‘Orama’ Sells Off-Market for ~$7m

    Remember Mandolong House, one of the Radical Terrace’s favourites spreads in Mosman that sold for $18m earlier this year? Well, Margie Blok is reporting (and we’re hoping she’s not just jumping the gun on us again) that Jersey Road’s ‘Orama’ has sold to the Roberts-Thompson family that decamped from Mandolong House after they enlisted Smart Design Studios in a stunning renovation. Considering Orama, on the Woollahra side of Jersey Rd in a prestigious pocket of friendly Georgian manor homes, is in need of some TLC (see below), we’re expecting a hefty renovation. The home last sold for $6.06m in July 2006. The Radical Terrace is expecting some serious rehabilitation and we’re eager to find out if the Roberts-Thompson clan enlists Smart Design Studio again or if they go for the Tanner Architects DA-approved designs that came with the house sale. The below photos are from the retired 2006 listing that Di Jones still has floating around on the web. 

  6. SMH A Little Late to the Game

    We nabbed the story a few weeks back, but we still appreciate Stephen Nicholls’ coverage of the Windsor-Pub-Hotel-turned-construction-site-money-pit, especially since Nicholls describes its upcoming auction as a kick-off to auction season. Weird, we know. To reiterate, they’re expecting $5.5m+ for the heritage facade and council-approved plans.

  7. Pub Conversion/Construction Site Saturday

    A dearth of fun Federations to dig into led me to this “Just Listed” property on the fancy corner of Elizabeth and Windsor Streets in prime Paddington. My real estate recall reminds me that the Windsor Pub (the erstwhile home to AFL games and the older Paddington populace) was sold sometime around 2008 to an Eastern Suburbs local who wanted to turn the vaguely fascinating structure into a private home. Looks like he only got half way. Now listed by Gary Sands and Jane Schumann of Di Jones, 72 Windsor Street offers the prospective buyer a pool, home gym, cinema, and multiple parking. What it doesn’t offer? The actual house itself. According to broker babble, “all the hard work has been done.” The pictures beg to differ.

    Once this home is built, though, it will definitely be one of Paddington’s largest holdings. But seeing that they want something around the $5m mark just for the plot of land, it better be one of the best homes in the suburb.

    The listing: 72 Windsor St, Paddington