A Renovated Vaucluse Period Home Trying Its Luck with $8m+ Hopes

In the annals of Sydney real estate history, Vaucluse homes with the iconic gun barrel view across Sydney Harbour have held a prestige standing since the construction of the Harbour Bridge (although the ‘Manhattanisation’ of Darling Point in the immediate post-war years is what truly propelled the desirability of Vaucluse). Enter 1 Gilliver Avenue, a home that pre-dates the Vaucluse rush, but seems to have always maintained a certain state of elegance. The c1912 home sits at one of Vaucluse’s highest points, both in terms of elevation and prestige. The home traded in a an unrenovated state in Aug 2001 for $3.4m; within a year of its sale, the new owners put forth a $550k development application to the Woollahra Council for the addition of an “underground garage, one storey pavilion in rear yard, swimming pool with two storey cabana and associated fencing.” Add in a William Dangar-designed garden and landscaping and 10 years and now the owners are looking to sell the home with $8m+ expectations. 

Overall, the renovation was a definite improvement (although we’d love to see images of the subterranean garaging and a floor plan) and ensuring all four bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms is a definite boon in the luxury market. On the down side, the integration of the modern rear and the historic front wasn’t necessarily seamless, but the continuity of the rusticated sandstone edifice provides a necessary anchor for the home. Overall, it looks to be a good price for the quality and position of the home and the impressive size of the parcel. We’re glad to see the owners did not overbuild on the site, nor did they scrap the not-Heritage Listed Arts & Crafts home in favour of a manse far more obtrusive.

D’Leanne Lewis of Laing + Simmons Double Bay has the listing: 1 Gilliver Avenue, Vaucluse

Click below for more images of the renovation and interiors!

Read More

Edwardian on Etham Avenue, Darling Point Wants $8m+

The Etham Estate’s subdivision, c1901. Subject property is labelled “30”.

Etham Avenue is one of the last bastions of single family villas in the now apartment-dominated suburb of Darling Point. It wasn’t always this way. The Etham Estate, an elegant Victorian Italianate mansion resting on over 40 harbourfront acres, was subdivided in 1900. The infill development of the parcels spanned several decades and were significantly smaller than its neighbouring mansions, including ‘Winslow’, ‘Swifts’, ‘Ascham’, ‘Prudhoe’, ‘Carthona’, and ‘Lindsay’. Thus it comes as a slight surprise that listing agent for 3 Etham Avenue Sally Hampshire claims that “this freestanding residence was originally one of the grand Edwardian mansions gracing sought after Darling Point” when in fact it was more Darling Point starter home than imposing Edwardian mansion. Nonetheless, the rarity of single family homes in Darling Point today provides the home with more significance now than it ever had before.

Etham Mansion, c1880s, pre-subdivision (above); 3 Etham Avenue highlighted in red in a 1943 aerial showcases the diminutive nature of the property amongst its mansion neigbhours (below).

Until World War II, the suburb was undeniably Sydney’s most desirable location to own an estate home. As the suburb increased its density in the mid-century, many of Darling Point’s ageing residents simply relocated into the apartment blocks that replaced the single family landscape, leaving wealthy, younger families to move further East into Bellevue Hill and Vaucluse, thus leading to Darling Point’s contemporary reputation for having a sizeable geriatric community. 

But all of this is a digression away from the featured listing: 3 Etham Avenue. The 4-bedroom Edwardian home sits on a large corner block on the leafy and picturesque road. It was purchased for $5mil in April 2008 (after selling for $4.225m in July 2007). Within a year, the owners submitted a development application to the Woollahra Council outlining a $200k renovation that included “alterations and additions to existing dwelling house including new carport and swimming pool and replacement of existing timber fence with brick fence” by Vienna Design. That price seems small for the renovations and was likely an understatement for tax purposes. However, if it was indeed a simple $200k renovation, then today’s pricing expectations of $8m+ seems quite high. Then again, the pricing is coming on the heels of the November 2009 sale of neighbour 2 Etham Avenue which sold in a post-renovated state for $7.8m; that home, mind you, is quite a bit smaller than today’s featured property. So maybe $8mil isn’t such a far cry after all. It should be noted that the Radical Terrace totally digs the hardwood flooring in 3 Etham Avenue.

Click below for more photos and listing information.

Read More

Double Bay Apartment of Many Flips Now Flipping Once Again

Unit 2 in the harbourfront Double Bay block of 3 units ”villas” at 17 Gladswood Garens has traded hands many times since first developed in 1990. However, since its last sale of $5.8m less than two years ago, a Nick Tobias-designed renovation suddenly has given the apartment new price aspirations. According to Domain.com.au, the slightly above average unit wants $9m+, which seems slightly unbelievable to us. When contacted for an exact price, the agent never responded. Go figure. That chunk of money will buy you a full-floor with four bedrooms, a tandem 2-car garage and a shared pool on the water. The block sits at the tip of the highly desirable cul-de-sac Gladswood Gardens (home to an impressive 19th century Gothic mansion-turned-apartments). But even that address can’t save this property from its biggest shortcoming: a pretty gnarly stank tends to emanate from the gutter a couple metres away that churns out sewage into the Harbour. 

Click below for more listing photos, information, and a pretty slick floor plan.

Read More

Triple-Listed Woollahra ‘Town Residence’ Wants $6m+

Margie Blok broke news of the listing of 3 Wellington Street in a super-prime Woollahra locale. Situated just a few doors down from Headingley - the previously featured mansion that mysteriously disappeared from the listings a few weeks back - the 5/6-bedroom, 5-bathroom home on 457sqm has not one, not two, but three listing agents: Sally Hampshire of Laing + Simmons, Bill Bridges of Ballard Property, and Martin Schiller of Savills Residential. WTF? As of today (the property appeared on the “live” listings about 12 hours ago), only Sally Hampshire’s listing is visible (seen here). To combat that surprise with a lack-of-surprise, Paul Bangay is behind the gardens. The clean lines of his hedges suit the Neo-Georgian architecture (that Margie Blok weirdly, and mistakenly, calls “South African Colonial”) home well. It was constructed in 1990 under the design of David Walker after the sale of a tear-down in 1987 for $677k. In 2000, the home sold for $4m and today, the listing agents (all three of them), are expecting above $6m for the home. Residences on the more-desirable south side of Wellington Street rarely trade. Next-door neighbours #1 and #5 sold for $2.49m in Sep 1997 and $2.25m in Aug 1995, respectively. 

The listing: 3 Wellington Street, Woollahra

This Week in House Flips (or Distressed Sales?)

Two multi-million dollar Eastern Suburbs listings emerged on the market this week that led to some raised eyebrows here at Radical Terrace. Both abodes are the result of book-time (2007/2008) speculative apartment redevelopments. First up (pictured above and below) is a full-floor unit in the 7-unit serviced apartment conversion ‘The Grantham’, situated in a tiny cul-de-sac at the tip of Potts Point. The development received significant positive press when it first came to market, but slugged along when it came to the actual sale of the units. Nonetheless, each full-floor apartment commanded a high price, with lower floors achieving $5.5m, mid-floors at $6.25m, and a high floor (presumably the now-listed Unit 7) for $7.25m.

It’s difficult to ascertain what listing agents Jason Boon and Geoff Cox (the original marketers of the block) want for the 3-bedroom apartment, but it’s currently the second most expensive home on the market in Potts Point, second only to the merchant villa ‘Bomera’. The Radical Terrace believes the owners will get around the $7m mark and take a small hit to their pocket books. And considering The Grantham (see above) resembles more of a Brazilian favela than a luxury apartment block, any price is a good one. The listing: 7/1 Grantham St, Potts Point

Heading a few kilometres east to Woollahra, we now check out a former inter-war apartment block on Queen Street that was converted into two townhouses in 2008. Sold “new” in September 2009 for $3.275m after spending quite some time on the market, 166A Queen Street is now listed 3 years later with reduced price hopes in the low-$3ms. The developer (Teh Howell?) initially bought the block of apartments for $3.68m in 2007 before embarking on a $700k renovation which saw the addition of a top-floor master suite and hydraulic lifts for the two units and the loss of any character features. D’Leanne Lewis and Patrick Moxey of Laing+Simmons Double Bay have the listing. Pictured below.

Luigi Rosselli-Renovated Art Deco in Bellevue Hill

Luigi Rosselli, one of the Radical Terrace’s favourite Australian architects, has designed a handful of significant new homes in the Eastern Suburbs and Lower North Shore, in addition to renovating landmark Art Deco and Spanish Revival homes. Furthermore, Rosselli homes have not frequently emerged on the market; at present, only a $2.4m apartment designed by the firm is on the market, also in Bellevue Hill. The featured home has five-bedrooms, five-bathrooms (great ratio!) and a four-car garage. The home was originally a slightly more modest art deco home until Rosselli was commissioned for the renovation that eventually gained DA approval from Woollahra in January 2007, with minimal objectors (for a Woollahra council renovation, that is). The result is pretty damn radical, and the listing photos don’t quite give it justice (thus Radical Terrace ripping screen captures from the architect’s site). The home’s location on patrician Fairfax Rd coupled with Harbour views ensure this home will be a solid buy at its high $5m - low $6m expectations. It’s a solid alternative to one of Double Bay’s “back streets” south of New South Head Rd, achieving higher ground, a view, and a 20-23 post code while still being within walking distance of Double Bay village. Bart Doff of Laing + Simmons Double Bay has the listing.

PS. The well-integrated landscape design was conceived by Susan Miles. 

‘Teralla’ - Double Bay Grande Dame for Sale, Ready for a Flip

The four-bedroom Victorian Italianate home with swimming pool was purchased by Mark McIvor for $4.7m in Nov 2005 and apparently “extensively renovated” shortly thereafter, although we can’t quite tell what was renovated. Apparently the McIvor’s are short on dough these days and the sale is under receivership, thus garnering a bit of a discount.

The pricing expectations are hovering around the $5m+ mark. And with such an easy floor plan to work with, the Radical Terrace suggests the future buyer chuck in an easy $1mil to spruce up the interior and make for a larger master bedroom and a more functional backyard and you easily have an $8m+ “town residence”. That said, there seems to be a certain price barrier for non-waterfront homes in Double Bay that rarely gets crossed, and since the NIMBYs of the 20-28 put a halt to some much needed development in the area, Double Bay may never be the “Beverly Hills of Australia” it once was, making any investment a small gamble…

Bart Doff of Laing+Simmons Double Bay has the listing: 20 Cooper St, Double Bay.

More Early Victorians List in Woollahra

This week has seen a surprising number of Early Victorian homes hitting the market in Woollahra. Surprising because few homes existed in Woollahra before 1870. By the time Woollahra officially became a municipality in 1860, its namesake estate - Woollahra House - was less than 10 years old and only a small collection of homes existed, mostly clustered around today’s Queen Street village and Edgecliff Road (Glen Rhoda being a prime example). By the time regular tram service reached Woollahra in the 1880s, development took off.

But back to today’s interesting listings. First off is an apartment in the Early Victorian sandstone block ‘Kilvington’. Formerly a single family mansion converted to apartment use in the 1920s, the exterior has been immaculately well-kept and is therefore Heritage Listed (the interiors - to the joy of renovators the world over - is not heritage listed). However, the good of the listing - Apartment 3/313 Edgecliff Road - ends with the exterior. The interiors are pretty uninspiring; although the true deal breaker on the apartment is the impossible floor plan. I’ve been lucking at this sucker for a solid 5 minutes and I can’t come up with any reasonable solution. Any thoughts? Sally Hampshire of Laing + Simmons Double Bay has the listing and is looking for something in the high $2m/low $3m. YIKES!

Next up we head over to another rarity: Broughman House, another c.1860 Early Victorian. It’s so early Early Victorian, it has some straight-up Georgian Colonial vibes going on; give it bluestone instead of sandstone and one would think you’re outside of Hobart. Nonetheless, the historic abode is now run as a Jewish Hospice. Jonathan Chancellor over at Title Tattle reports that the owners would like $4.5m+ AND that listing agent Elliott Placks of Ray White Double Bay will donate his commission to charity (The Radical Terrace thinks Elliott Placks is looking for some brownie points with the Jewish Eastern Suburbs community here…). But back to the house, it sits on 1,300sqm of blue chip land that’s likely too uncomfortably close to Syd Einfeld Drive to be seriously considered as a single family mansion again. It’s best hope is taking advantage of its multi-family zoning and doing a redevelopment. The home and land apparently last sold for $1.2m in 1999, but something seems a bit “off” about that price…