$11m Toorak Listing Weirdly Makes No Mention of Its Courtyard

An aerial image of 8 Whernside Avenue (above) revealing its prominent central courtyard (a feature shared with its next-door neighbour); a floor plan of the courtyard home is below; also note the crazy tennis rivalries that must abound on the block…

A home that’s always piqued our interest from our Google Maps trolling has come to market, revealing itself and its prominent and unique (for Melbourne) courtyard-centric floor plan. The $11m+ home located on the prestigious Whernside Avenue (between the over-the-top Hopetoun Road and the slightly more subdued Albany Road) last traded hands in 2004 for $5m. The home has been renovated since then and now features extensive use of sandstone flooring both indoors and outdoors juxtaposed against dark window treatments that work well together. Oddly enough, the listing agents make no mention of the home’s most attention worthy feature - its courtyard - only flirting with the idiosyncratic architectural feature by referencing “views of the landscaped garden area”. C’mon guys, spit it out: c-o-u-r-t-y-a-r-d. More tragic is that the listing also fails to make any mention of the architect behind the project; we’d love to know. 

Surprising to some, the $5m sale of this property in 2004 makes it the priciest home to sell on the block, owing mostly to the fact that the 11 other homes have seldom traded. The petit road is home to some far more impressive homes, most notably the c1877 mansion ‘Whernside’ (née ‘Belcroft’), whose 1916 subdivision led to the creation of Whernside Avenue (see parcel map below). Also interesting is next-door neigbhour 6 Whernside Avenue also has a similar footprint with a prominent central courtyard, making these two side-by-side abodes somewhat anomalous in the Toorak real estate world. 

The listing: 8 Whernside Avenue, Toorak

Click below for more images of the property and a site plan.

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‘Noorah’ Updates its Listing with Interior Images and a Floor Plan

After a rather coy listing in the first week of November with nary an image of the home itself, Simone Semmens’ cliff top estate in Portsea has refreshed its listing with interior images and - gasp - a floor plan! Also updated was Semmens’ Yarra-fronting vacant chunk of Toorak at 86 St Georges Road, also listed through RT Edgar; that property now has a new aerial photo (woohoo!). Both properties, however, are maintaining their same asking prices: $8.5m+ for Noorah, and only God knows what for 86 St Georges (circa $6mil).

Noorah now faces competition from a nearby Point Nepean Road property: 3588 Point Nepean Road rests on a smaller parcel of land (about half Noorah’s size), but its location directly atop Sandy Beach is arguably more desirable, as is its price: about $6m. On the downside, the parcel of land has a hefty variance in elevation, requiring a home to built close to the road, with the waterfront chunk of land reserved for a tennis court of boat shed. 

Toorak Home Channeling Chinese Buyers

The title says it all, “Lucky Number 8”. Ascend Real Estate agents Eric Cheung and Chen Sun are going straight after those whom associate the number 8 with good fortune in their marketing of a modern property at 8 Woodside Crescent in Toorak. The parcel of land sold for $1.15m in 2003, and the current owners then built a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom home modern home. Aside from an engaging car port and exterior landscaping, the interior of the home isn’t really worthy of much verbiage, bordering on “serviced apartment” in its aesthetic. That aesthetic is on the hunt for a sale in low- to mid-$3mils, which indicates the home won’t be much of a profit maker for the owner.

The listing: 8 Woodside Crescent, Toorak

Click below for more photos of the property.

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A $20m Mansion Lists in Toorak; Comes With Awkward Video

A $20m+ listing emerged on the market last week on what has historically been considered the most prestigious stretch of St Georges Road in Toorak. Directly across the street from Toorak House, 16 St Georges Road is an early-20th Century self-described “Art Nouveau” (although it’s not Art Nouveau at all, “Arts & Crafts” would be more apt) estate sitting on a full one acre spread of land. The home has been extremely well-maintained; so much so that the Radical Terrace ventures to say the floor plan is mostly in original shape (save for the placement of the master bedroom). The home sold to the current owners in 1997 for either $4.4m or $5m, depending the source. It’s a fun listing for a few reasons: for starters, the home rests on what is today considered a large parcel of Toorak land. However, in its original state, it was one of many 1-acre parcels that sat north of Toorak Road in between far larger multi-acre estates, almost all of which have since been heavily subdivided. And although we can’t get our hands on an exact date of construction, it’s non-existence on MMBW maps date the home post-Federation. The exterior Arts & Crafts treatment speaks to a popular style of that era, but the lack of orientation to the outdoors and grouping of all public rooms at the front of the house indicates a slightly dated and thoroughly Victorian floor plan. A floor plan, mind you, that hasn’t changed much since. 

The interiors are of a certain indiscriminate period, but thankfully Kay & Burton alongside Goldeneye Media produced a video that helps us viewers better understand the lifestyle associated with such a residence. The four minute video titled ‘Imagine a Place’ features a happy blonde-haired, white-skinned family playing with a labrador retriever, meeting foreign dignitaries, and hosting dinner parties with name cards! All in, it’s four minutes of our life we’ll never get back. And there wasn’t even any of the fun homoeroticism (and vague diversity?) of Goldeneye’s previous film that apparently helped sell Portsea’s Ilyuka for $26.5m last year. 

Ross Savas of Kay & Burton has the listing: 16 St Georges Road, Toorak

More listing photos below!

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Yet Another Simone Semmens Property for Sale; This Time It’s a “Noorah” on Portsea’s Cliff Front for $7m+ - Nay - $8.5m+

What a year it has been for Simone Semmens, a former TV personality the Radical Terrace had never heard prior to her prestige property splurges and profits in 2012. First it was Rosecraddock, a sprawling Victorian Italianate mansion in a slightly off-the-beaten track Caulfield North location that she restored, subdivided, and majorly profited from. In the midst of the campaign to sell that estate, she picked up Edzell House, on the Yarra in Toorak, for a cool $11m then quickly offered a piece of the grounds (that don’t include the stunning mansion) for very bullish $9m+ hopes. That chunk of riverfront land remains on the market. Check out Property Observer’s un-down on the names involved in those two transactions here.

Back in 2003, Semmens acquired a piece of Portsea’s sacred cliff front for $7.51m. The property, ‘Noorah’, is a 1920s Arts & Crafts home that stretches from Point Nepean Road to the water; a status symbol few properties can now claim with subdivision rampant on the waterside of Portsea’s Point Nepean Road. The property is a full acre with 3 legal parcels. Seeing Semmens propensity to subdivide and profit on her own accord, we are a bit surprised she didn’t offer two parcels for sale and then maintain the home herself. Even more surprising are the pricing expectations that fall lower than her purchase price. Domain.com.au is indicating just $7m+ for the property she paid a half million more for. Looks like this one won’t be a exercise in profit for Semmens. UPDATE: the agents have tweaked their pricing expectations to Domain.com.au, now indicating $8.5m+ price hopes. Revise away!

Warwick Anderson and Ilze Moran of RT Edgar Portsea have the listing: ‘Noorah’, 3690 Point Nepean Road, Portsea

Radical Roundup: New & Notable This Week

VIC

TOORAK -  Both The Age and Property Observer are reporting on the $17m sale of a Neo-Georgian mansion at 7 Landale Road in Toorak. It’s a surprisingly high price, considering the home traded for $6.3m in 2003 and considering its location in a pocket of Toorak devoid of comparable large scale mansions. Regardless, the sale represents the highest price achieved in 2012 (eclipsing a $12.6m Hawthorn sale earlier in the year).

TOORAK - Also in Toorak, an original single-story Victorian villa on Clendon Road (across the street from ‘Coonac’) has listed with $5.5m+ expectations. The home, while in the direct company of several of Toorak’s largest (and priciest) mansions, shares a property line with a pair of ugly mid-rise apartment blocks that front Toorak Road. The 1,149sqm property last traded for $1.36m in June 1998. RT Edgar agents Warwick Anderson and Mark Wridgway have the listing: 76 Clendon Road, Toorak

TOORAK - Yet another Toorak listing of note, a c1922 Walter Burley Griffin-designed home called “The Salter House” emerged on the market. A radical design at the time of its construction, the home today resembles many a 1970s home with a generic pitched roof. Noentheless, any home with the Walter Burley Griffin name maintains cachet and the floor plan is pretty damn fantastic with a unique (for the time) interior courtyard. RT Edgar Boroondara agent Simon Derham has the listing and is hoping to achieve just shy of $3m, a hefty increase from its May 2006 sale of $1.08m.

NSW

WHALE BEACH - Hot off the heals of the well-documented, record breaking $13m sale of a beachfront property in Whale Beach, a Peter Downes-designed modern home with a pool on a 784sqm parcel on the hill-topping Rayner Road refreshed its month-old listing with a concrete price: $4,390,000. It’s a conservative price, considering the home traded for $2.3m in Oct 2007 and was subsequently torn down and built new last year. 27 Rayner is located down a semi-private drive past the road’s dead-end. The listing: 27 Rayner Road, Whale Beach

VAUCLUSE - Any harbourfront (reserve) listing in Vaucluse is of note, especially when the price falls in the $5m range, a low price for such a location, as is the case with 12A The Crescent. Further investigation offers some reinforcement of the pricing: a heavily obstructed view, a small 632sqm parcel size, and a home in need of a complete overhaul. Then again, the appeal of living above Parsley Bay on one of Australia’s most prestigious streets may be enough for this property to find a buyer. At least listing agents Michael Pallier of Sotheby’s and David Fayn of PRD Nationwide hope so. For the record, the home swapped hands in November 2002 for $2.7m and now boasts DA-approved plans for an MCK Architects-designed home. The listing: 12A The Crescent, Vaucluse

DURAL - ‘Le Chateau’, an “authentically recreated French chateau” on a 5-acre block of land has returned to the market once again, this time with a listing price of $6.5m. Interior photos, however, tend to disagree with any sentiments of authenticity. The home is located at 15 Vineys Lane and has been on and off the market several times in the Radical Terrace’s memory (since 2006). It joins an unusually large collection of $4m+ homes in Dural currently on the open market. Ken Jacobs of Christie’s has the listing: 15 Vineys Lane, Dural

ACT

RED HILL - Without a doubt Mugga Way is Canberra’s premier address. So it’s always significant when a home emerges on the market in Red Hill, the suburb that stakes claim to the capital’s Street of Dreams. 17 Mugga Way is listed with a price of $4.995m after last trading for $2.6m in March 2009 and undergoing an extensive renovation in the interim. According to the broker verbiage, the home is “saturated with 10 star inclusions.” We’re not too sure what that means, but we can tell you the home sits on an unusually large 4800sqm block of land. The only thing this home is missing (aside from better quality building materials and actual landscaping) is an even-numbered address: homes on the west side of Mugga Way trade at a higher rate. Richard Luton and Sophie Luton of Luton Properties - Manuka have the listing: 17 Mugga Way, Red Hill 

A “Toorak Court” Residence Testing the Waters Again with $6m+ Hopes

An aesthetically pleasing, stone-filled home at the end of a court street in Toorak has hit the market once again after a 6-month absence. It first listed through Kay & Burton in May 2009 for 6 months, failing to find a buyer. It returned to market in November 2010 spending 18 months in vain, represented by Marshall White. Now, we’re treated to the home once again. Purely based on the photos provided, it’s bamboozling that this home was not a quick sell. It has a functional floor plan with solid proportions, a tennis court, pool, and a modern conservatory. And even though we strongly dislike some of the interiors (Seriously. No. More. Carpet.), they are all an easy fix. So what gives? Two potentials: this micro-pocket of Toorak, although on high ground, is a straight shot off Toorak Road and is not as desirable as other Toorak Courts situated off quieter streets. The more likely explanation is the tricky pricing of this property. Throwing off the valuation of 11 Grosvenor Court is the bizarrely bullish sale of 5 Grosvenor Court in 2007 when it traded hands for a very high $9.5m. That home, for all intents and purposes, is the inferior to #11 (smaller parcel of land, awkwardly cramped tennis court and pool, shoddy Neo-Neo-Georgian architecture…). On top of that, the vendors purchased the home for a big 1988 price: $1.5m. Those factors add-up, and if I were the vendor, I would go into the home sale expecting a big price as well. But all those hopes continued to slash the more time the home was on the market. And now this go around, Domain is indicating a far more modest $6m+ asking price. We’ll see how the desired sale pans out this go around. 

—- Just for fun —-

‘Grosvenor’, the mansion that graced the Grosvenor Estate until its interwar subdivision. Below, the original subdivision advertisement from ”The Argus”.

“A Most Suitable and Excellent Plan of Subdivision Has Been Decided Upon.

GROSVENOR COURT, the New Private Road will Enter the Estate from Toorak Road, Along the Western Boundary, A Portion of the Adjoining Property Having Been Purchased by the Vendors.

Six Allotments Will Have Frontages to Grosvenor Court. Three Magnificent Sites Front on to Toorak Road…

Frontages vary from 60Ft. to 100 Ft; depths from 120Ft. to 207Ft.

Every Care Has Been Taken by the Vendors to Preserve as Far as Possible the Magnificent and Well Matured Trees and Shrubs.

The New Concrete Road Will be Built Early in the New Year, at the Expense of the Vendors, as well as Water, Sewerage, Gas, and Electricity will be made available to all the Allotments.

THE MANSION RESIDENCE Will Be Sold [?] by Demolition”

—- —- —-

Check out more images of 11 Grosvenor Court below, along with some solid floor plan porn. 

The official listing: 11 Grosvenor Court, Toorak

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Calling All Victorians: Name That Mansion! (and give us a tip!)

The Radical Terrace needs some tips! If you know of any funky renovations, architecturally innovative homes, or historically significant listings in and around Melbourne, we’d love to hear from you! Drop us an email at radicalterrace [at] gmail.com and we will be forever grateful! So come one, come all, from Frankston to Footscray and everywhere in between. In the meantime, let’s play name that Victorian mansion! Leave your answers in the comments below. Hints can also be found below the fold.

1. LABASSA, CAULFIELD (intact)
 

2. RAHEEN, KEW (intact)

3. IONA, TOORAK (demolished)

4. LEURA, TOORAK (demolished)

5. WERNDEW, TOORAK (demolished)

6. MERRIWA, TOORAK (demolished)

7. BEAULIEU, TOORAK (intact)
 

8. TOORAK HOUSE, TOORAK (intact)
 

9. EDZELL HOUSE, TOORAK (intact)

10. CLIVEDEN MANSIONS, EAST MELBOURNE (demolished)

 

Hints can be found below!!

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Walter Butler Designed Toorak Estate Lists for $14m+

Michael Gibson and Matt Davis of Kay & Burton have nabbed yet another Toorak trophy listing. This time it’s ‘Halstead’ at 12 Lansell Road. Halstead was constructed in 1916 for Frances Clements in an Arts & Crafts style with a parapeted roof, projecting eave, and paired columns that reveal a South Asian/Dutch Colonial influence rarely found in Melbourne. Until mid-century, the home blended well with its neighbours, all of which were set back dramatically from the street. And although Halstead maintains its commodious setback to this day, apartment block encroachment on both sides make it more of an oasis and less of a consistent streetscape. Most features of the heritage-listed home have been well-restored since it last sold in September 2007 for $11m in rather tired shape. 

The home now has an indicative pricing around $14m+, sits on 3/4 of an acre, and comes with rear lane access to a 4-car garage. It’s floor plan is well laid out and, although the rusticated stucco exterior is historically accurate, it makes the home look the creation of the 1970s and not 1910s (the rear extension likely was a late-20th C addition). Kudos for good landscaping; jeers to that freaky-ass seraph statue. 

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

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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.” 

Robin Boyd, a well-regarded mid-century architect (who is likely better known for his exhaustive and verbose architectural critiques), designed the home for the Milne family on the former garden to the Ingleburn mansion (now located at 3 Glenbervie) in 1971. This was one of Boyd’s last homes and represents an uncharacteristic departure for the architect: instead of maintaining his iconic polychromatic aesthetic for revealing different elements of home construction, Milne House uses one single colour. According to a 1992 City of Malvern Heritage Study, it followed the “late 1960s fashion of steep skilling roof forms in opposing combinations” combined with strong massing and simple detailing. Despite the home’s un-Boyd like characteristics, Milne House is still a rarity. Not only is this the only home of Boyd’s the Radical Terrace can locate in Toorak, it has been sympathetically renovated (and furnished).  The 4-bedroom courtyard home last traded in rather shabby shape in Feb 2006 for $1.63m. Kudos to the owners for a Radical Terrace-approved renovation (is that a cork board ceiling we see?!?). And thanks to a noisy location off Toorak Road, it can be yours at a relatively reasonable sub-$3mil price. 

BONUS!  Rights-protected images of Milne House and other Boyd works can be found here.

The listing: ‘Milne House’ 1 Glenbervie Road, Toorak

Kay & Burton Land Yet Another Toorak Trophy Listing

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 flooring and carpeting, and modernised the kitchen (BONUS: see 2010 listing photo below). It was a pretty basic renovation; but it works. The four-bedroom inter-war home is situated in a more understated precinct of the suburb, but is still just a stone’s throw from 3 Towers Road, currently the most expensive home listing in Melbourne. Future owners can also claim bragging rights to a tennis court (albeit one that sadly plays tennis tetris) and a quirky pool and backyard that were also improved from the 2010 sale. Andrew Baines and Ross Savas of Kay & Burton South Yarra have the listing: 779 Orrong Road, Toorak

BEFORE/AFTER:

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 roof were revealed.

Fast forward to today, and up appears a half-acre (1800sqm) block of land (without any council approved plans being advertised) listed through RT Edgar agent David Colbran for $8m+. It’s a big price, indeed. And even though this property scores an uber-prestigious St Georges address (a hyphenated one at that!), comps for this block of land likely sit on the less-salubrious Yarradale Road (where number 15 sold for $6.75m in Jun 2011 and sat on a river-fronting 3,160sqm block of land nearly twice the size of the featured property), Edzell Ave, and the other even, high-numbered homes of St Georges Road. Surprising to some, Yarra River frontage was notably less desirable at the time of subdivision of the great estates in the inter-war years (Edzell House was originally on 70 acres) due to the low-lying and dank location adjacent to the quasi-industrial and smelly Yarra River. Perhaps better comps for this chunk of land lie off Coppin Grove in Hawthorn where some of the larger river front estates remain undivided and sit at a higher elevation (12 Coppin Grove sold for $17m in Jul 2011 and is now looking to chop off 3,000sqm of the original 5,000sqm title for $7m+), #21 for $10.75m in 2002, and three other sales between $5 and $10m in the last five years). All in, the acquirers of 76 St Georges Road are likely very happy with themselves; seeing that if they score their desired asking price, they will - in effect - have purchased the Edzell Mansion for a paltry $3m. 

Check out the old renderings of a possible home at 82-86 St Georges Rd, courtesy of MGS Architects via 76 St Georges Road’s old listing site (that’s surprisingly still live to our good fortune):

The listing: 82-86 St Georges Road, Toorak

Marcus Martin Original - ‘Towart Lodge’ - Lists in Toorak for $9m+

A rare occurrence for our Radical Terrace readers: two Marcus Martin-designed properties on the market at the same time (one of his South Yarra creations is currently on the market with $7m+ hopes). Martin was the architect of choice for Melbourne’s moneyed set in the inter-war years, and this listing is prototypical of the Spanish Revival vernacular he so commonly employed. The home, although on busy Toorak Road, is sufficiently set back from the thoroughfare (and the Number 8 tram) and rests in a decidedly residential pocket on the high ground of Toorak Road between blue chip St Georges Road and Heyington Place. Towart Lodge has been extensively renovated, so much so that it appears most interior detailing (ceiling and floor treatments) have been stripped, but it’s impossible to tell what shape the interiors were in when the current owners moved in. Michael Gibson (of course) and Gowan Stubbings of Kay & Burton South Yarra have the listing. The listing can be found here: 607 Toorak Rd, Toorak

Toorak’s Tussle of the ($30m) Towers Continues:

The question that’s puzzling all the parents waiting to pick up their beloveds from Melbourne Grammar and St Caths’ is which Toorak mansion on Towers Road will crush the Melbourne property record so rudely stolen by an apartment block house in - wait for it - HAWTHORN*! Next door neighbours 1 Towers Road and 3 Towers Road in Toorak remain on the market, both hoping to break the $30m mark that has yet to be bumped in Victoria. Both abodes come with fancy listing websites (#3 with its own vanity URL and logo), but our post today comes because we finally dug up some floor plans of #3 from an old article by The Age’s Simon Johanson.

3 Towers Road floor plan:

Not only do the two properties share a suburb, a price, a street name, and a fence (read: gigantic wall), they also share the same estate agency: Kay & Burton South Yarra. #1 is listed by both Michael Gibson and Ross Savas, #3 just by Savas. For what it’s worth, we at the Radical Terrace think #1 is the better of the two. But we also believe #3 will find more solid expat interest (read: cashed-up Chinese buyers).

The Listings:
1 Towers Road, Toorak
3 Towers Road, Toorak 

*Property obsessors take note: The Radical Terrace is maintaining that ‘Avon Court’ at 18-20 Shakespeare Grove in Hawthorn is Melbourne’s most expensive sale (circa $25m). We are not including the $26.5m sale of Ilyuka in Portsea, Victorian record-holder, as being in Melbourne.

Toorak’s ‘Carinya’ at 61 Clendon Rd Lists for $15m+

The marketing video may have surfaced last week, but today a Toorak icon - Carinya (but not the Pymble-located ‘Carinya’ of past Radical Terrace posts) - listed with admirable $15m+ expectations through Kay & Burton South Yarra’s Michael Gibson and Cher Coad. The Spanish Mission mansion sits on over an acre of land in a mansion precinct of Toorak with some very notable neighbours, next door at ‘Coonac’ was a former Melbourne sale record holder. The 1925 estate was designed by Beaver & Purnell, minor Melbourne architects of the period. Based purely on the absence of interior photos of the house, we suspect it’s in need of some TLC. It won’t quite beat the pricing of 1 Towers or 3 Towers Rd, but it won’t be far off. We eagerly await more information on the listing. 

The listing: ‘Carinya’ 61 Clendon Rd, Toorak

Note: Photos courtesy of BingMaps and Kay&Burton film stills

UPDATE: Now with listing photos and FLOORPLAN!