Jude Turner, one-half of the Turner tourism power couple, is an acquisitive collector of real estate — whether it’s a bolt hole in Byron Bay’s pricey Belongil Beach or three adjoining Victorian terraces for conversion into her first Spicers Retreat in Sydney at Potts Point. Opening in June, the 20-room Spicers Potts Point cost Jude and her husband Graham Turner — who co-founded Flight Centre and is worth a conservative $575 million — more than $20m in acquisition and renovations. She is scouring Victoria’s Daylesford and Yarra Valley for another site for a Spicers Retreat and had also planned a Spicers Retreat for Ballina, south of Byron Bay, where she controls a 36ha canelands-and-forest site, including 500m of beachfront. But she has been stymied by the local council, failing to win approval to develop what would be her 10th Spicers Retreat. Now Turner has decided to develop two houses on her Ballina site with construction to start next year. She is undecided whether she will sell the houses or retain them. “It’s a great spot, just 15 minutes out of Ballina,” she says.
Jodhi packs her bags
James Packer’s former wife, businesswoman and designer Jodhi Meares, has cashed in on Sydney’s strong pre-Easter real estate market, selling her inner city terrace for about $2.5m. Ms Meares has co-owned the Underwood Street, Paddington, terrace since mid-2004 when she purchased it for $900,000, two years after her divorce. The former model owned the two-bedroom terrace with her mother Denise Macpherson, according to public records. She is believed to have sold it for between $2m and $2.5m. The double-storey terrace is understood to have sold last Friday through Ray White Woollahra agent Augusto Gerocarni. Mr Gerocarni refused to comment. The Victorian-style terrace sits on a 113sq m site and is understood to have sold to an expatriate buyer in an off-market deal. Paddington’s average median house price is $2.16m, according to realestate.com.
A damp squib
Wet weather is hampering plans by fashion designer Collette Dinnigan and husband Bradley Cocks to sell one of their Milton retreats on the NSW South Coast. The former 10ha dairy farm, near Mollymook, earns more than $82,000 a year on accommodation websites such as AirBnb. Known as the Milton Surf & Stables the property features an outdoor bar and barn for entertaining and includes post and rail fencing and a subtropical rainforest. It has four recently renovated bedrooms, two bathrooms and two lounge rooms. Expressions of interest in the $2.9m-plus range closed on March 24.
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