Logging back into Portsea
Former Computershare director Michele O’Halloran, who broke the Victorian residential house record when she sold historic Ilyuka, has bought back into Portsea.
It was 2010 when O’Halloran sold her the clifftop Spanish Mission-style mansion to BRW Rich Lister John Higgins for $26 million.
Commanding views over Port Phillip Bay, Ilyuka was built in 1928-29 for the Texan oil tycoon Harry Conforth. Conforth sold it to Fred Matear, of Australia Hotel fame, in the 1940s.
The eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom home stood as the state’s most expensive until late last year, when the Besen home in Toorak sold for $26.25m.
O’Halloran paid $7.5m for Ilyuka in 1999.
Her buyback into the Mornington Peninsula has been a little more modest as she’s spent $6.2m on a nearby home that sits between Ilyuka and Point Nepean Road.
The contemporary five-bedroom home opens to the swimming pool.
Historic estate changes hands
The historic garden estate Sefton at Mount Macedon has finally been sold by Gribbles Pathology founder Wallace Cameron and wife Joan.
There has been no price nor buyer disclosure. However, the word is the keenest offer came from interests associated with Thomas Lindsey, a longtime Tait’s Warrnambool lawyer turned Pausewang Family Group counsel.
Its last marketing had the home expecting close to $7m, through JP Dixon in conjunction with John Keating at Keatings Real Estate.
Cameron paid $8,175,000 in 2005.
They asked for $12m when they listed in 2010.
It had been on and off the market since last year, with its latest marketing campaign spanning more than 250 days.
Built by the Baillieu family as a summer holiday home in the early 1900s, the 8.8ha English garden was laid out with obvious influences of the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens directors Baron von Mueller and W.R. Guilfoyle.
The main 910sq m homestead is a Tudor-style mansion with seven bedrooms and is complete with billiard room, glass atrium sitting room and a former ballroom.
Among the Sefton grounds is a nine-hole golf course, tennis court and croquet lawn along with a heated outdoor swimming pool and helipad.
Test star lands on new track
Former Australian cricketer Ryan Harris and wife Cherie have sold their Balmoral home in Brisbane.
Harris, currently a consultant coach at Cricket Australia, sold his five-bedroom home for $1.45m.
He renovated the home somewhat from its $1,245,000 purchase in 2010, building an entertaining area and deck with an outdoor kitchen.
The home took over 110 days to sell through Ray White East Brisbane agent Tony O’Doherty.
Harris retains a three-bedroom home in Morningside just outside Brisbane that was rented at $550 a week late last year.
He made 27 Test appearances for Australia.
$2.35m paid for The Block unit
The Blocktagon apartment in South Yarra designed by The Block’s most controversial contestant, Suzi Taylor, has sold for around$2.35m.
The sale comes after the three-bedroom apartment was passed in at $2m when auctioned early last month when it had a reserve price of $2.35m.
The apartment first sold for $1,829,000 under the hammer. It’s the first resale in the block since the 2015 finale of the Nine Network renovation show.
Taylor and Yvonne “Vonni” Cosier pocketed $349,000 after they renovated the fourth floor of the derelict former hotel.
RT Edgar agent Nikki McCarthy said the property would earn buyers a great rental return with a permanent $1800-a-week tenant.
Or it could yield $485 a night short stay, as the apartment came with most of the furniture from the show.
jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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