The Hunters Hill mansion of Cate Blanchett, which has now sold again. Photo: Paul Gosney Sydney’s trophy home market has already made a strong start to 2017, headlined by the news of earlier this week that Neville “Croaky” Crichton has sold his Point Piper home.
FIRB approval is all that’s left to seal that deal, and $60 million on settlement, according to the rumour mill.
Then there was Cate Blanchett and her playwright husband Andrew Upton’s Hunters Hill trophy home Bulwarra, which sold through Ken Jacobs for an as yet undisclosed price after the $19.8 million buyer of 2015 failed to complete on their deal.
The Point Piper trophy home is now Australia’s third-priciest pad. Photo: Brendan Esposito
And now comes more recent news of the off-market sale of the Darling Point mansion of dermatologist Penny Lee, wife of barrister Michael Lee, SC.
The Federation residence, Rilworth, was built in 1910 and is privately set above garaging overlooking harbourside Yarranabbe Park. It was previously owned by Marilynne Paspaley, AM, an actor and daughter of Paspaley Pearls founder Nicholas Paspaley.
Paspaley sold it in 2012 for $6.5 million to Lee, the latter of whom undertook a decent renovation of the five-bedroom property before they gave the selling instructions to multiple agents last year.
The Federation residence, Rilworth, as seen on Google Street View. Photo: Google Maps.
There were hopes of $15 million on the property before it sold, but given the hush-hush nature of the deal it will be left to settlement to reveal how close the Lees came to those hopes.
With some of Sydney’s most expensive real estate currently up for grabs – think Aussie John Symond’s $100 million-plus Point Piper mansion and the Fairfax family’s estate Elaine at $75 million-plus – prestige agents are tipping a strong year for the trophy market.