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While the rest of Melbourne’s home buyers fretted about rising interest rates this year, there was little worry on the city’s best streets, where sky-high prices around $60 million were achieved.
There was high demand among well-heeled buyers and not enough supply of mansions for sale to satisfy them, keeping the prestige market stable.
The Toorak home of the late Ron Walker was sold for about $60 million.Credit: Kay & Burton
Among Melbourne’s prime property – defined as the top 5 per cent of the market – prices rose by 0.7 per cent over the year to September, research from consultants Knight Frank found.
But in the narrower band of ultra top end property, results can be property-specific, and buyers are untouched by the challenges of higher mortgage repayments that effect more affordable areas.
Melbourne’s landmark sale of 2023 was the estate of Ron Walker, AKA Mr Melbourne, whose luxury six-bedroom mansion on one of the city’s two top streets, Albany Road, Toorak, sold in June.
It sold for a price thought to be just above the top of the guide of $55 million to $60 million.
The buyer was Phoenix Lithium CEO Nick Wakim and the exact sale price will become public on settlement.
The five-bedroom luxury home known as Huntingfield has a home office, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool, a waterfall, wine cellar and basement garage. Wakim also bought the more modest house next door.
On the same street, another significant estate to hit the market in 2023 was late billionaire businessman David Hains’ house that was listed, then renovated and re-listed, with a $39 million to $42.5 million guide.
The home at 35-39 Albany Road, once home to Keith Murdoch, father of Rupert, is yet to find a buyer.
There was no repeat of last year’s record-smashing double deal on the other of Melbourne’s two best streets, St Georges Road, at $80 million and just shy of $75 million.
But former yoghurt mogul David Prior’s grand home on the same boulevard is still seeking a buyer with price hopes of $46 million to $50 million.
A pair of neighbouring properties ripe for redevelopment at 5 St Georges Road and 7 St Georges Road, Toorak, sold for a total of $9,925,000, records show.
The buyer plans to join both properties to build a larger home.
Another of Toorak’s sought-after streets, Clendon Road, recorded top sales this year.
The historic home Carinya, owned by Arvin Lourdenadin, son of wealthy British-Malaysian entrepreneur Sir Ninian Mogan Lourdenadin, sold for an undisclosed price after being advertised with a guide of $42 million to $46 million.
Frank Walker, the founder of National Tiles, sold his trophy home on Clendon Road for a cool $23,351,000 to CIO of Jigsaw Investments Julian Babarczy and his wife, interior designer Olivia Babarczy.
This year, foreign buyers returned to the market and made it tougher for local buyers to compete, Morell and Koren prestige buyer’s agent David Morrell said. A lack of properties for sale was also affecting buyers, as the market slowed in the second half of the year.
“At the moment there is a lot of buyer fatigue,” Morrell said. “There are some buyers who have been looking for the past six or seven months and people won’t sell because they can’t see anything to buy.”
Marshall White director Marcus Chiminello agreed that a lack of stock was affecting the top end of the market, though said big sales were still happening.
“There’s a clear inventory issue in terms of the lack of stock,” Chiminello said. “But the demand is significantly still there.”
Forbes Global Properties’ Michael Gibson said the prestige market in Melbourne had been as strong as ever during 2023, with buyers still keen.
“The top end of the market and just generally the markets in Bayside, Stonnington and Boroondara have been astonishingly resilient, and I think 2024 will be no different,” he said.
His sales included 3 Macquarie Road owned by entrepreneur Phillip Prendegast and his wife Carmen, for $29.5 million.
Kay & Burton selling agent Sam Wilkinson agreed that prestige property sales remained strong despite the challenges.
“There’s no doubt turn-key homes have been selling well in particular,” Wilkinson said. “Buyers at the top end want that ‘walk-in, and it’s all done’ home, provided it’s got an exclusive address with it.”
Other top Toorak sales included Australian cricket champ Ricky Ponting’s purchase for $20.75 million.
Alfasi Group CEO Avri Alfasi and his wife Michal sold a three-bedroom mansion on Whernside Avenue for $33.5 million in April.
Further afield, an historic nine-bedroom Hawthorn home became the second-highest sale for the year, at 20 Shakespeare Grove, for $41 million.
This Toorak home sold to Ricky Ponting.Credit: Forbes Global Properties
The property sold after being listed for just 12 days. It had previously been listed for sale in 2018, and relisted in 2021. Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka found a buyer for her Hawthorn home, which had a price guide of $17 million to $18 million.
On the Mornington Peninsula, the co-founder of the job search site and app Seek, Paul Bassat, offloaded his luxury farmhouse with vineyard at 72 Donaldsons Road, Red Hill in October. It had been asking $10 million to $11 million.
The gardens in Bassat’s property had been designed by famed landscape gardener Paul Bangay, whose own home Stonefields, at 20 Belty Drive, Denver, sold for $11 million at the start of 2023, before the sale fell through.
Fellow landscape gardener Jamie Durie, with a consortium of business partners, had planned to turn the perfectly manicured property into a resort. However, they later made a decision to follow other tourism plans.
There were no hard feelings between friends, with Bangay expected to list the home again in 2024.
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