This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MELBOURNE has seen its largest home transaction of 2024 in the week leading up to the summer break, with a Toorak mansion fetching around $70 million – marking another major house sale below or at the bottom of price guidance in the blue-ribbon locale.
The 2 Macquarie Road mansion had been put to the market in March with a price guide of $75 million to $82 million by former fashion executive Sue Lord and her husband John, chair of legal and compliance business Neota.
It is the product of a five-year build on a site the Lords bought in 2008 for $13.25 million.
Designed by Melbourne architect Ilario Cortese, the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion spans 2,200 sqm of floor space across four storeys.
Melbourne’s previous 2024 benchmark was set early in the year by businessman David Prior selling 14 St Georges Road for $40 million – after it had been listed with a $46 million to $50 million asking range.
A string of Toorak properties have sold at the bottom of or below the asking price range in 2024.
Most recently, five-bedroom “Halstead” at 12 Lansell Road in Toorak was sold for a price in the early $20 millions, after its asking price was cut by more than $5 million.
Earlier this year, late billionaire David Hains’ 10-bedroom Georgian Revival mansion at 35-39 Albany Road sold for near to $40 million. That sale came in near the bottom end of the asking price range and more than a year after it was first listed at the beginning of 2023, shortly after the death of racehorse owner Hains who left an estimated fortune of around $2.9 billion.
Toorak in recent months has seen Melbourne’s famous Myer retailing family list two mansions for sale within just a few weeks of each other – including the long-held Cranlana, which could be the first home ever in Melbourne to trade for at least $100 million.
The Edwardian mansion at 62-62A Clendon Road can be configured in up to eight bedrooms, features a tennis court and a pool, and is on a block that at more than 1.1 hectares is one of the biggest in the suburb.
That listing was quickly followed by the Regency-style family home of late businessman and philanthropist Baillieu Myer and his wife Sarah, on offer with price expectations between $20 million and $22 million.
Melbourne’s house price record was set in Toorak two years ago, with cryptocurrency casino billionaire Ed Craven’s $80,000,088 purchase of the 29-31 St Georges Road home that had sat vacant for more than 30 years.
More than half of prestige home valuers expect price growth over the next 12 months, although the biggest gains are likely to be seen in Western Australia, South Australia and NSW. Melbourne is set for modest price growth.
The Australian house price record could be smashed if Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond finds a buyer for his Point Piper waterfront mansion, listed in April with expectations of more than $200 million.
The current title is held in parts by billionaire Altassian co-founder Scott Farquhar – across two separate Point Piper deals. One of them was his sale this year of Elaine for $130 million, which he had bought in 2017 from the Fairfax family for $71 million.
Two years ago, he paid $130 million for Point Piper’s UIG Lodge at the end of 2022, setting another national benchmark.
