Apartment of the Week: No expense spared for luxury living in Elizabeth Bay

G01/11 The Esplanade, Elizabeth Bay
About $4.5 million
4 beds, 3 baths, 3 parking
Built 2010
Size 420 square metres
Strata levy $4089 a quarter
Inspect Wed and Sat, 11-11.30am
For sale
Agents Phillips Pantzer Donnelley, 0418 404 337
More photos: Domain.com.au

Working on the Villa Caprera apartments on the waterfront at Elizabeth Bay was a treat for Peter Mayoh, director of the long-standing Northbridge-based firm Mayoh Architects. While the vast majority of new apartments these days are “designed to a formula and pitched to a price point”, he says, this one was a “no-expense-spared” project for which “everything was the best”.

Ensuring that each of the eight units was generously proportioned was a key demand of the design brief. This was no easy task on the lower levels because the block backs into a sandstone cliff and heritage-listed Ashton house – once the family home of the 19th-century architect Thomas Rowe – sits above and behind it.

“We had a great address and a great outlook,” says Mayoh. “The footprint was a challenge.”

A massive excavation did the trick – hence this elegant, house-size ground-floor unit.

It was also important to ensure the outlook, particularly on the lower levels, made the most of Beare Park and the harbour and avoided, as much as possible, the not-so-handsome buildings close by. Curved glass, shutters, louvres, light courts and atria have thus been put to cunning use and, on the ground floor, make for a pleasingly green and potentially pet-friendly home.

Mayoh’s team worked on the interiors with Tim Allison & Associates. “Tim is very clever and I think the interiors have been beautifully done,” says Mayoh. “As soon as you walk in the door, you can tell this is a really high-quality build.”

Indeed, the apartment has understated luxury written all over it, from the wide, brushwood timber floorboards in the living areas to the cream silk carpet in the bedrooms, to the Calacatta marble in the bathrooms. The architecturally planted atrium gives the space a tranquil, secluded feel – a sort of antidote to the hectic inner-city world just up the hill.

The apartment should particularly suit cooks and extroverts. The living-dining area is generous. The kitchen, with bar and wine fridges integrated into its living-room side, is opulent. And the curved and louvred loggia, which gazes out to Beare Park and the harbour, copes easily with a table for 12.

Parking in Elizabeth Bay is no fun. Fortunately, the apartment has three garage spaces, plus plenty of visitor parking, and a large basement store room.

The owner says: “We love the size of the apartment. Downsizing from the north shore, we couldn’t find anything that didn’t make us feel cooped up. The 400 square metres here made the adjustment a breeze.”

Room for improvement: All this ground-floor, parkside apartment needs is a handsome resident dog, maybe two.

Need to know: 
Last traded 2012, price undisclosed
Highest recorded apartment price in Elizabeth Bay (past 12 months) $6.125 million for 4/1 Onslow Avenue in October
Median price for units in Elizabeth Bay $691,000

Recent sales
$3.75 million for 8/40A-42 MacLeay Street in October
$3.5 million for 1602/19-23 Elizabeth Bay Road in September
$2.96 million for 1/93 Elizabeth Bay Road in July
Source: Domain Group

Surrounding area
Affluent, densely-populated Elizabeth Bay mixes 20th-century apartment blocks and ultra-contemporary creations with historic buildings that were once the homes of Sydney’s colonial elites. It is leafy, hilly, and within walking distance of all that inner Sydney has to offer. Parking, particularly for non-residents, is a nightmare.
Serviced by buses.
Close to Beare Park, Sydney Harbour and all the enticing cafes, restaurants, boutiques, bars and providores down the “Paris end” of Macleay Street. Kings Cross Station is 12 minutes away on foot.