John Schaeffer to flip Bellevue Hill $20.5 million trophy home Bonnington after just six months

Sydney trophy home and art collector John Schaeffer has taken property flipping to a new level listing the historic Bonnington six months after he took possession of it.

The heritage-listed property, designed in the 1930s by acclaimed architect F. Glynn Gilling, was sold for $20.5 million by the executors of the estate of the late businessman and property developer Neville Christie.

Schaeffer’s sales campaign comes ahead of next week’s official start to the spring selling season, described by prestige agents as one of the tightest trophy home markets in years, given few listings and even fewer sales.

Schaeffer said he has “significantly refreshed and improved” Bonnington by removing old carpet and restoring timber floors, replacing electric switchboards and replacing lighting during his ownership.

But hopes for a sale this time around of more than $20.5 million by Elliott Placks and Ashley Bierman, of Ray White Double Bay, will more than likely be pinned on the tight market conditions. 

Given the purchase would have incurred more than $1.37 million in stamp duty fees Mr Schaeffer would need to sell for close to $22 million to make his money back.

Bonnington’s sale last year on a protracted settlement came amid competition from at least three buyers, including former McGrath franchise king Shane Smollen. It is understood that some of those interested parties have made inquiries since.

The Tudor-style manor was last sold 56 years ago for £36,500 by merchant James Brown Milne, who bought the 2200-square-metres from the Rona estate in 1934.

Schaeffer, the former contract-cleaning entrepreneur, is a well-known purveyor of fine real estate in Sydney, flipping $30.24 million worth of prestige property in the eastern suburbs in the past three years alone.

Schaeffer’s first major restoration was the Bellevue Hill estate Rona, purchased in 1989 for $9.6 million and sold to property tycoon Terry Agnew in 2004 for $20.5 million.

In 2002, Schaeffer paid a record of $20.7 million for the Spanish mission-style house Boomerang on the Elizabeth Bay waterfront, but it was sold as part of his divorce settlement three years later for $20 million to trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox.

The only sale of more than $30 million this year in Sydney was the Rose Bay residence of retail billionaire Brett Blundy sold in March for about $45 million to Sylvia Myers, wife of high-net-worth adviser Lawrence Myers.

James Packer sold his Bondi Beach bachelor pad earlier this month for $29 million to property investors Roy and Anthony Medich, and in June the Hordern family sold their Bellevue Hill landmark home for $21 million.