Who's who of Sydney stake a claim on Southern Highlands holiday homes

Sydney’s prestige home owners might be forgoing the pleasures of buying our own city high-end real estate, but it seems we’re still partial to a weekender in the Southern Highlands.

Testament to that is the recent off-market sale of John Boyd’s Robertson property for $8.75 million to a company owned by Raelynn Malouf, daughter of the late property tycoon Michael Malouf.

Fuelling local sentiment was the sale of Bowral’s Bellagio estate for $8.2 million to Wallis Wu, whose dad is China’s real estate mogul “Frank” Po Sum Wu, followed by the sale of  former Liberal leader John Hewson’s historic Invergowrie for some $6 million after a decade on the market.

Hitting the market in their wake is the Bowral property of the late legal luminary Roddy Meagher for more than $6 million.

Meagher and his late wife Penny bought the 40-hectare property in 1983 for $260,000 from the late James Fairfax’s Retford Park Estate, and commissioned acclaimed architect Glenn Murcutt to design the property at the base of a north-facing slope.

Beacon Hill – so named after a World War II beacon that once stood on the property’s highest point to transmit signals from Sydney to Canberra – was completed in the early 1990s featuring Murcutt’s classic pavilion-style and a heated pool.

Meagher, a former QC and president of the NSW Bar Society, was renowned as one of the intellectual – if not most politically incorrect – giants of the NSW Supreme Court, where he sat on the bench of the Court of Appeal.

Following his death in 2011, aged 79, the Bowral property was left to his daughter Amy Gerstl, who has listed it with The Agency’s Ben Olofson.

Medichs ready to raise a glass

Father-and-son property tycoons Roy and Anthony Medich have arrived in Mittagong in no small way, buying the abandoned Tooth & Co brewery site, known as the Mittagong Maltings, for $6.05 million.

Word is the Medichs are looking at converting the dilapidated heritage buildings into a whizz-bang drinking institution, but expect further development than that given it’s a 6.48-hectare site.

It was the Tooths malt brewery from the mid-1930s until 1981 when the doors were closed. It has been left to fall into disrepair since while various developers grappled with how to capitalise on it.

Developers Bill Shipton and Jose de la Vega bought it from Tooth & Co in 1988 for $1.33 million to create a 200-room hotel, but the plans never materialised and it was  sold in 1994 for $465,000.

It was later owned by Swiss hotel developer Thomas Kessler and most recently by developer Barry Anstee, who bought it in 2009 for $590,000.

Davids look to downsize

Fiona and Steven David, son of the late grocery tycoon John David, are looking to downsize their Southern Highlands holding, listing their French country-style homestead Cordeaux for $5.3 million.

The Berrima homestead was built in 2002 and last traded in 2008 for $3.6 million when sold by Countess Susanna, of the David Jones retail dynasty and widow of French Count Patrick de Vienne.

The 27-hectare property now boasts Will Dangar gardens, along with equestrian facilities, Olympic-size dressage arena, tennis court, orchard, heritage rose garden, and a stone guest house that dates to the 1820s.

It is listed with Ray White Bowral’s Ian Rayner and Sotheby’s International’s Michael Pallier.

Art of the deal in Robertson

The Robertson property White Birch Farm owned by filmmaker and director Tony Williams and his producer wife Anna Hewgill is up for grabs given the couple’s plans to downsize locally.

The 10-hectare property is best known for its artist’s studio where the couple made their film The King Sun about John Olsen painting his second largest mural and which still bears the painted evidence of his work.

Purchased in 2007 for $1.95 million, the five-bedroom homestead comes with a separate cottage, artist’s studio, an award-winning veggie garden, just under five hectares of rainforest and a landscaped mature garden with Japanese garden room and an orchard.

Lisa-Marie Cauchois, of Di Jones, is asking $3.85 million to $3.95 million.

On track for Mittagong move

Ricky Surace, owner of B2B Bloodstock, looks like he might be moving to Mittagong given his recent purchase of the property Midwood from Tanya Gregory, wife of Highfield Property Group director Matt Gregory.

The Richard Rowe-designed residence on 40 hectares was listed last year for $4.95 million by Angus Campbell-Jones after the Gregorys upgraded to a nearby Mittagong property for $6.5 million.

But Surace came through as a buyer for not only Midwood, but also the Gregory’s adjoining 20 hectares, exchanging for $6.4 million.

Trophy home back on the market

The modernist residence Normandie Park in Exeter owned by businessman Ying Huang, wife of ad agency executive Robin Chen, has returned to the local trophy shelf for $6 million just two years after the couple bought it.

The couple’s plans to sell their Southern Highlands weekender follows their decision to list their Darling Point penthouse in February for $10 million five years after they bought it from property developer Bob Rose and his wife Margaret for $9.98 million.

Normandie Park was built in 1962 and designed by Allen Jack+Cottier, having been commissioned by barrister and former Liberal parliamentarian Thomas Sidney McKay.

The 80-hectare property with a separate three-bedroom manager’s cottage last traded for $4 million in 2017 when sold by ophthalmologist and land owner Leo Shanahan and his wife Joan.

It is listed with Drew Lindsay, of his eponymous agency.

Investing in Burradoo

Andrew Findlay, head of boutique investment firm Antipodes Partners, and ceramicist Alison Fraser are proving to be big fans of Burradoo acreage, especially on Holly Road.

The couple first showed their appreciation for the street in late 2016 when they bought Koorawatha for $3.36 million  from Monica Moore, wife of Omega Capital’s John Moore.

Now they’ve doubled up buying Parkfield across the road for $3.7 million through Drew Lindsay’s Karl Zabel.

The property was sold on behalf of barrister and small aircraft pilot Darryl Warren and his wife Pamela, who more than doubled their 2011 purchase price of $1.7 million from former AMP chairman Ian Burgess.

Fund manager cashes in

Veteran fund manager John Murray and his wife Catherine have cashed in their Southern Highlands property, selling both their Burrawang property Kalimna Farm and their nearby property Little Minnows.

Kalimna Farm was the century-old cottage the couple renovated after they bought it in 2015 for $2.15 million from advertising industry leader Patsy Peacock, wife of Campaign Brief boss Michael Lynch.

PriceFinder indicates a sale price of $2.4 million, although Michael Maloney, of Richardson & Wrench Bowral, would not confirm the result.

Expect the Murrays to pocket double that figure for their Little Minnows property with its Richard Rowe-designed homestead.

The Murrays were asking $5 million for it before Maloney sold it. Settlement will confirm the result.