Sam Neill lists his $4 million Double Bay house

Actor Sam Neill has been doing more than tweet entertaining time-killer videos from isolation in recent weeks, listing his long-held Double Bay house for $3.5 million to $4 million.

Buyers better not dally either, given the online marketing for the charming four-bedroom house is headlined, “Vendor wants fast sale” – a sentiment likely shared with pretty much every other home seller currently on the market.

The Federation bungalow last traded in 1996 for $839,000 when bought in a company name, some three years after the Kiwi star of the Jurassic Park movie franchise bought the house next door for $372,000.

The sale plans follow Neill’s and Noriko Watanabe’s split a few years ago. He has more recently taken up with ABC political correspondent Laura Tingle.

Neill has been keeping himself busy during his time in isolation from COVID-19 with regular social media updates, such as a rendition of Randy Newman’s song Dayton, Ohio – 1903 and recitals from Hairy Maclary children’s book.

Ballard Property’s Paul Ephron and Clint Ballard have set an online auction scheduled for April 15.

Leagle eagles trading up

Leading personal injury lawyer Gerard Malouf and his wife Dana have settled on a beachside house in Maroubra, known as North End, for $7 million amid expectations it would be a looming redesign for the couple.

Malouf isn’t the only lawyer who was busy trading up his real estate before COVID-19 hit home.

The Bronte apartment record was reset recently at $5.4 million when the top-floor of a beachside triplex sold to class action guru Ben Slade, managing principal lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, by McGrath’s Angus Gorrie on behalf of creative director Justin Woo and his wife Andrea.

Feared litigation lawyer Mark O’Brien and leading arts consultant Jennifer Lindsay secured $6.25 million for their designer Tamarama home late last year through Belle’s Daniel Gillespie, with settlement records revealing the buyer to be Andrea Quesnel and Scott Harwood, the software engineer behind Code Barrel that was bought by Atlassian.

Dispute resolution and litigation specialist Ben Friis-O’Toole, a senior associate at Arnold Bloch Liebler, and his wife, Allens partner Valeska Bloch bought a newly built designer house in Clovelly through Alexander Phillips for $5.2 million.

Elizabeth Collins, QC, up-graded her Paddington terrace near Five Ways in October for $2.55 million for another nearby redesigned by Madeleine Blanchfield with a pool for $5.05 million.

Slade shells out in Castlecrag

Atlassian’s top brass Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar aren’t the company’s only executives with an eye for good real estate. Head of engineering Paul Slade and his dentist partner Mary-Louise Moss have traded in their North Willoughby Californian bungalow for designer digs in Castlecrag worth $8.71 million.

The striking Martin & Ollmann Architects-designed residence was commissioned by former Allco Finance director Mark Worrall, now Keybridge Capital boss, and his wife Jacqueline.

Slade sits on the tech giant’s philanthropic Atlassian Foundation, alongside Catherine Meade, the company’s head of special ops and a former Newtown local.

Meade and her architect husband Adrian Tarrant sold their Newtown worker’s cottage for $1.75 million last November and have taken up in a designer beachside residence at Freshwater for $4.78 million.

Begiovanes heading beachward

Ad guru Rob Belgiovane and his wife Sheridan have made a sea change to the northern beaches, buying a beachfront house in Clareville for $4.75 million.

The BWM Group founder sold their waterfront Mosman home last year for $8 million in an off-market deal to thoroughbred horse owner Paul Fleming and his wife Allison, having paid $6.5 million for it three years earlier from former bank chief Stuart Grimshaw.

The Belgiovanes bought the four-bedroom house from fellow creatives Mark and Louella Tuckey, of the furniture and interior design brand Mark Tuckey.

Double sale in Double Bay

No sooner did former Little River Band frontman Glenn Shorrock sell his waterfront apartment in Double Bay’s historic Gladswood House for about $8.5 million than Ballard’s Clint Ballard has sold the upstairs apartment of investment banker Matthew Tehan and Charlotte Ostor, co-owner of Vertikal Indoor Snow Sports.

Ballard declined to reveal the sale price, but sources say more than $8 million exchanged on the three-bedroom apartment.

Ostor and Tehan, managing director of global investment bank Houlihan Lokey, bought it in 2010 for $4.625 million from former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock and his wife, US diplomat Penne Korth-Peacock.

Bidding farewell to Warrawee

The Warrawee residence of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and Hospitality chairman Scott Hetherington and artist wife Adele is for sale given the couple’s plans to downsize to the northern beaches.

The couple bought the architect John Amory-designed house in 2013 for $3,575,000 from Ava and Ross Clarke, founder of structural engineer firm Enstruct Group, gutting and remodelling it as a Hamptons-style residence with new European slate roof soon after.

Di Jones’ Tim Fraser has no official guide, but is looking to a recent $6 million sale down the road as a comparable.