Sydney Mansion Sells For $30 Million

AUSTRALIA’s prestige real estate market seems to be going from strength to strength, with an overseas-based investor paying close to $30 million for a villa style mansion in Sydney’s ritzy Vaucluse.

The six-bedroom home was marketed by Ray White Real Estate’s Prestige Sales Michael Finger, who said five parties competed for the property, which has Sydney Harbour views.

The sale price surpasses the 2010 record held when the former Toorak estate of Diana Baillieu, in Melbourne, sold to a property developer for $25 million – or about $10 million more than the price it sold for, a year earlier.

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Victoria’s Highest Priced Home Still Unsettled

THE agency selling the Toorak mansion expected to smash Victoria’s residential price record is still confident of a sale despite the bleak global economic backdrop.

The 3 Towers Road mansion of London-based mining speculator Socrates Vasiliades was listed for sale in May with price expectations of about $30 million.

An Expression of Interest campaign managed by Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas closed a month ago but the house still appears on industry websites as a current campaign.

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Toorak’s Little Milton Hits The Market, Price Expectations Circa $13 Million

LITTLE Milton, the luxurious home of late businessman and Corona Group executive John Batkin quietly hit the market this week.

The circa 1926, five-bedroom mansion (pictured, right) is at the north-east corner of Whernside Avenue, and Albany Road – which most advocates and agents agree is Toorak’s most expensive street.

Recently, a new tennis court was developed atop a 12-car underground garage, Little Milton’s overall block size is 2476 square metres.

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Victoria Has Australia’s Richest and Poorest Average Workers: ATO

SUBURBS in Victoria accommodate Australia’s wealthiest and poorest average workers.

According new Australian Taxation Office research, Portsea (pictured, right), about 90 minutes south of Melbourne, is home to the country’s highest earners in 2008-2009, up from third position a year earlier (those 2007-08 figures were released last year).

The average income for Portsea residents was $198,987 per annum.

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Top End Market May be Deflating Faster Than First Thought

MELBOURNE’s top-end may be deflating faster than some agents would have you believe.

In St Kilda West, a historic waterfront four-level mansion with six bedrooms on Beaconsfield Parade has just been discounted to $4.95 million after failing to sell last June for $7 million.

Around the corner in tree-lined Mary Street, Channel Nine managing director Jeff Browne is asking $3.975 million for his outgoing terrace after it failed to sell at auction in February, with price expectations of up to $4.4 million.

At another Mary Street, in Hawthorn, a modern family home was discounted this week to $4.65 million after being advertised for most of the year at $4.95 million.

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Record Price for a Melbourne House Smashed For the Third Time in Four Months

The record price for a house in Melbourne has been smashed for the third time in four months.

Former soft drinks distributor turned property developer Harry Stamoulis is speculated to be paying $25 million for a massive estate at 39 St Georges Road, Toorak, which includes a seven bedroom unrenovated mansion – once the family home of Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu.

The Baillieu family put the house at a trough in the prestige property market in 2008, where it eventually sold for $14.8 million to private investors the Zig Inge Group, who develop mainly retirement communities.

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