Toorak mansion Rose Porteous sold after seven months for a 10 per cent profit, relisted
A mansion Rose Porteous bought in late 2006 from solicitor John O’Halloran, and owned for seven months before flipping for a sizeable profit – is for sale again.
Number 8 Barnard Road, Toorak, is expected to trade for between $12 million and $13.2 million.
Marshall White’s Marcus Chiminello launched an expressions of interest campaign for the “grand scale” home this week.
Ms Porteous paid $6.1 million for the contemporary dwelling a few years after moving to Melbourne.
The triple-storey mansion was the biggest and most expensive Ms Porteous ever bought in the city.
It includes a basement garage for three cars, three lounge areas, a study, rumpus rooms and four bedrooms – the master with a large walk-in-wardrobe.
It sits on an approximate 1100 square metre block between Yar Orrong and Macquarie roads, within a pocket agents call AAA-Toorak.
The immediate community includes John Gandel, members of the Lew family and Lindsay Fox.
Ms Porteous was best known for becoming a socialite following her 1985 marriage to billionaire mining magnate, Lang Walker; an inquest into his death in 1992; her protracted legal battle with his daughter, Gina Rinehart, over Mr Walker’s then-$400 million estate; then another legal dispute with her biological daughter, Johanna.
After marrying Perth real estate agent William Porteous, three months after Mr Walker’s funeral, Ms Porteous moved to Melbourne from Perth in 2005, and flipped several properties – for a profit – in her first few years.
All of them were in Toorak.
Ms Porteous’ first Melbourne acquisition was an unrenovated home in Tintern Avenue which cost a reported $2.5 million in 2005, and sold for close to $3 million several months later.
In about 2006, the socialite paid between $1.8 million and $2.2 million for each of two adjoining apartments in a block of four at 45-47 Clendon Road. Ms Porteous is reported to have sold the two apartments for a total of about $6 million in 2007.
It was also in 2007, Ms Porteous settled on the purchase of 8 Barnard Road from Mr O’Halloran. The home was onsold six months later for $6.9 million, following an off-market deal (it traded, again, in 2009, for more than $7 million).
In mid-2007, Ms Porteous spent $4.75 million on a smaller three bedroom mansion at 49 Irving Road adjacent to Mr Fox’s historic Eulinya estate, selling it five years later, for $5 million.
Ms Porteous’ most significant property was the extravagant Prix D’Amour mansion she and Mr Walker built at a cost of $7 million, completing in 1990.
In the exclusive Perth suburb of Mosman Park, the Saunders Street dwelling, with 17 rooms, became a tourist attraction. It was demolished by the Porteous’ in 2006 after failing to sell for about $30 million.
The land was then subdivided into 10 lots, each valued at the time, at between $3.7 million and $4 million. The couple planned to build a contemporary home on three of the blocks.
Nowadays, Ms Porteous is reported to spend the bulk of her time in Perth, where Johanna lives.
