Therese Rein and Kevin Rudd reshuffle Noosa real estate, add $5m designer digs
Businesswoman Therese Rein, wife of former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has deepened her appreciation of Noosa real estate, splashing $5 million for a designer residence known as Coral Sea House at Sunshine Beach.
And while she’s reshuffling her deck of local title deeds, Rein has also sold her designer getaway one beach down the coast at Peregian Beach for $3.3 million to FRANKiE4 Footwear founders Caroline and Alan McCulloch.
Rein’s latest purchase comes just six months after she splashed $17 million for the nearby beachfront home of Betty’s Burgers founder David Hales and his wife Louise, who in turn purchased it two years ago for $15.2 million from tennis champ Pat Rafter and his wife Lara.
Rein’s new four-bedroom investment on a double block of 900 square metres was sold and designed by Melbourne-based architect Dale Fisher, and is set on the last subdivision of what used to be Fisher’s father’s (Dale Fisher snr) Sea Ranch Estate before it was carved up.
Fisher jnr isn’t new to the real estate dealings of former prime ministers, having bought up the home of Harold Holt and adjoining land on the riverfront in Toorak for redevelopment into six luxury residences.
Buying a family affair for McWilliams
Eastern suburbs property oracle and Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam has added a Bellevue Hill house to his already substantial property portfolio, paying $5.4 million for a rundown house on Beresford Road.
It looks like McWilliam’s son Andrew has inherited his dad’s savvy for real estate given he took time out from his film production company Shutr to do the bidding honours at the auction, and hopefully chipping in on a renovation expected on the three-bedroom house.
Sotheby’s Michael Pallier had 15 registered bidders for the 1920s bungalow long held by the Mandelberg family but after an opening bid of $3.7 million, it was left to 10 of them to give McWilliam a run for his dad’s money.
McWilliam’s property interests tend to be local affairs, with a handful of houses in Point Piper (including two waterfront mansions) and more in Bellevue Hill and Woollahra.
Kings scoop up $8.5m Vaucluse pad
E! News Asia host Yvette King and her husband, Google Singapore senior executive Ben King, recently joined the throngs of returning expats last month and have picked up an $8.15 million mansion in Vaucluse.
The seven-bedroom residence with a pool, home cinema and four living areas is purely an investment for the Singapore-based expats, according to Samuel Schumann, of Raine & Horne Potts Point, who sold it to the Kings on behalf of Star casino chief Matt Bekier and his wife Melinda.
The Kings have been based in Asia since 2012 when Ben first joined the tech behemoth, only to be appointed head of operations last year. Soon after arriving Yvette scored an anchor job at Fox Sports News (Asia).
The Newtown-bound Bekiers did well on the three-level residence, doubling the $4.05 million they paid for it in 2012 from former rugby league player-turned-hotelier Steve Bowden to move to a converted warehouse they bought in the inner west in September.
Work in progress sells off-market
Restaurateur Basil Kalkanas and his wife Liane have sold their not-quite-completed house in Hunters Hill for about $15 million.
The off-market deal is not expected to settle until work is completed on the waterfront reserve property, purchased by the Kalkanas clan in 2012 for $3.8 million.
Sources say the buyer is the rich list Camilleri family, of the Steggles and Lilydale chicken production giants founded by family patriarch Charlie Baiada.
The Kalkanases are also undertaking work on their new home on the Woolwich waterfront, Henley, purchased in 2018 for $13.5 million from former chairman of the Australian Turf Club John Cornish.
Kirribilli’s new high
Art collector Lisa Paulsen and her husband, retired shipping executive Egil Paulsen sold their Kirribilli pad this week for more than $11.5 million asking price.
Despite no price revealed by Ray White Lower North Shore’s David Gillan, at the level touted by sources it sets an apartment record for Kirribilli, topping the $10.79 million high of two years ago by PNG expat Ingrid Richardson, an associate of former PNG prime minister Peter O’Neill.
The Paulsens purchased the Elamang Avenue waterfront pad in 2014 for $5.5 million whenthey downsized from the Mosman mansion sold for $15.6 million to Barbara Contini, wife of Monte Carlo financier Henrik Stigell.
ANZ chairman’s weekender Gonski
Corporate heavyhitter David Gonski and his wife, dermatologist Orli Wargon, have pocketed $5.6 million for their little-used Whale Beach weekender from Kiwi-born fashion designer and former Opera singer Nicola Waite.
The ANZ Bank chairman bought the clifftop property designed by Andrew Coomer in 2009 for $5.1 million from lawyer Tony Bancroft and his wife Cassandra.
Waite and her partner Vasilis Karbouris are in the process of selling their Drummoyne home and are expected to off-load their Hyams Beach weekender they bought for a then record $3.5 million three years ago.