Coopes’ marketing describes it as a “Californian mission” residence with formal and informal living areas set around a central courtyard and fronting north-east facing terraces overlooking the harbour, as well as a pool, cabana, wine cellar and bar.

Up the river

Not since Toad of Toad Hall has riverfront real estate commanded such lavish housing and lured so many buyers with deep pockets.

Upstream of the Harbour Bridge the fairytale prices were once limited to the Lane Cove River, where homes on the north-facing Hunters Hill peninsula could command up to $22.18 million, as it did for the historic Vailele mansion in 2017.

This side of the pandemic, however, the Parramatta River has come into its own, led by the surprise $25 million sale in 2021 for the Abbotsford estate bought by e-commerce entrepreneur Eddie Machaalani, and more recently followed by a slew of sales in the double-digit millions by the likes of Wallabies pub king Bill Young.

Sources say the Wallabies legend is behind the purchase of the Cabarita house known as Yellowstone, designed by Oikos Architects on a vast waterfront block of 1300 square metres that sold under the hammer for $14.62 million, smashing the suburb high by $6.3 million.

Agent Ben Horwood declined to comment on Young’s purchase, but said he listed it with hopes in the “early teens” despite being told by locals he would be lucky to get $10 million.

It was a similarly bullish result on the Drummoyne waterfront when Get Fish director Antonio Muollo, 23, and his dad, De Costi retail outlet owner Tony Muollo sold their house almost a year after they bought it.

The Muollos paid $13.125 million for the waterfront house in 2021, and soon after they settled on it put it back up for sale given plans to remain in the east.

Sources say the Muollos are back in the black having sold for more than the $14 million guide for CobdenHayson’s Daniel Patterson.

Television businessman and president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Fabio Grassia and his wife Monia Cavalli are touted as the buyers, and have already listed their waterfront home in Hunters Hill with BresicWhitney’s Nicholas McEvoy with a $9 million guide.

The deep waterfront residence, purchased in 2014 for $3.9 million, is one of two neighbouring houses owned by Cavalli, of which the house next door is also for sale by McEvoy with a $3.5 million guide.

Prominent lawyer Sue Gilchrist and Stephen Taylor have sold their Chiswick home for $12 million after two buyers competed at auction, forcing the result well past the $9 million guide originally offered by Matthew Ward.

Return to buyers

Meanwhile, the buyer of Young’s former home in Northwood, printing industry boss Anthony Karam and his wife, TMA Group director Corriene Karam are set to test the enduring strength of the local market this weekend when their newly purchased home goes to auction.

Karam, the chairman TMA Group, bought into Northwood at the height of the boom last year, offering a winning bid of $9.65 million at auction for a Hamptons-style house through Belle’s Simon Harrison.

But no sooner did Karam take the keys to his new home than an even better house a few doors away, Young’s Federation mansion Yandama, hit the market for $14 million through Ray White’s Chris Wilkins.

It was too good to refuse, prompting Karam to buy Yandama, and return his newly purchased, Hamptons-style house to the market, again with a $9 million guide.

Safe as houses

The Woollahra home of socialite and interior designer Sally Tilley and financier Adam Tilley goes to auction on March 28.

The couple’s home since 2014 has mercifully escaped the headlines of their former digs in Point Piper, which was bought on a structured deal from convicted murderer Ron Medich and reportedly later firebombed by the late businessman Michael McGurk, who was charged over the matter, but the charges were later dropped.

The house was meant to be part of a development project after Tilley purchased it from Medich in 2004 for $12.5 million on a structured deal. The project never got off the ground and descended into a protracted load dispute that later prompted Medich to organise the murder of McGurk, for which he is currently serving more than 30 years jail.

Ultimately, the Point Piper house turned into the deal of a decade but only for Seven’s Bruce McWilliam who bought it in 2013 for $10.65 million and sold it two years ago for $32.5 million.

The Tilleys, meanwhile, retreated to Woollahra, paying $4.11 million for the home of Paris-based expat Dominique Ogilvie, and undertaking a dramatic renovation of it since then. Ray White’s Randall Kemp has the listing.

One for the car collector

As garages go, that owned by Active Media’s Michael Ryan and nutritionist Zoe Bingley-Pullin is one of the best. What was previously a sea-plane engine workshop in the 1950s was purchased by the North Bondi-based couple in 2019 for $1.76 million and converted into what one property watcher described as the ultimate “man cave”.

Gendered stereotypes aside, the description isn’t wrong. It has space for 15 cars, a working bench, showroom, lounge, and a loft bedroom, all of which make it ideal for any car collector.

Ryan, who trained Hugh Jackman for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, has listed it with 1st City Double Bay’s Brad Caldwell-Eyles and Julian Hasemer and a $3 million to $3.3 million guide.

Market confidence

There’s clearly confidence in the real estate market when the national general manager of sales at McGrath Estate Agents is buying. Troy Malcolm, who was a high-profile addition to the national real estate shop last year, has coughed up $6.025 million for new digs in Redfern.

Known as The Stables and converted to a residence in 1982, the off-market sale by BresicWhitney’s Shannan Whitney sets a residential record for the suburb, topped only by the part-residential/part-gallery building that Woolworths’ chief executive Brad Banducci bought in 2021 for $6.85 million.