Source : the age
Two beachfront mansions on Brighton’s “Golden Mile” have hit the market, with an eye-watering asking price of as much as $96 million for both combined.
The sale is being dubbed “once in a generation” as the owner of both properties is downsizing to a smaller beachfront home.
Neighbouring estates Shannongolden, at 12 Moule Avenue, with a price range of $42 million to $46 million, and Teychel, at 16-20 Moule Avenue, asking $45.5 million to $50 million – are both owned by Melbourne businessman Julius Colman and his wife Pamela. Number 12 is in Pamela’s name and 16-20 is in Julius’s name.
Colman, who started and then sold property syndication/investment firm MCS Property, is also known as a philanthropist and a poker player, taking part in the World Series of Poker championships.
The couple has owned Shannongolden since 2014, paying $18 million for the property, records show, using the four-bedroom, five-bathroom property as their home base.
They bought the neighbouring Teychel in July last year for $32.8 million – at the time noted as a suburb record – from the late property developer Bruce Terry.
Colman told the Australian Financial Review he had purchased Terry’s home after a storm damaged protected cedar trees on the property, requiring them to be removed for safety reasons. This opened the door for redevelopment of the block.
While the Colmans had planned to build an architecturally designed manse on the property, which already has a five-bedroom home and a tennis court on it, they changed their minds, downsizing instead.
The increased price tag for 16-20 Moule Avenue now comes with the potential for redevelopment on what is the biggest beachfront property in Brighton – a home on a 4600-square-metre block. A sale at that level would mark a paper gain of between $12.7 million and $17.2 million.
Selling agent JP Dixon Real Estate’s Jonathan Dixon said the properties were two of the best on the Golden Mile and had already garnered interest from international buyers.
“Australia’s going to be a bolthole for everyone very soon,” Dixon said.
He said the sale was a once in a generation opportunity, with sales like these seldom happening.
“It’s never happened before,” Dixon said. “It will be nice if we could sell them both to the same buyer.”
He would not comment about the owner of both properties but said he had helped them find their new and smaller home which had prompted the sale of the Moule Avenue homes.
Melbourne’s house price record stands at $124 million for the Toorak home known as Coonac, bought by the billionaire Bastas family.
