It was 1992 when the computer executive Graham Pickles and wife Katrina purchased Sir Peter Finley's Lindfield wonderful late 1920s house.

It was bought for $1.31 million having been secured by after another long-term owner, Sir Peter in 1959 for £14,250. There is no current price guide from mcconnell bourn.

The house was inspired by classic Italian villas designed by architect John Shirley in the Mediterranean style. The house is set around a sunny central courtyard, on its blue ribbon east-side setting with 2,473 square metres of private established Annie Wilkes gardens, with pool, lawn tennis and walk to rail conveniencem meeting many of the requisites of an upper north shore trophy home.

It is also located within Lindfield Public and Killara High zones as well as being close to Holy Family, Highfields and Newington Prep.

Sir Peter Finley, who was one of Australia's most respected and long-serving company directors, died aged 74 in 1994.

He was best known for the 27 year directorship and 18 year chairmanship of Email, the whitegoods and building materials manufacturer, as well as chairman of Boral, Hygienic Lily Ltd and Avery Australia Ltd as well as serving as deputy chairman of National Australia Bank and Cadbury Schweppes.

The Australian Shareholders Association has listed the current record holders of ASX 200 directorships as:

Of course the length of time home owners held on to their properties plays a major role in the windfall gains.

"Of those homes sold throughout the December 2013 quarter, those held for a short period of time have been much more susceptible to loss," CoreLogic RP Data has previously stated in Sydney, homes re-sold between one and three years after their initial purchase had the highest proportion of loss.

On the other hand, the vast majority (95.1%) of re-sales taking place after 15 years of their initial purchase more than doubled their original purchase price.

The average length of ownership for residential properties is continuing to increase indicating that home owners are moving less frequently.

An important figure to be aware of is the average length of property ownership, or the ‘hold period’ of a property. The typical hold period provides one of the best indicators about the likelihood as to whether a property will be brought to the market in the near future. CoreloGic RP Data measures the average hold period by looking at sales over the past year and determining the length of time each of those properties had been owned (ie the most recent contract date minus the previous purchase date).

Across the combined capital cities, the average hold period for houses was recorded at 10.1 years at the end of 2013 and for units it was 8.4 years. In regional markets, the average hold period was slightly shorter for houses at 9.5 years and slightly longer for units at 8.6 years. The first chart highlights what has been a consistent increase in the average hold period since about 2004/05. The rise coincides with the national surge in home values from 2001 to 2004 and the subsequent fall in sales volumes thereafter.

Across the individual capital city housing markets you can see that the average hold period has trended higher across each market over the past decade. The data also shows that houses in particular tend to be held for much longer in Sydney and Melbourne than they do elsewhere.

At the end of 2013, Melbourne had the longest average hold period for houses and units recorded at 11.4 years and 9.4 years respectively. Sydney houses had the second longest average hold period at 11.0 years whilst for units Hobart units were second longest on average at 8.5 years. Each capital city has recorded an increase in the average hold period for houses and units over the past year.

Developer Elias Jreissati's bespoke foreshore penthouse at Port Melbourne has returned to the market with a new video marketing campaign.

The listing through Kay & Burton agent Ross Savas also its own website, thepenthousemelbourne.com.

The campaign has been co-ordinated by GoldenEye Media.

Its $18 million plus asking price derives from it being 1,040 square metres over three levels - 18, 19 and 20 - atop the HMAS Lonsdale building (pictured below).

Designed by architect Nonda Katsalidis, the Rouse Street property comes with five bedrooms and five bathrooms, plus a kitchen on each level.

191/85 Rouse Street has bay and city skyline views, perhaps the city's ultimate entertainer's residence with five balconies and two large landscaped rooftop areas 400 square metres in size.

The penthouse includes five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two kitchens, an internal lift between the three levels, a two-storey 100-square-metre living room, an executive wing, a 1,800-bottle wine cellar and seven carparks.

Title Tattle ranks the $19.36 million sale of the 11th floor, 150 Clarendon Street, East Melbourne, complex as the national record holder, and it was a little higher after inclusions.

It sold in 2008 to a Hong Kong holding company, directed by Margaret Lou, the little-known businesswoman born in Tianjin, China. 

It is the same building where there is currently a seven-bedroom apartment space on the eighth floor (pictured below) on the market with a US$20 million-plus asking price.

The 150 East building offering is set to smash the record price for a Melbourne apartment at its current pricing.

The eighth-storey unit at 150 Clarendon Street, East Melbourne, was listed last month by the Tregonning family.

Measuring nearly 1,000 square metres, the offering is available through Dingle Partners agent Anton Wongtrakun.

It can be used as three separate apartments with their own current entrances, or one large residence.

The historic Berrima farm, Mereworth has been sold by the Oxley family, best known as being decendents of the Bushells tea founders.

Locals dread it has been bought by underground coal mining interests in the sensitive Southern Highlands farming country.

Land title searches suggest it may have been bought by interests associated with the encroaching coal mining industry, given the purchasing shelf company is directed by Guy Humble, a Brisbane based lawyer with a strong background in the mining and resources industry.

The purchasing company, set up mid-year, goes by the guiseful name, S.F. Pastoral Holdings.

Mereworth was listed with $12 million-plus hopes in 2011, with its mid-2014 sale at $11.1 million only now beginning to be formally registered.

The reputed purchase would allow the purchaser to undertake mining related activities, in this case the mooted removal of any coal via conveyor belt to nearby possibly available train tracks.

Locals fear the purchaser is the Korean mining company, POSCO who have the coal exploration lease. Local Southern Highlands resident, the 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones says POSCO ought be regarded as "vandals". 

The 500 hectare Mereworth property ranks among the most intact southern highlands farms, but having been split by the highway there was a restraint on the level of private purchasing interest.

Property Observer is aware the same shelf company, S.F. Pastoral Pty Ltd has also purchased two other nearby Berrima properties on the eastern side of the highway, just outside of Berrima last month.

It paid $2,582,000 at the 3651 Old Hume Highway property, Stonington.

It paid $1,859,000 for the holding at 3711 Old Hume Highway.

In June at $12.6 million, Cavalaire Rural Pty Ltd directed by the Korean-born Joon Byun on behalf of POSCO, purchased Evandale, a 800 hectare property owned by the Reid family which abuts the Medway Reservoir that services 8200 residents of Berrima, Bowral and Mittagong and is the emergency water supply for the region. The two important feeder streams for the reservoir, Medway Rivulet and Wells Creek pass through Evandale. Locals say any coal mining in the district could have significant consequences for this water resource.

Solicitor Guy Humble’s known clients include Macarthur Coal, Peabody, QGC, CS Energy and AMCI.

He co-directs the purchasing company, S.F. Rural Holdings with another McCullough Robertson Brisbane lawyer, Peter Stewart.

The Korean steel-maker POSCO was formerly partners with Cockatoo Coal, which sold out of the controversial mining venture, known as Hume Coal in May last year.

The syndicate assumed the exploratory rights from Angelo Coal (Sutton Forrest) Pty Ltd, which had held the mostly dormant lease since 1985.

The coal exploration lease, allowing it to carry out exploration and possibly install a mine heads on properties, runs from the village of Exeter through Sutton Forest to the Belanglo State Forest.

The mining syndicate hit the headlines in 2011 when they emerged as the $8 million buyer of a 425 hectare beef cattle farm, Wongonbra, virtually on the doorstep of actor Nicole Kidman and singer Keith Urban’s peaceful Sutton Forest retreat, Bunya Hill.

POSCO have supported more than 40 local charities and sporting clubs over the past three years to seek support among local landowners who have been been mostly hostile to their exploration attempts.

After almost 100 years of ownership by the Cowley family, Mereworth was bought by the pioneering tea-merchant family in 1963, nine years after the death at Carthona, Darling Point of Philip Howard Bushell - whose estate was valued for probate at £666,695 - and four years after the death of his widow, Myrtle, who left an estate of £2,558,921.

A vintage tea mixer (photographed above) was among the items sold at its recent Lawsons contents' sale. The antique sale buyers at Mereworth were greeted by greyhounds statues on stands at the front door. Out went the ornate chandeliers, clocks, tapestries and antique rugs, bronzes and garden architecture, important 19th century French Boulle furniture, early portraits dating to the 17th century, antique prints and maps, and French inspired outdoor furniture.
 

Mereworth's occupancy dates back to John Atkinson's 1820 settlement. His brother, James, owned the trophy home, Oldbury at Sutton Forest.

The nine-bedroom 1964 sandstone house was designed by architect John Amory, with a French provincial feel.

Its formal lounge room comes with a baronial fireplace and raked ceilings.

Shuttered windows and french doors frame the views of the mature garden, once described by Elwyn Swane as one of the finest by landscaper Paul Sorenson.

The property, with two creeks, 12 dams and seven bores, suits grazing cattle, sheep and horses.

It was described as the best property listing since Reg and Joy Grundy paid $15 million for Comfort Hill, the 200-hectare Sutton Forest property from adman-turned-farmer Michael Ball and his wife, Daria, in 2007.

In late 2011 the secretive tactics by the POSCO Korean coal mining enterprise shocked Michael Ball, when he sold another Southern Highlands property to who he thought was an agricultural company.

Michael Ball found out the farm sold to shelf company Aurelius Rural Pty Ltd, which actually wanted to establish itself on the beef cattle farm for mining purposes. Wongonbra was marketed by estate agents as arguably the best available large rural landholding in the Southern Highlands.

"Well, clearly it's deceitful because they pretended all the way through the negotiations that they were solely interested in farming – cattle farming," Ball said after its sale.

In late 2011, Quentin Dempster on the ABC 7.30 Report noted the secretive practice had made the small community “more determined than ever to stop mining”.

The highlands coal sits underneath a water aquifer.

"No one has a clue of the geology of aquifers,” Ball, in 2011, told The Australian.

“Once fractured, there's no possibility for them to be fixed. You can't mine without fracturing the aquifer."

Peter Martin, the convener of the Southern Highland Coal Action Group, has previously suggested governments were allowing miners to come into some of the best parts of Australia and “ruin them".

The known purchases of the five properties total more than $35 million.

The Southern Highlands has always been closely associated with the English landscape. It was Governor Lachlan Macquarie who noted in 1820 that the district was particularly beautiful and rich, "resembling a fine extensive pleasure ground in England".

Elsewhere POSCO is in the Roy Hill joint venture between Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and Japanese company Marubeni and Taiwan's China Steel Corporation.

They are also partners with Glencore Xstrata and Marubeni in the Ravensworth underground mine in the Hunter Valley which is in the process of being mothballed.

Who could ever forget the self-made Sylvania Waters couple Noeline and Laurie Donaher?

They left Sydney back in 2003 for another canal front, Paradise Point on the Gold Coast.

The retirees now want $1.59 million for their Sovereign Islands home after the property went to auction last month through Chris Moyer at The Professionals Vertullo Rel Estate.

"It is an extremely competitively priced property,' he told Property Observer.

The Donaher's Sydney waterside home was the lavish setting for the 1992 reality television documentary Sylvania Waters that stunned viewers for its disarmingly frank portrayal of middle-Australia's lifestyle in the southern Sydney suburb.

Sylvania Waters was the first canal-style suburban development in Australia in 1961, although the Gold Coast's Isle of Capri and Chevron Island stole the limelight until the Donahers came along.

Title Tattle recalls James Goyen, the original developer of Sylvania Waters convinced the local council to approve the £1 million project after they sent the shire engineer to Florida Keys to see how it could all be done. 

In 1958 he had bought the swampy land which was then known as Gwawley Bay and which was being used for oyster farming. Council approval was granted in 1961 with the first sales occurring in 1962.

As the unapologetic housewife and matriarch, Noeline Baker remains the undisputed first lady of reality television that rolled out in it wake. Fairfax columnist Andrew Hornery suggested the BBC show briefly turned the suburban housewife into a pop culture icon after she released a single, a version of the Edith Piaf cafe classic 'Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien'.

There was a relief for long-time residents when the argumentative family packed their stubby holders and sold for $2.1 million and departed for the Gold Coast where they bought for $1,485,000 from Sarah Fedotov in 2003.

Set on The Sovereign Mile, it was initially listed with the marketing saying they were serious sellers as "looking for a tree change".

Now its "the ship is sailing…seller going travelling". They are among the nomad retiree set, though Title Tattle couldn't see any caravan on the property, just the boat.

The home boasts three separate living areas both formal and informal chef's delight kitchen with heaps of bench space, large breakfast bar, stainless steel appliances open plan living opening out to balcony complete with bbq and fridge overlooking the pool. There is four car accommodation plus space for caravan.

Of course there is a floating pontoon to accommodate a 50' boat.

Then newly weds Tom and Jean Cheetham moved into their first — and only — home in Mosman in 1938. 

The young couple secured 77A Spencer Road soon after their marriage, renting it for around 12 years, then buying it and the semi-detached home next door.

Two months ago - at the ages of 103 and 100 respectively - they both moved into a nursing home as almost certainly Australia’s oldest couple.

The semi-detached residence was auctioned on Saturday when expected to fetch $1.4 million.

It fetched $1.62 million.

It was thought they paid around £3,000 for both properties.

Cheetham worked at the GPO in Sydney and early in his career translated morse code into ­telegrams.

The street was known as in Cremorne on its purchase.

The unrenovated semi was listed through Rob Forde of Harcourts Lower North Shore.

There had been over 140 groups throughout the campaign. 

14 registered bidders signed up to secure  the Mosman home, according to the News Ltd local paper, The Mosman Daily.

The Cheetham's have six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and four great great grandchildren.

In October they both moved into Alexander Campbell House at ­Forestville.

Finally, some sales among the sportsmen of Sydney's Sutherland Shire.

Australian test cricket captain Michael Clarke has sold his Lilli Pilli home for $2.55 million.

He paid $2.87 million in 2006 for the home, pictured above.

It was listed in August. The contemporary five-bedroom, four-bathroom split-level house comes with pool, spa and boatshed on its 1670 square metre bushland riverfront block.

Earlier this year Clarke and wife, Kyly spent $8.3 million in Vaucluse.

Teammate Shane Watson has also sold his Caringbah South waterfront home, pictured below.

It reportedly went for $3.9 million which matched the $3.9 million paid in 2010.

Shane Watson and wife Lee Furlong had hoped for $4 million plus for the listing.

There is a new Glenhaven record set by the restaurateurs Frank and Rima Criniti at $9 million.

Petalinda, the 1.9 hectare Sydney Hills district estate, previously sold for a record in 2011 when $5.3 million was secured by Jennifer Grant, wife of construction boss Steve Grant, director of Capital Corporation. 

It has had a $2 million up-grades since its purchase.

Some $8.5 million was being sought before its sale to a buyer from nearby West Pennant Hills.

The sale beats the previous Hills record when $6.38 million was paid for 4 Hemers Road, Dural in mid-2013.

The prior suburb record was set only two doors away at $5.6 million when construction industry boss Mark Taylor and his wife, Eleni, sold in August to Angela Symons, wife of house and land package developer Todd Symons, of Eden Brae Homes.

The Taylor's 1.2 hectare estate was bought in 2011 for $3,665,000 from construction and property developer Graeme Webb and his wife Pamela.

It had been built in 1999 to a pavilion design by Heather Buttrose.

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The Apple co-founder, gadget guy Steve Wozniak will soon become an Australian resident, with plans to initially buy a bolt hole in Sydney.

He is house hunting at the moment, having officially become an Australian citizen while keeping dual citizenship. No details yet on just where he intends to buy, but the ferry ride to Manly may possibly help hone his preference. He was staying at the newly opened InterContinental at Double Bay.

While he’ll continue to be based in California while travelling around the world on speaking engagements, he seemingly intends to settle permanently in Tasmania.

“The Premier of Tasmania (Will Hodgman) actually called us at our home and offered to show us around if we were ever there," he told The Australian Financial Review.

"Hopefully in the next few days we can get there, as I really like the idea of cooler weather.”

He had previously had his destination as probably Melbourne.

Wozniak, who formed Apple with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne in Palo Alto California in 1976, has become an adjunct professor at the University of Technology in Sydney.

He told the AFR his decision came after he received an email from old friend, Sydney-based barrister Nicholas Baltinos.

Wozniak was the coaxed by UTS professor Mary-Anne Williams through her connections to Stamford University. 

Wozniak and wife, Janet, have harboured intentions of living in Australia since 2012 when he first applied to be an Australian citizen.

His son is married to an Australian and lives in Sydney.

Woznaik appears to like the modern style judging by the six bedroom, seven bathroom, Los Gatos, California home he built in 1986 and sold in 2004 (pictured below).

The Christmas break didn't stop a Sydney trophy home listing from securing its next owner. And like the top sale of last year, it too is located off the harbour.

Details remained unconfirmed but the Eastbourne Road, Darling Point property joined the top 2014 sales list in eighth place.

The expectations of its listing agent Alison Coopes, who had the offering with Sothebys International, were a bullish $25 million plus. Any sale above $20.5 million put into eighth place.

"Evocative of Hollywood glamour by night and bathed in our great bright northern sun by day, the white sculpted spaces are perfectly appointed," the Agency by Coopes marketing suggested. 

It offer six bedrooms and eight bathrooms within its 936 square metre space. It traded at $4,825,000 in 2003 pre-renovation when bought by AsheMorgan head Michael Rothner and Lisa Rothner.

The concept plans were prepared by architect Bruce Stafford.

The past year’s list of the top 20 Sydney house sales, updated by Property Observer, show price consolidation and a clearing of the cobwebs, particularly at Point Piper where the six highest priced properties on the list had languished on the market for years.

The Darling Point sale was however a snappy sale, listed by private treaty only in mid-November.

Again, Sydney's eastern suburbs proved dominant with 16 of the top 20 sales in 2014, and Mosman made a resurgence with four properties, a significant increase on its 2013 single appearance.  

Tenders close pre-Christmas on the Darling Point home of the Rothner family, so it was heralded as likely to make it onto the revised list.

Property Observer commentators, Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok, offered their analysis of the annual list highlighting three trends.

• A non-waterfront property topped the list for the second time in the past three years.
  
  Villa Del Mare, a lavish residence set on the elevated high side of Wolseley Road, looks unchallengable in holding this year’s poll position at $39 million. The lavish home was sold by recruitment queen Julia Ross who bought the residence for $21.5 million in 2005 – at the time, it was a record price for a non-waterfront property, and also the second highest price paid for a house in Australia.
  
  The last time a non-waterfront property topped the Sydney list was 2012 when a hillside Rose Bay estate sold for $21.5 million through Alison Coopes. 
  
  
• For the second year running, a buyer from China purchased the top-priced Sydney property. In October, Villa Del Mare was snapped up for $39 million by Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd through Ken Jacobs of Christies and Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker Double Bay.
  
  Last year Property Observer shed light on the China connection of Golden Fast Foods Pty Ltd by following a paper trail seemingly leading to the Chinese billionaire, Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande, an integrated corporation specialised in residential building, cultural tourism, FMCG, agriculture, dairy, livestock farming and sport industry with 460 billion yuan worth of total assets and 80,000 employees. 
  
  In 2013 the top priced property was Altona, the Point Piper waterfront bought for $52 million through Alison Coopes. Just three of the top 20 priced properties in 2014 were purchased by buyers from China, although sometimes it's a little tricky to ascertain the purchaser origins.
  
  
• Piper Piper retained its poll position of Sydney’s most expensive real estate with the prestigious harbourside suburb claiming the six top-priced properties for 2014. However, each of these properties had been for sale for years.
  
  For sale for the longest period was the Simon family’s Wolseley Road waterfront residence which traded eight years after its initial listing.

Below are the 20 sales of the year (all prices in millions):

1. $39 - Point Piper, 63 Wolseley Road         
2. $37 - Point Piper, 112 Wolseley Road       
3. $31* - Point Piper, 106 Wolseley Road      
4. $30.5* - Point Piper, Wentworth Street      
5. $30 -  Point Piper, 130 Wolseley Road       
6. $30* - Point Piper, 60 Wunulla Road     
7. $26* - Rose Bay, 12 Dumaresq Road  
8. $25* - Darling Point, 21 Eastbourne Road 
9. $20.5 - Bellevue Hill, 12 Ginahgulla Road   
10. $19 - Bellevue Hill, 17 Carrington Avenue
11. 19* - Vaucluse, 29 Coolong Road
12. 18 - Vaucluse, 8 Wharf Road    
13. $16.3 - Mosman, 9 Curraghbeena Road        
14. $16 - Bellevue Hill, 8A Ginahgulla Road   
15. $16* - Vaucluse, 2 Loch Maree Place
16. $16* - Mosman, 8 Burran Avenue
17. $15.6 - Mosman, 21 Carrington Avenue    
18. $15.45 - Vaucluse, 2a Vaucluse Road      
19. $14 - Vaucluse, 9 Hillside Avenue
20. $13 - Vaucluse, 1 Loch Maree Place

*    Sale reported, but not settled

Entertainment industry veteran John 'Strop' Cornell and his wife, Delvene Delaney, who were Paul Hogan's sidekicks in their comedic heyday, have listed their Belongil beach retreat.

It was more than three decades ago that they all took a fancy to property around Byron Bay, and after almost 30 years of ownership the couple are putting the best of their remarkable holdings on the market.

It is a very private 2.3 acre compound, known as lost 4 and 5 Border Street.

The modernised two level home at Belongil has been listed through LJ Hooker agent Glen Irwin. Offers close January 28 for the absolute beach-front home with wrap-around timber decks with views of Cape Byron Light-house, Julian Rocks, Mt Warning and Belongil Beach.

Local sales suggest $10 million plus, according to local authoritative property observers.

"We no longer stay in our Belongil beach-house, and therefore wish to allow someone else the pleasure," Delvene Delany advised Property Observer.

Two years ago the neighbouring beach-front holdings were offered for sale. Shannon Bennett, owner of Vue de Monde restaurant, paid $2 million for a five lot 4,588 square metre holding on the Belongil Beach peninsula and Adam Garrinson's Wetherby GPO trust company paid $2.25 million for its acquisition, on 18 month delayed settlement terms with financing from Apaing Woong.

The Cornell's are likely to retain the remaining vacant holding.

The lots were bought in the early 1980s for around $325,000 from the then local abattoir. Title Tattle once calculated the entire holding totalled 's 18,000 square metres or so.

The properties were bought in the name of Delvene Delaney who was a Sale of the Century television hostess and appeared with Paul Hogan and the John Cornell-devised character, the dopey Strop  in Channel 9 comedy shows.Cornell and Hogan went onto make the Crocodile Dundee movies, which earned both of them a fortune. Cornell also developed a close relationship with Kerry Packer, taking the World Series Cricket idea to Australia's richest person.

Much of their money went into buying extensive property around Byron Bay.

Paul Hogan had the most obvious of holdings, Cedar Springs at Possum Creek in the Byron Bay hinterland estate.

Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski sold it in 2006 to Duncan and Sally Mount.

Namatjira, former champion surfer Wayne Lynch's Victoria coastal family haven, has been sold for $3.5 million.

The Great Ocean Road property sits about halfway between Anglesea and Airey's Inlet at Urquhart Bluff, on the Surf Coast locality.

Married to Lindy with two children, Jarrah and Merinda, Namatjira, has been in the family for 35 years. The property was registered in the name of Allan Lynch.

Lynch, who is a surfing ambassador for surfwear brand Patagonia, was reportedly considering a move to the NSW north coast of NSW.

The three-level house with expansive coastal views sits on 4.45 hectares of protected natural bush on the Great Ocean Road.

There is a three bedroom house plus separate three-bedroom bungalow.

It has been bought by Clapmore Pty Ltd, a company associated with Andrew Grech, the managing director at Slater & Gordon and his wife, Daniela.

Slater's lodged the paperwork for the transfer in the days before Christmas 2014.

Marius Tekin, of Hayden Real Estate, listed it for $3,995,000 in January last year.

It was initially listed at $5.5 million in 2010.

CoreLogic RP Data puts the Anglesea median house price at $640,000, just below its 2011 peaks.

Almost another social media meltdown ensued when Roxy Jacenko tweeted photos mid-week of her new temporary abode, the Double Bay Intercontinental Hotel.

But there was nothing new about the accommodation concept. 

Those who've seen a few show ponies in their day would recall the events that unfolded after Bob Hawke lost Prime Ministerial office to that pesky deputy Paul Keating.

Same hotel, but different brand name this time. 

It was 1991 when the 62 year had been running the country for close to eight years.

SMH Canberra bureau chief Mick Millett had got the vague tip that Hawke had quietly bought a home somewhere on Sydney Harbour.

After it was tracked down, it was then reported in June 1991 by yours truly and Mike Seccombe suggesting it was a sign that he was planning for life away from the Lodge.

Paul Keating certainly used the purchase in the campaign that Hawkie needed to retire in the lead up to his December 19 dumping. 

Bob and Hazel Hawke's $1.23 million home had been leased at $650 a week to a Japanese businessman until September 1992.

So the day before the sacking, his mate and election advertising consultant, John Singleton offered Hawke his Birchgrove joint. So on the 4/5 January, 1992 weekend, the Hawke's moved from Canberra. Singo was away, Title Tattle seems to recall, his brief marriage to Liz Hayes coming to a close.

The Birchgrove house, one of 10 Allen, Jack & Cottier-designed Loiusa Keys waterfront properties, had been bought by Singleton from Leon Fink's development company for $825,000 in 1987.

As Sally Loane reported in the SMH, the Singleton housekeeper was there to ensure the passage to the real world of washing and cooking was gradual. "She was never impressed with any of the stars that came to stay, but she fell in love with Bob Hawke," Singleton advised.

By February 1992 Bob and Hazel needed to move out of Birchgrove - and so it was into the plush new Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sydney's Double Bay, developed by Paul Smith's Sahben Pty Ltd

Deborah Cameron subsequently told the SMH readers that if the Hawke's were ordinary guests at the Ritz Carlton the bill for six months would range from $77,500 to $114,000, given room prices range from $215 a day to $375 a night.

It appeared the Ritz had been second choice with Cameron reporting James Erskine's IMG had previously sought out a contra deal at The Boulevard Hotel, a hotel with a longer Hawke association. 

Standard Double Bay Intercontental rooms can be secured anywhere from $300 to $400 a night these days, though suites will cost $850 to $5500.

Anyway this week Roxy Jacenko, the founder and director of Sweaty Betty PR has, along with her husband Oliver Curtis and two children, temporarily taken on hotel life while they look for a new home. She posted snaps of her children in their beds on Instagram, even her meals.

Back in the days of a tad more discretion, the Ritz Carlton was cagy about admitting that Bob Hawke was a guest and its switchboard gave callers the telephone number for Parliament House in Canberra instead of connecting them to his room.

The Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko and her husband, Oliver Curtis, sold their Woollahra residence late last year for $8 million plus with settlement due shortly.

She suggested it was an offer too good to refuse since they bought the four-bedroom house for $6.6 million in 2011.

Photo source: Instagram.

Lawyer Peter Gordon and wife, Kerri have listed their Portsea retreat at 1 Pembroke Place hoping for about $4 million.

The property comes with modern five bedroom house with cabana, with outdoor fire, pool, spa, tennis court, gym and sauna.

The president and chairman of the Western Bulldogs Peter Gordon bought the 3,740 square metre holding for $3.35 million in 2007.

It has been listed by Kay & Burton agents Liz Jensen and Linda Boulter.

Portsea's median house price sits around $1.2 million, down on its $1.6 million peak in 2011, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

Hotelier Brendan O'Brien has paid around $10 million on Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park.

Romanby at 261 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, was sold just prior to Christmas by Kay & Burton.

It was sold by the Ripani family paid who $2.8 million for the house in July 2004 before its renovation and extension overseen by architect John Lochhead.

Romanby presents as a grand Victorian residence but has four bedrooms, four living areas and a self-contained studio atop a three-car garage.

The prior owners were Dr Jeff Long and his wife, Marjorie; Romanby was their home for 30 years.

Beaconsfield Parade's priciest property, the Italianate Hughenden is owned by Victoria's richest woman, Naomi Milgrom. It was formerly the Danish Club's Melbourne headquarters which sold for $12 million in 2009, with adjoining holdings subsequently added.

Middle Park's current $1.64 million house median is just below the 2014 peak, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

The bookmaker Tom Waterhouse has emerged as the confirmed $13 million buyer of a beachfront Balmoral residence.

It was snapped up in October within two weeks of its listing which sought $11 million plus, Property Observer previously reported.

Purchase rumours began after nearby beachfront diners advised sighting the young Waterhouse heading into the property sold by the Woods family in mid-November.

Settlement papers were lodge last week with financing from the ANZ, along with second mortgage finance from TW Securities.

The new Australian head of William Hill's operation has long loved the Balmoral promenade, along with other members of the racing industry family.

The close knit Waterhouse clan started taking bets in 1898.

Waterhouse, who is the fourth generation of Australia's most famous bookmaking family, and wife Hoda, who had their first child daughter Rose in May 2013, were in need of suitable accommodation. They own a prestige duplex apartment on the beach too. It cost $3.5 million in 2008.

It is 918 square metres of terraced tropical gardens with a 1930s home redesigned in the early 1990s by architect builder Ian Reeler.

It was offered through Richardson & Wrench Mosman. Its sale preceded publication as the SMH Domain House of the Week.

Inspectees were told more than $11 million would secure the Wyargine Street, Mosman property that last sold in 1983 for $550,000. 

A harbourfront Curraghbeena Road, Mosman, trophy home took Mosman's mantle for 2014's top sale when sold for $16.3 million by Nick Bain, former head of infrastructure at Allco Finance and now chief executive of Graphite Energy, and his wife Katherine.

There were needless concerns anorther prestige nearby Mosman sale was reputedly unlikely to get to settlement after the buyer's share holding value in a publicly listed company tanked since exchanging contracts in early spring, though its  late 2014 settlement is now officially recorded.

The media website Mumbrella reported yesterday the Tom Waterhouse brand was set to be wiped out with UK bookmaker William Hill confirming it is launching locally with a $10 million brand push.

Customers for all three of its Australian businesses, Sportingbet, Centrebet and TomWaterhouse.com will be migrated to the William Hill platform. Waterhouse is the Australian boss.

The sale proceeds of the Woollahra family home of Oliver Curtis are not for him to spend yet.

A Supreme Court order under common law proceedings by the Australian Federal Police has placed a restraining caveat over the net proceeds of his half share.

The restraining caveat was lodged on the Edward Street title after the 14 January, 2015 court order.

It does not apply to the half share equity proceeds of his wife, the Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko.

Macquarie Bank was permitted to be paid out their mortgage.

They bought the four-bedroom house for $6.6 million in 2011.

The restraining order, which relates to contested claims, is back in court 4 March, 2015 for further directions. 

Roxy Jacenko tweeted recently that the family's new abode was the Double Bay Intercontental Hotel.

She said the family was looking for a new home to buy.

"We live here now - moved in today. We will be here until we buy a new house.," she told The Daily Mail Australia.

The settlement documents have yet to be registered, but Title Tattle gleaned around $8.25 million was secured for the four bedroom Woollahra home (pictured above).

The plaintiff, the Australian Federal Police gave an undertaking as to damages.

Before The Block – now in its 10th season over 12 years – there was the television renovation style setter Maggie Tabberer.

Tabberer and her then partner Richard Zachariah were the perfect hosts for the ABC's The Home Show.

While neither where professional designers, they were in the process of renovating their sixth home in six years, so they spoke with expertise.

The towering duo made four series in the early 1990s.

Of course, who could forget the show's renovation stars: the legendary Montells, with their little house in Balmain. They sold for $400,000 in 1996, with the Sutton Street terrace reselling for $900,000 in 2012.

Maggie hasn't been overly active on the sales front, though last year her all white three bedroom, two bathroom Randwick home sold for $2.4 million (pictured above). 

Marketed as an inspired freestanding sundrenched private oasis inventively built around a central courtyard – featuring a magnificent frangipani tree and a heated pool – it was her home for the prior eight years.

It was 2006 when Maggie, the fashion and style guru, sold her Rushcutters Bay garden apartment in the McLachlan Avenue block developed in the mid-1990s by James Packer and Theo Onisforou.

It too was up for sale last year when the 1 and 2/61 McLachlan Avenue apartment, the size of a house, was offered by Ben David, creative director of the vibrant linen design company Kas who bought the property in 2009 for $2.8 million (pictured below).

It was an urban sanctuary in the then still industrial zone of Rushcutters Bay.

The Tabberer touch is still there with the enormous wooden carved doors decorating the dining room.

The two level apartment had been sold by Maggie Tabberer in 2006 for $1.7 million to rag trader David Mellick.

More than $3.5 million was sought at its November auction with Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay, and Di Grundy, of BresicWhitney, now offering the Belle featured apartment with $3 million plus price indications.

Ben bought it from Roger Melik, a name behind the Roger David group. 

Before that, Title Tattle recalls Tabberer had an Edgecliff abode – labelled the White House after its mid-1980s makeover.

It was 1960 when Maggie moved to Sydney with her daughters from Adelaide.

A Surry Hills warehouse residence has been listed with $7.5 million plus hopes.

It was one of Sydney's earliest residential industrial conversions.

Title Tattle recalls the 1970s conversion undertaken by Gordon Youett and Kerry Yates was used as fashion company Espirit's headquarters for many years.

It still has its heart-shaped, blue-tiled swimming pool.

In 1987 it attracted the eye of fashion designer Stuart Membery who bought it in 1987 for $750,000.

It sold 16 months later for $1.16 million to Membery's ex-business partner Michael Watson. It was notable as Membery signalled his mother to tell the auctioneer to ask Watson to leave.

"I'm not leaving because I'm going to buy this house," said Watson to the Andrew Gibbons estate agency auctioneer.

It sold again in 1998 for $1.25 million to Tim Evangelinidis, who resold it 20 months later for $1.92 million to Michael Robinson.

The warehouse last sold in 2004 at $2.5 million.

"As warehouse homes go, this could be Sydney's pinnacle," the BresicWhitney marketing says.

Facing north over surrounding rooftops, it has 52 solar panels that generate up to $6,000 per annum.

Veteran adman media buyer Harold Mitchell has seemingly sold his Sydney bolthole, a $3.5 million plus apartment in The Astor.

The ninth floor Macquarie Street offering (pictured above) had been listed through David Newgrosh of David Newgrosh Real Estate last August.

Title Tattle recalls Mitchell gutted the then four bedroom apartment on its purchase around 14 years ago from Pamela Palmer of the Palmer stockbroking family.

The refurbishment into a much-draped two bedroom, three bathroom apartment took around a year.

It has harbour views.

It was 2012 when Yellow Brick Road boss Mark Bouris put his pad in The Astor on the market.

In 2006, he bought the five-bedroom, two-storey north-east corner apartment from then Astor chairman Peter Kernaghan.

It has an estimated 440 square metre space over what were three separate apartments.

Its also been available for rent at $3950 a week.

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Fairfax Media suggest $8 million plus was achieved, though without confirmation from the listing agents, David Newgrosh Real Estate and Tony Barron at Sothebys International.

The apartment is best known for its occupation by entertainer Barry Humphries, before it sold for $800,000 in 1987 and then extended with the addition of another adjoining apartment.

It comes with sweeping semi-spiral staircase to the upper level, where there is a "magnificent master bedroom suite" with private study, walk-in dressing room and ensuite bathroom.

Title Tattle last inspected the apartment back in 1986 when its was Dame Edna's possum pit. At the time it was also a split-level triplex. The price back then was $1.25 million for the then seven bedroom apartment, with the apartment split back into two leaving one with the gracious wrought iron staircase for grand entrances.

The Astor is the 12-storey, 1920s company title block that once dominated not only the city skyline but Sydney society.

Despite being the city's oldest apartment complex - and facing serious competition from many nearby new developments – it continues to attract buyers, especially when a modernised apartment comes with parking elsewhere on the strip.

Especially after the elegant Iain Halliday-designed renovation benchmark set in the mid-1990s after style-setters, ad man John Nankervis and wife Amanda bought their $535,000 third-floor deceased estate unit. 

Bouris took up his ownership having previously had digs elsewhere on Macquarie Street, in the Bennelong complex.

Over the years the block of apartments has been home to Lisa Rochfort, who was the managing director of Australian couture jewellers Fairfax & Roberts, adman Harold Mitchell, Pioneer founder Sir Tristan Antico, broadcaster John Laws, caterer Charles Wilkins and artist Portia Geach.

Being company title, keeping track of pricing and sales figures is a little difficult, though in 1932 the eighth-floor north-east corner block was passed in at £4,300.

Despite being the city's oldest apartment complex - and facing serious competition from many nearby new developments – it continues to attract buyers, especially when a modernised Astor apartment comes with parking nearby.

Completed in 1923, the Astor was the idea of entrepreneurs John and Cicely O'Brien.

The building was designed by architects Stuart Mould and Donald Esplin with a rooftop garden and basement restaurant.

Back then there were butlers and maids provided by the house manager.

Heiress Dame Eadith Walker, then Australia's wealthiest woman, was one of original buyers.

"It was there for the landed gentry…of which I am not one," Mitchell told 2GB's Money News host Ross Greenwood.