The townhouse home of interior designer Walter Herman in Botany has been sold for $1.24 million.

He designed the interiors of the three level, three bedroom property.

Behind its contemporary facade, the house is filled with grandeur with an antique Victorian style living area in stark contrast to the stylish jet black TV room. 

The 175 square metre home also features a covered courtyard and a master bedroom with balcony.

Herman bought the property for $710,000 in 2008.

There was an initial price guide of $1.3 million.

'Wally' started his own company, Walter Herman Interiors, who have provided interiors for apartments in London, New York and Shanghai.

Loggerheads, the trophy Hunter Valley vineyard estate last sold in 2008, has been sold for about $6 million.

The Pokolbin property has wonderful provenance being the former home of the late Len Evans and before that the Tyrrell family.

It was last sold to Robin and Judy Crawford by Len Evan's widow, Trish Evans. 

International model Miranda Kerr jetted in to spend last Christmas with her Gunnedah-based family, having taken a holiday lease of the vineyard estate.

There's still a village-like setting at the estate which has its rambling residential homestead with three adjoining pavilions. 

The seven bedroom, six bathroom homestead is Australian Country in design, with European influences, extensively refurbished by the architect Michael Suttor, surrounded by Paul Bangay gardens.

The adjoining commercial property has also been sold in two lots.

This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.  

The trophy home, designed by architects Wood Marsh, bettered the previous $24.1 million record set in July this year when Tony and Jennifer Smorgon sold on Robertson Street, Toorak.

Daniel and Danielle Besen - members of the family that founded women’s clothing giant Sussan - put 9 Towers Road property up for sale in October through Marshall White agent Marcus Chiminello.

No price reveal, but the $26 million was tipped by The Australian. Offers were due by December 12.

Set on a 2300 square metre block, it has four bedrooms, each with ensuites, a library, a media room, a wine lounge which was a six year project.

The Wood Marsh home was marketed as representing the pinnacle of modern residential design and sports a sculpturally striking facade of raw textured concrete, scalloped in sweeping arcs.

Mrs Besen is off to a 1930s Arnauld Wright-designed Power Avenue home.

The previous state record of $26 million was held by Ilyuka, on the Portsea clofftop in 2010.

The year’s biggest single house sale was Point Piper's Altona, which sold for more than $60 million to locally-based Hunters Hill businessman Huang Jiaer, son of Chinese printing magnate Huang Bingwen, founder of Shantou Dongfeng Printing.

Bec and Lleyton Hewitt have snappily sold listed their little-used Kenthurst acreage.

This was no five setter, it was snapped up after just 13 days on the market - that's twice the speed of the current red hot 26 day Sydney sale period.

It was listed because they spend much more of their time these days in Melbourne. It sold to a Sydney family. 

The home was hoped to sell for close to $5 million through Guardian Realty agent Gavin Weekley, who said buyer interest was very strong.

When the Kenthurst home last sold in 2006 for $3 million it bettered the record for a two-hectare property in the north-west Sydney suburb by $350,000.

But the Hewitts' offering remains a single-level, six-bedroom home has been overtaken by far grander homes that have fetched as much as $6 million. 

The marketing for the Hills district home say it has a free-flowing layout.

"Splashes of vibrant colour are blended with custom timber finishes and hardwood floors, set against a verdant backdrop of manicured gardens and lush lawn," it advises.

The former world number one has also recently relisted his Melbourne penthouse at $10 million, which is proving tougher to sell.

Hewitt, who had previously based the family in the Bahamas, has increasingly stayed at this St Kilda Road pad in the Yve tower on St Kilda Road.

It is currently listed for sale through Sotheby's agent Phillip French.

The Kenthurst sale is the last of their Sydney holdings as Bec and Lleyton offloaded their three-storey Palm Beach retreat at $4.63 million in 2014.

The Palm Beach Road house had cost $4.4 million in 2005.

The Palm Beach purchase was just two weeks before tying the knot. 

Bec and Lleyton were both big celebrities before their whirlwind romance. He was the then Wimbledon champion and she was a star of the enduring Channel 7 soapie Home and Away.

The couple are now parents to three kids, Mia, Cruz and Ava.

Hewitt sold his former Adelaide home for $2,185,600 after six long years on the market, for considerably less than the $3.2 million paid for it in 2003.

In 2005, Hewitt was the youngest on the BRW Young Rich list with a net worth of $30 million.

Lija and John Wilson, who helped established the online Indian dating website, Troozi, have sold their three bedroom South Yarra home.

The modernised 1890s Lara Street offering came with a $1.95 million asking price after it was passed in at Kay & Burton auction last month at $1.75 million. 

It last sold at $1,242,000 in 2012 when sold by Jim Gall, the co-founder of agribusiness marketing agency Redhanded Creative, and wife, Suzanne, a former publishing executive.

They had renovated in 2010 using the architecture studio MAKE and landscaper and horticulturalist Lachie Anderson.

Lija Wilson was working previously for Fairfax on RSVP.com.au.

This article first appeared in The Weekend Australian.

A historic cable tram shed and workshop in North Melbourne that has been converted into a family home remains for sale.

There had been a scheduled pre-Christmas auction marketing campaign that did not yield a buyer.

It was bought three years ago for $3.35 million by car collector Chris Page because he wanted to grow his car collection.

He and his family moved from their Carlton home and renovated the historic 1918 building which had previously sold in 1978 at $155,000.

It is a vast five bedroom home with a big garage downstairs as well as a street-facing mechanic business.

Page still hopes that another like-minded car enthusiast will secure the property which was also advertised as a development site.

The property first began as a cable tram shed in the 1920s before being converted into a tramways administration office and then finally into a Mediterranean grocer before being converted into the current home.

The reported pre-auction price indications were $5.5 million for the property that includes the mechanic business space.

The business owner would be happy to stay if the new owner wishes.

The property is offered through Jellis Craig agents John Morello and Simon Mason.

A neighbouring office building on a 500 square metre block at 16 Howard Street sold earlier this year at $4.4 million.

Intrigue has surrounded the recent purchase known to be on the Mornington Peninsula by the decorated AFL legend Chris Judd and television presenter wife, Rebecca.

The location has been unspecified. It has now emerged as a two hectare holding at Main Ridge where they spent the $1,212,500.

Tucked along a quiet country road, not far from Arthurs Seat, the bush property comes with spring-fed dams with tall trees, ferns and natives. 

A long vine-clad verandah overlooks the low maintenance gardens with vegetable patch and an orchard. 

It sold after five months marketing through Tom Barr Smith at Kay & Burton.

The couple - who have headed to the Sunshine Coast for pre-Christmas holidays - sold their redundant Prahran townhouse this month.

It sold three days after auction when there was a $2.05 million asking price after being passed in on a $1.9 million vendor bid. There were just the two interested parties, one relocating from Sydney and looking to buy the home complete with furniture, and the other a local investor. 

The former West Coast and Carlton midfielder bought it for $1.66 million in late 2007 after he moved from Perth.

The four floor townhouse abode was a warehouse conversion undertaken in 2006 by Michelle Forsyth of Ethereal Design with skylit staircase and a dumb waiter from top to bottom.

The Judds have long moved into their rebuilt Brighton property which was purchased in 2010 for $2.1 million.

This article was first published in the Weekend Australian Mansion Australia property section.

The luxury cruise ship, The World of ResidenSea arrives in Sydney for New Year's Eve after its apartment dwellers have cruised round Australia from Broome.

With more Sydneysiders than ever now among the owners aboard, it will be the place to be seen over its four day stay.

The 12-deck, 196-metre vessel first set sail in 2002 and officially sold out four years later.

Matriarch Ros Packer is likely to be aboard in an apartment that was a gift several years ago from son, James. The double apartment then got a serious makeover.

Property developers Bob and Margaret Rose are owners. Ditto Bill and Imelda Roche, the developers of the Hunter Valley gardens estate, on the stern of The World.

Motivational speaker John Demartini outlaid $3 million on his glamorous cabin, a one-bedroom apartment.

It was bought with his late wife, Australian astrologer Athena Starwoman, after selling their Trump Tower apartment, unnerved after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Demartini will be giving lectures in Sydney in early January.

The late engineer Bob Sparke, from Belvedere estate at Burradoo in the NSW Southern Highlands, enjoyed time onboard until his 2013 death.

Sparke's acquaintanceship with mining tycoon Gina Rinehart had blossomed and they regularly followed the sunsets from a ninth-floor apartment.

Rinehart, who of course can’t help working, has had government ministers aboard for dinner at its Chinese restaurant.

Richard Penn, the one-time Gutbuster entrepreneur, and his wife, Heather, are among the owners who can access the facilities that include two pools, a tennis court, virtual golf, gym, library, chapel, deli and even House of Graff jewellers.

There is a net worth threshold of at least a $10 million required to join The World.

At last count, the residents comprise around 130 families from 19 different countries with an average age around 64 years.

Initially The World was overrun by rowdy short-stay tourists invited aboard by the ship's financially challenged operator to help fill the many unsold apartments.

Paying guests are no longer taken.

I was aboard The World of ResidenSea the first time it sailed into Sydney Harbour in 2003, albeit on the rather quick Melbourne to Sydney voyage. 

The ship has since visited more than 900 ports. Its 2016 journey started in Antarctica, and the journey continues in early 2017, again to Antarctica.

By next November, the ship will be in Cuba then an end-of-year celebration in Miami.

This article was first published in The Sunday Telegraph.

Freight tycoon Clive Thomas and his wife, Lee, have listed their Paradise Waters trophy home which comes with a private white sandy beach.

Thomas paid $6.5 million for the waterfront in 2007.

The home on 1,375 square metres spans 650 square metres of internal space with four ensuite bedrooms.

The property has been listed by Christie's International agent Darren Curtis in conjunction with Platinum Residences agent Michael Vettoretto.

The couple are best known for having spent $7.05 million this year on the Bayview trophy La Joie de Vivre, better known as the original Bachelor Australia mansion.

They bought it from philanthropist and retired transport magnate Greg Poche and his wife Kay van Norton, who paid $10 million in 2003.

This article was first published in the Weekend Australian Mansion Australia property section.

They are back! A Macquarie Group executive is tipped to emerge as the $7.9 million buyer on Newport Beach sold by businesswoman and Yoga Aid International co-founder Eriko Kinoshita.

The home came with initial $11 million plus expectations through Glenn Lee and David Watson last year.

Designed by local architect Peter Stutchbury around 10 years ago, the home is created by the fusing copper, bronze, timber, steel and concrete.

The international yoga expert replaced the family home on the 1,114 square metre property bought in 1992.

Designed to maximise open plan living, the three bedroom home with lap pool is surrounded by award-winning Japanese gardens. 

This article was first published in the Saturday Telegraph.

The retired champion footballer, turned Fox Sports commentator Braith Anasta stood on the sidelines when auction offerings were knocked down at big prices this year.

He missed out on several eastern suburb coastal Sydney apartments, but has finally managed to put his name on a signed contract.

It was a three bedroom Coogee apartment with Gordon Bay views.

The devoted father snapped it up within a few days of its recent private treaty listing. 

The Anasta clan were previously spotted missing out on the Bondi Beach garden apartment offering of the Greater Western Sydney AFL star Shane Mumford and fiancee Eva Konta which sold for $2,155,000.

Anasta had moved into his mother's now sold Malabar house after his separation from actor Jodi Gordon this time last year.

Anasta had been looking too for his mother, Kim, too, since she sold earlier in year at Malabar through Jason Black from Black Lifestyle Property.

Braith and Kim turned up to the Tamarama auction of the Kiwi film director Dame Jane Campion mid-year when the 241 square metre investment property sold for $2.55 million through Bethwyn Richards of McGrath. 

They were the underbidders at $2,545,000.

Rona at Bellevue Hill, which was the big springtime prestige listing, nears year-end still for sale.

The 1880s Bellevue Hill hilltop estate joined the already plentiful harbourfront offerings, including John Symond's $100 million plus Wingadal at Point Piper, the Fox trucking family's Elizabeth Bay Spanish Mission home, Boomerang and Elaine at Double Bay which the Fairfax family have been seeking to sell for the past three years.

The modernised Rona, a Victorian Rustic Gothic Revival style abode has been home for the past 12 years to the property developer Terry Agnew and his wife, Kyril. 

Rona remains listed through veteran agent, Bart Doff at Laing & Simmons Double Bay inconjunction with Ben Collier whose is departing McGrath Estate Agents after 23 years.

He has two days to add it to his personal annual sales tally which came in at $278 million in 2015, up from $216 million in 2014. McGrath's 700 agents sell $7 billion plus annually.

McGrah's Central Coast agent Mat Steinwede ranks as the group's top seller, with his recent sales including more than $7 million record secured by property developer Jason Gazal for a three-year long Pacific Street, Wamberal property listing.

Sydney's eastern suburbs star performer has been - as far as taking public credit - Alexander Phillips at the Phillips Pantzer Donnelley agency which looks set to narrowly fall short of a record $1 billion in sales this year. 

Phillips' personal tally has risen from $200 million in 2013 to $390 million last year.

Altona was the big Sydney sale when the Point Piper harbourfront fetched $61 million plus in mid-November, with its selling agents yet to take credit.

The CoreLogic report, Best of the Best 2016 detailed Point Piper's median house price as $6.62 million. 

A Cottesloe home sold twice this year in Perth, perhaps the only property to head upwards in price too.

The 13 Pearse Street holding sold for $7.05 million in June, then again for $7.55 million last month.

The latest buyer was a company co-directed by mining magnate Kerry Harmanis, which owns three neighbouring properties on the street.

The windfall came to Colin Herdman who had bought the property from the Kidd family in June.

It faces onto Avonmore Terrace.

Harmanis bought the corner home on 1000 square metres, prompting the Perthnow website to speculate Harmanis may seek to create a luxury redevelopment on the four blocks.

The largest block, at a little over 1000 square metres, cost $10.5 million in 2007. 

Harmanis founded the nickel miner Jubilee Mines in 1987. It was acquired by mining giant Xstrata in 2007 for $3.1 billion.

The Hall family have yet to sell what's been marketed as one of the most coveted waterfront land holdings in Noosa.

Weycoola is for sale at $3.35 million through Jennifer Carr and Brendan Weatherill at Richardson & Wrench.

The 1.38-hectare resort-style retreat comes with its own nine-tee golf course and private lake frontage.

Located within a 10-minute drive to Hastings Street overlooking Lake Weyba, there's extensive use of timbers and natural stone at the five-bedroom residence.

With cantilevered walkways linking its various pavilions, it was built for the boutique resort manager Gregory Coventry in 2009.

It last traded in 2012 when sold for $3,225,000 by Trade Travel founding directors Grant and Kay McGlashan.

The article first appeared in The Weekend Australian's Mansion section .

Fashion blogger Brooke Testoni and her designer husband Leith Testoni of Zanerobe have traded up in Mosman.

The creative couple have paid $3.85 million for the circa 1906 Arts and Craft manor (pictured above) that has been renovated and restored with contemporary updates.

The three level home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a grand formal lounge and a banquet dining room adorned with lead lights.

The landscaped gardens and level lawn are overlooked by an entertaining deck.

Leith and Brooke sold Tasma, a grand Victorian style terrace home off market for $2.75 million in August (pictured below).

Leith began Zanerobe, the leading outpost of menswear in Australia, with friend Jonathan Yeo in 2002.

Zanerobe is stocked in over 300 stores globally, including Los Angeles and New York.

Some of their biggest clients have been American singer Macklemore and former NBA star Nate Robinson.

Brooke has been in the fashion industry for over a decade with a background in graphic designed and e-commerce.

She has developed her blog from something on the side into a full time job.

This article was first published in the Saturday Telegraph

Former bank chief Stuart Grimshaw and his wife Anneliese have sold their Mosman home following their move to Texas. 

Grimshaw quit Australia to take up a job as executive chairman at a pawnbroking company. 

Grimshaw was the Bank of Queensland chief executive until 2014.

The 1920s-era home, with views from Clontarf to North Head, came with $7 million plus hopes through Dino Gatti of the Province agency.

The home was redesigned by French architect Guy de Compiegne when owned by San Francisco-based technology network boss Pascal Brochier and his interior architect wife Sue-Anne, who sold to the Grimshaws in 2011 for $4.85 million.

The article first appeared in the Saturday Telegraph

Netwealth Group's joint managing director Matt Heine has sold his three-bedroom, four-bathroom Prahran pad for $2.95 million. 

Located in the inner city, the New York- style multi-level apartment block sits close to Greville and Chapel streets. 

He paid $1.95 million for the Charles warehouse conversion in 2009.

The first level, accessed by both lift and timber stairs, comprises two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The top floor main bedroom comes with ensuite, study nook and terrace offering city views.

The home sold through Marshall White agents Richard Mackinnon and Fraser Cahill.

It was previously listed for auction on November.

The article first appeared in the Weekend Australia's mansion section.

Health Minister Sussan Ley has stood down from the frontbench while the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson, investigates her use of taxpayer funded travel entitlements. 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced she was standing aside without ministerial pay in a statement on Monday morning. 

It has been revealed that she has taken 27 flights in and out of the Gold Coast over recent years - many more than her ministerial colleagues - and spent two New Year's Eve at the popular destination.

It was the emergence of details relating to a 2015 purchase of a Gold Coast apartment that became a political issue last Friday as the minister Sussan Ley charged taxpayers thousands of dollars for a trip to Queensland with her husband during which she bought a $795,000 Gold Coast investment property.

Annika Smethurst, the national politics reporter at the Herald Sun, wrote that Sussan Ley charged taxpayers thousands of dollars for a trip to Queensland with her husband during which she bought a $795,000 Gold Coast investment property wrote that government documents reveal in May 2015.

It was after attending Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital to announce $1.3 billion in funding to list new medicines and vaccines being added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, that Ms Ley went to Main Beach on May 9.

She billed taxpayers $370 on her travel allowance to stay the night on the Gold Coast with her partner, on the same day she bought the ocean-view apartment which had previously traded at $830,000 in 2006 when bought by an Ipswich investor, Martin Corkery.

It was bought in her name on May 9. Her partner reportedly has a Gold Coast business business.

The two bedroom, two bathroom apartment is a 149 sqm apartment on the eighth floor in the 31 storey early 1980s complex De Ville.

It had been listed for Ray White auction by estate agent Anna Jones.

Ms Ley confirmed to the Herald Sun the property was bought during the trip, which she declared was for “official business”.

She said the apartment purchase “was not planned nor anticipated”.

“All travel undertaken was in accordance with the rules,” a spokeswoman for Ms Ley said.

Ms Ley’s spokeswoman said the couple had travelled to the Gold Coast because the minister had “stakeholders to meet with” although Ms Ley’s office would not provide the Herald Sun with a list of these people. 

Ms Ley’s spokeswoman said the minister’s partner had been invited to accompany her to a function in Sydney the ­previous evening.

“He then travelled with the minister to Queensland under family travel arrangements.

“The EMB (Entitlements Management Branch) was consulted at the time to confirm Ms Ley’s partner’s travel was within the rules,” she said.

In total, the couple claimed $3949 in flights for the 48-hour trip from her Glenroy, regional NSW base.

The paper noted Ms Ley’s office would not confirm whether the investment property had been negatively geared.

The Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King says Ms Ley owes taxpayers a better explanation.

“Sussan Ley needs to front up today and explain to Australians how purchasing a luxury apartment is considered to be official business,” Ms King said in a statement.

“If she cannot do this, she has no choice but to resign, or Malcolm Turnbull must move her off his front bench.” Ms Ley must reveal which stakeholders she met with on the Gold Coast, if a government car was used to facilitate the real estate deal, and how an opportunity to spontaneously buy property arose during a work trip, Ms King said.

There were more than 750 comments by readers by late morning on the Herald Sun website.

Two bedders with ocean views rent at $300 plus a night over summer. The block does not welcome schoolies.

The Sorrento beachside estate, Nee Morna has been listed for sale for the second time in around 100 years.

CBRE has been appointed to sell the property at 3106 to 3118 Point Nepean Road.

It has been listed by the Lipe family headed by New York-based banker, Alex Lipe.

It comprises a 1909 mansion built in 1909 positioned on a clifftop landholding spanning 16,866sqm.

The property, which is expected to attract interest above $20 million, consists of four titles.

CBRE's Mark Wizel has suggested in addition to straight residential, wider development opportunities such as an aged care facility, hospitality and/or some form of conferencing/business facility would also be logical outcomes for the property.”

Offers close for Nee Morna Estate on February 28 with interested parties invited to offer to acquire the whole of the estate or one or more of its individual lots.