The interior decorator, and eastern suburbs socialite, Janelle 'Nellie' Tilley is selling her Double Bay home.

The Victorian terrace appeared in Vogue Living in 2012, but it has been updated even more recently.

Near the heart of Double Bay village, the home blends contemporary with classic, with traditional facade and restored period features combined with custom upgrades and additions.

A flowing floor plan provides two distinct living areas.

An internal atrium with a soaring mosaic wall features, as well as an entertainers' balcony and rear courtyard.

Each of the three bedrooms have their own balcony, while an entry level home office can be set up as a fourth bedroom.

"It is an exquisite tapestry of bespoke executive finishes," listing agent Di Baker at Di Baker Prestige Properties said.

There is a price guide of $6.3 million to $6.9 million.

Her marketing highlighted Tilley's role in the marketing of the home.

Her prior work have been highlighted in the past marketing of the Point Piper apartment of former Goldman Sachs boss Simon Greenaway that fetched $3.2 million late last year.

There was also her decor in the three storey Paddington terrace of Credit Suisse managing director Paul Allen and his wife Liz Morgan which fetched $4,465,000 in 2014.

Tilley says the inspiration for her work comes from many varied places.

But she is totally in awe of all Parisian architecture and antiquities.

She also admire the 16th century Palladian villas. 

Tilley, a mother of three boys, is well known around the Eastern suburbs social circles, regularly appearing at red carpet events and charity fundraisers.

It cost Tilley $2.38 million in 2014 from Michael de Meaune.

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph. 

The Tudor-style Bonnington in Bellevue Hill, the home of the late businessman Neville Christie, has sold for over $20 million.

It had a $20 million guide through Richardson & Wrench agent Michael Dunn, who said there had been considerable interest in the property ahead of its mid-week expressions of interest campaign close.

Built in the 1930s, the six bedroom home was designed by acclaimed architect F. Glynn Gilling.

The result is the highest house sale in the suburb since the nearby Leura mansion set a suburb record at $30.8 million in late 2015 when it sold on delayed settlement terms to businessman and yachtie Wilson Lee  and his wife Bayou Wu by the Allen family.

It had been the home of the Christie family for 56 years.

The grand home with a stately entrance hall and formal areas sits on over 2,200 sqm of the Victoria Road dress circle.

It has a wide sandstone entertaining terrace that has panoramic harbour views across the city skyline to the harbour.

The sale comes after another $20 million plus sale in the nearby Darling Point.

 

A Darling Point home that has been in the same family for 44 years has sold for around $26 million.

It was sold by Anne Meagher, the wife of the late businessman Alan Meagher.

Set on a 664 sqm waterfront parcel on the exclusive New Beach Road, the P&O style home offers postcard views of the harbour from its rooftop garden.

In 2016 it was advertised as a two level penthouse with four bedrooms, a sitting room and its own lift.

The Milsons Point apartment that adjoins Nicole Kidman's occasional Sydney bolthole has come down from its listing site.

There's mystery as to the offering which was marketed last month with $8 million hopes through McGrath agent Nigel Mukhi who had mid-week deadline for offers.

Kidman and Keith Urban own all but one of the top floor apartments of the Latitude Building having previously merged two apartments with the decor redesign done by the acclaimed interior designer Blainey North.

The couple's first purchase on the 21st floor of the block was a 420 square metre apartment they bought from Yellow Brick Road chairman Mark Bouris for around $6 million in 2009.

Three years later they secured the 380 square metre unit next door for just over $7 million.

Meanwhile, the far South Coast Rosedale property record set in 2004 by Hollywood star has been finally broken by the sale of a four-bedroom house just a few doors down.

The Knowlman Road holding sold through LJ Hooker Malua Bay agent Mark Maranion for $1.637 million.

The price was above the $1.55 million price secured for Kidman’s former land holding which she sold in 2010. Kidman had spent $4 million on her short-lived amalgamation on the coastal strip in 2004.

It was 2004 when the late Angus Hawley, Nicole's then brother-in-law, first swooped into town by helicopter to bid on the rare beachfront offering offered by the Knowlman farming family from Goulburn, who had owned property there since paying £35 in 1929.

Knowlman Road's clifftop position comes with North East ocean views, Maranion said.

“It’s easy to see why Nicole Kidman has been drawn to the area.”

The latest buyers are from Forbes.

Kidman retains the Southern Highlands retreat Bunya Hill, a 45 hectare property at Sutton Forest that cost $6.5 million in 2008.

The 1878 Georgian mansion with wide sandstone verandas, pressed-metal ceilings and 10 marble fireplaces was once leased as a vice-regal rural retreat for Lord Augustus Loftus, a governor of NSW in the colonial 1880s.

Nicole and Keith own a farm in Tennessee, a house in California's Beverly Hills and another high-rise condo in New York.

This article first appeared in The Sunday Telegraph.

Linc Energy founder Peter Bond has made a loss on one of his Fig Tree Pocket homes.

He's sold the Ningana Street road home (above) for $2.99 million, nearly $750,000 less than the $3.75 million he paid with wife Louise in 2010.

They even fully renovated the home five years ago.

The sale still scored the highest price for a non-waterfront home in the area in nearly two years.

Set on 12,600 sqm, the home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and sits in gardens with a swimming pool and tennis court.

It was bought by a Chinese buyer who intends to relocate and live in the home.

Bond owns the neighbouring home Rivergum Retreat, which has been on the market since late last year (below).

Bought for a pricier $9.5 million in 2009, the home has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. 

The Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams has sold his one bedroom Potts Point apartment for more than $750,000.

It sold through his older brother Evan Williams at Ray White Double Bay.

The one bedroom unit sold to a local buyer in under a week.

Kip Williams bought his first home in 2012 for $405,000, when he’d just started at STC.

The apartment backs onto Lannkelly Place where Kip is a regular at the snug laneway cafe called Room 10. 

Evan Williams marketed the top floor apartment with Parisian flair "for a premium price of $18,000 per square metre”. 

Hom Yoga founder Malvina Kang is selling the Darlinghurst home she shares with her artist husband, artist Rob Manning.

It has been listed for July 1 auction.

Kang, whose yoga studios are in Darlinghurst and Singapore, bought the Engelen Moore-designed home in 2015 for $1,565,000.

The two-storey home has been listed by BresicWhitney agent Maclay Longhurst with a $1.85 million guide.

The buyer of a Toorak mansion for $19.1 million – at $5 million over the quoted price range – has been slow to hand over the deposit after its recent private auction.

The price of 2 Myvore Court two weeks ago threw pricing in the top end of the upmarket Melbourne suburb into exaltation - and now confusion.

The Australian Financial Review pinpointed the buyer as Orna Ida, the wife of expatriate businessman Yoav Ida.

Her lawyer Jonathan Kenny, who bid for Ms Ida at the May 30 auction, said he had indications the deposit was coming.

"My instructions are that they're on the way.

"As far as I know, not [yet received]," Mr Kenny told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.

Toorak had a median house price just above $4.2 million in February, CoreLogic figures show.

"Toorak's alive with the sale, but it's not a sale yet because the deposit hasn't been paid," buyers' agent David Morrell said.

"It's nuked the market. Every vendor in Toorak now thinks his house is worth $4 million or $5 million more than the reserve."

"It is a Melbourne Game Changer," buyers advocate Mal James said of the sale in an article he published online and then subsequently withdrew when word swept around the market.

The mansion developer Chris Holland recently completed at 2 Mysore Court.

There has been another Toorak purchase by the Ida family in limbo too.

Kenny also helped other members of the family buy 3 Myvore Court – which sold two days after 2 Myvore Court for reportedly more than $8 million.

Kenny said Ms Ida, a citizen of both Australia and Israel, was not currently in Australia.

Real estate agent Jock Langley of Abercromby's, who marketed 2 Myvore Court, declined to discuss the sale with the AFR.

"The property's sold," Mr Langley said. "I'm not prepared to have any discussion with you in relation to any part of the sale. We're not at liberty to discuss it."

Kay & Burton agent Andrew Sahhar, who handled the $8 million plus sale of 3 Mysore Court, also declined to comment.

There has been unconfirmed reports of an unpaid deposit for a $9 million plus Woorigoleen Road sale through Marshall White.

The former St George Bank chief executive turned Westpac senior executive George Frazis has sold his Bondi Beach sub-penthouse for $6.5 million.

Last years listing of the apartment in the acclaimed Beach House came shortly after Frazis secured an $8 million, dual level penthouse in April last year.

Frazis paid $5 million in 2011 for the sub-penthouse following his move from New Zealand where he was CEO of Westpac NZ.

Designed by architects Burley, Katon and Halliday, the apartment features three bedrooms, an entertainment terrace and a home office.

Andrew Livingston of Livingston Real Estate had advertised the property at $5.75 million. 

Lachlan Gillespie, The Wiggle who wears the purple skivvy, and the Yellow Wiggle, Emma Watkins have snappily sold their Wollstonecraft apartment.

The married couple are trading up, with many fans believing Watkins is pregnant following a mere Instagram post of the pair which read 'stay tuned'.

The reports of a baby Wiggle, however exciting, remain unconfirmed. Watkins' recent Instagram post shows a video of her dancing an Irish jig.

Even the sale price has not been confirmed by the ultra private couple,

Gillespie and Watkins have called the 1896 converted English-style manor apartment home four three years - around a year after they began dating.

They paid $1,395,000 in 2014 with the couple's relationship only becoming public knowledge in 2015.

The Shirley Road offering came with a $1.9 million to $2.09 million price guidance through Stone Real Estate Lane Cove agent Desiree Hough, who had it on the market for just 12 days before its sale.

She said they decided to sell the home as they are travelling and touring extensively for work, and do not spend enough time at home to enjoy the 184 sqm apartment.

The heritage late Federation mansion was named Ben Ledi, presumably in reference to the mountain in Perthshire, Scotland.

It comes with stained glass windows - one etched with the building's construction date. 

It was 2012 when Jeff Fatt - of "Wake up Jeff" fame - handed over his purple skivvy to Gillespie at the same time as Emma joined the gang.

The Wiggles have been entertaining children for 26 years.

This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.

The former Computershare director Michele O'Halloran, who broke the Victorian residential house record when she sold historic Ilyuka, has bought back into Portsea.

It was 2010 when O'Halloran her the clifftop Spanish Mission style mansion to BRW Rich Lister John Higgins for $26 million.

The eight bedroom, eight bathroom home stood as the state's most expensive until late last year when the Besen home in Toorak sold for $26.25 million.

O'Halloran paid $7.5 million for the home in 1999.

Her buy back into the Mornington Peninsula has been a little more modest as she's spent $6.2 million on a nearby home that sits between Ilyuka and Port Nepean Road (above and below).

The contemporary five bedroom home opens to the swimming pool.

This article was first published in The Weekend Australian.

The downsizing former Brisbane Lions defender Daniel Merrett has quickly sold his Hawthorn home, well before its scheduled auction.

The Dover Street home fetched $1,225,000 just 18 days into its marketing campaign.

Merrett, who shared the home with his teacher wife Sarah and their daughter Matilda, paid $1,045,000 for the home in 2014.

Built two years, the home has on a 400 sqm landscaped block has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and back garden.

McGrath Bulmba agent Paul Shelton sold the home. 

Since retiring Merrett has taken up coaching and consulting roles with the AFLW and the NRL.

He was recently hired by Broncos coach Wayne Bennett in a consulting role at Red Hill.

Merrett spent 13 years at the Lions, racking up 200 games and kicking 70 goals over his illustrious career.

The acclaimed contemporary artist Guy Maestri has listed his Surry Hills apartment while he looks for alternative space around the inner west.

Overlooking the pool and garden, his apartment in Chelsea Court has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The largest in the early 1990s block has been previously described as a "mini museum-like space," filled with the most amazing, enviable collection of incredible Australian art.

Everything in the home is apparently handmade, found, swapped or gifted.

It's been Maestri's home for the last decade since the Mudgee-born artist paid $590,000 in 2007.

Now he's looking to double his money with a price guide of $1.25 million set for its July 15 auction through BresicWhitney Darlinghurst agents James Peach and Shannon Whitney.

He even stars in the campaign imagery.

Maestri who won the 2009 Archibald Prize for a portrait of musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu says he typical approach was to "throw a lot of paint at the canvas."

The agents suggest investors could secured a potential rent of around $900 a week.

He had been a boat builder on the Hawkesbury until 1999 when he went aged 25 to the Julian Ashton Art School followed by the National Art School at Darlinghurst.

Last year Maestri spent time as artist-in-residence at the Margaret Olley Art Centre at the Tweed Regional Gallery, where he began a body of work inspired by objects in Margaret Olley’s home studio re-creation.

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.

It's become a bit like a five setter.

The tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt and wife Bec now have new estate agents marketing their redundant luxury St Kilda Road, Melbourne penthouse offering.

It is the third change of estate agents during its on-off-on six year listing.

There's been no recent asking price amendment which remains at $10 million plus.

Their redundant Yve apartment does comes with a freshened look since the former Sydney based couple have moved out to their recently acquired Toorak manor house.

Gone is the dominant red furniture replaced by decor with more welcoming cream and light colours. 

The pool table has stayed with the listing through WhiteFox agent Ryan Fisher.

The initial agents listed the apartment in 2011 asking $15 million for the two level apartment with 740 sqm internal space, 440 sqm balcony space and an eight car garage.

The price was dropped by $5 million in 2014.

For many years when the family was based in the Bahamas, the vast pad was rarely used.

Hewitt bought the apartments on level 19 and 20 for a $8.325 million total in 2004 shortly before their a whirlwind romance in 2005 when was a Wimbledon champion and she was a star of the enduring soapie, Home and Away.

The Hewitts quit their Sydney property portfolio, selling their luxury Kenthurst acreage for $5 million late last year in a quick sale.

The Hewitt's since moved into a new Georgian mansion, without any tennis court, in the bluechip Toorak paying $12.7 million through Sotheby's agent Phillip French.

The Yve penthouse is not Hewitt's first extended property marketing offering.

His hometown Adelaide property took six years to sell at West Lakes.

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.

The first lady of cruising Sarina Bratton and husband Ray have sold their Newport waterfront.

It took over 200 days before its mid-week sale.

It only came after a price amendment from $4 million to $4.3 million hopes down to $3.75 million to $4.1 million.

It's still a tidy profit for the couple who paid $1.53 million for the Prince Alfred Parade dress circle home in 2000.

LJ Hooker agents Andrew Mappin and David Watson sold the home.

Britton created the market-leading Orion Expedition Cruises in 2005, then was appointed Asia Pacific chair of Ponant Cruises in 2013.

The couple remodelled the home on its 1,370 sqm parcel in 2012. There is a shared jetty.

Spanning two levels, the elevated home has four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a swimming pool that overlooks the water.

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph.

Former Noni B co-chief executive David Kindl has spent $5.85 million on Balaclava, the Kirribilli trophy home. 

Considered one of Kirribilli's most distinguished homes, the 1880s Victorian sits in customer landscaped grounds designed by Peter Fudge.

The four bedroom home with refined formal entertaining areas comes with harbour glimpses from the upper levels and rooftop terrace.

It has been restored since it last traded for $3.21 million in 2011.

McGrath agent Nigel Mukhi sold the home.

Kindl had previously been the managing director at fashion retailer Noni B before selling to a private investment group Alceon Group for $16.4 million in 2014.

He is now the chairman of the Retail Doctor Group advisory board.

Members of the Kindl family founded Noni B in 1977.

The former Sydney madam Jamelie Lahood, who is behind in her Australian Tax Office (ATO) payments, has sold her Yowie Bay property, after it was on the market for three months.

It was part of an impressive property portfolio that peaked in value at $10 million plus. 

The Yowie Bay title comes with a caveat from the ATO indicating she is working with the tax commissioner on her repayments.

The title also comes with a subsequent caveat after she borrowed money from Fadi Ibrahim, while a third caveat is from her lawyer in Parramatta to protect his legal fees.

Lahore reportedly owes almost $2 million in unpaid taxes.

Lahood, who ran Stilletto in Camperdown, paid $3 million for the five bedroom Yowie Bay waterfront in 2011.

She bought the home from Fantastic Furniture chairman Julian Tertini.

Set on 1,151 sqm, the double brick residence is surrounded by glass wrapped walls which offer views over the Port Hacking River.

The alfresco dining area overlooks the in-ground pool and jacuzzi.

McGrath Brighton le Sands agents Bill Tsounias and Trent Tarbey sold the home.

Lahore has offloaded her longtime three bedroom property in Dural for $2,777,000 having paid $465,000 in 1995.

A commercial space in Parramatta was also sold at $1.25 million.

The remainder of Lahood's portfolio includes a four bedroom Gladesville knockdown that cost $2.85 million and a $1.6 million four bedder in Helensburgh that she bought in 2015.

This week Fadi Ibrahim took NSW Supreme Court action arguing the $2.8 million sale was being sold too cheaply.  

Barrister Craig Wilson said Ms Lahood owed Mr Ibrahim $2.9 million, loans secured in part by a caveat on the Yowie Bay home.

Wilson said Ms Lahood had contracted to sell for $2.8 million when it was in fact worth $3.8 million to $4.2 million.

Lahood has a $2.2 million mortgage with Westpac bank, which has commenced separate legal proceedings against her.

The Yowie Bay matter is set to return to court on Friday.  

This article first appeared in the Sunday Telegraph. 

Fells Boutique designer Fay Shinewell and her husband Gordon have listed their Toorak home after over three decades of ownership.

The couple paid $390,000 for the 1940s home in 1986. It now comes with a price tag of $3,975,000 after an auction had been scheduled last weekend.

The solid brick home on Turnbull Avenue comes with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study. 

A family room opens to a classical paved alfresco area in botanic terraced gardens.

Rodney Morley of Rodney Morley Real Estate has the listing.

Lesli Berger, managing director of the Berger family’s commercial property firm, Fivex, and his wife Kirsty have sold their Bellevue Hill home having traded up.

Having bought the Bellevue Hill mansion of developer Kemmori “Alex” Yasumoto and his wife Sacha for around $13.5 million, the Bergers listed their nearby Latimer Road home of the past decade.

The couple have renovated the six-bedroom home with swimming pool since they bought it in 2007 for $4.85 million.

It was set for a late June auction with $6.4 million plus hopes through Elliott Placks and Ashley Bierman, of Ray White Double Bay, who sold the home before the auction.

The newly appointed BHP Billiton director Grant King, and his wife Jenny, have sold their Pittwater weekender, at Coasters Retreat for around $1.3 million.

It was a fairly humble weatherboard cottage when the couple bought it in 1995 for $307,500, then doubling it in size and renovating throughout with high-end finishes.

The two-storey house, accessed only by boat or ferry service from Palm Beach, came with initial hopes of $1.7 million back in 2015 when King was the boss of Origin Energy.

The Kings now have a $4 million Palm Beach retreat and a $6.2 million CBD penthouse after selling their Neutral Bay mansion for $16.5 million.

This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.