Art collector John Schaeffer has listed his modernist, Harry Seidler-designed property in Dover Heights for June 1 auction.

More than $3 million is tipped for Kalowski House, which was bought in 2008 for $2,505,000 from Dr Steven Kalowski.

Seidler's design included pioneering floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors along the full width of the northern facade.

The 1958 home was up-graded in 2008 by architect Colin Griffiths, who actually worked on the original layout. It was photographed by Max Dupain in November 1958.

It is now set in Myles Baldwin designed gardens surrounding the single-level home on Lyons Street.

Michael Pallier of Sotheby's International has the listing following Schaeffer's recent purchase on nearby Kippara Street of the classic, expanded art deco 1930s residence of locksmith Jason Carr and Haley Carr for about $4.5 million.

It was formerly the single storey Chinese embassy until World War II.

The veteran Pearl Beach playwright David Williamson has sold his occasional retreat, but at a loss given Sydneysiders no longer want to take on the debt of holiday homes.

Set among gum trees, Tranquility Cottage was last traded in 2005 for $985,000 for the family NSW retreat of the Noosa-based Williamson and his writer wife, Kirstin.

It was up for sale initially in 2010 with $1.1 million hopes, but now 3 Cornelian Road is under offer at $860,000.

It was relisted last November with $900,000 plus through Stuart Gan of PRDnationwide Ettalong, who had adjusted the advisory to $875,000 plus in March.

Title Tattle recalls the Williamsons bought their first Pearl Beach house in 1979 for $55,000.

It was Pearl Beach that helped inspire his 17th play, Money and Friends, which was set on the sundecks at mythical Crystal Inlet.

Williamson, who paid $55,000 for his initial Pearl Beach backblocker, denied real comparisons between Crystal Inlet and Pearl Beach.

However, Williamson conceded at the time that the Crystal Inlet sundecks (those of the jerry-built fibro cottage and ultra-modern concrete mansion) similarly exist among the 630 houses at Pearl Beach.

"It (Pearl Beach) certainly has got the fibro cottages and grand beach homes, like most fashionable holiday places," he said.

In the late 1990s they paid $1.9 million for the secluded Noosa district property, Aeolus. It was one of 10 homes set in an 8,800-square-metre private enclave, with beach frontage to Sunshine Beach.

The four-bedroom house was designed by John Mainwaring with extensive open-plan areas and outdoor decking.

Audette House, the 1953 Peter Muller -designed Castlecrag residence inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, has been listed through Richardson & Wrench Castlecrag agent Mark O'Brien.

No price guidance initially ahead of its June 20 auction for the north facing waterfront reserve architectural gem, but after the weekend's first open - with 70 plus through - it is confidently tipped to fetch around $6 million.

It last traded in 1998 at $1.75 million and before that in 1964 for 24,500 pounds.

It was commissioned, with its subtle affinity to traditional Japanese architecture, for an American, R. B. Audette, after Muller returned from studying at the University of Pennsylvania.

Much admired by Sydney's architectural cognoscenti, the house on its 997 square metre double block was the first commission for the long celebrated Peter Muller. 

Set at 265 to 267 Edinburgh Road, architects Peter Monckton and Kerry Fyfe undertook its renovation and extension with input from the original architect in 2002-2003 for the McCann family.

The redundant Mosman investment property of Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart sold at a $300,000 loss.

It was the former Mosman home of her daughter, Hope Welker.

It had cost $5.4 million in 2007, and the paperwork shows its recent sale was at $5.1 million to a Chinese couple.

Another $300,000 in NSW stamp duty would be added to the expenses bill, along with land tax and selling expenses.

Its March sale was undisclosed, pre-auction on its second sales marketing attempt.

The contemporary Bradleys Head Road house had been listed both times through the Ray White Lower North Shore.

Hope Welker and her husband, Ryan, vacated the Mosman property as they departed for New York in 2011, around the time the family dispute over control of the family's mining interests became public through litigation.

The former state MP Robert Webster and his author wife Caro have sold their Mosman Federation home, Gargrave. 

The former Nationals MP, turned professional director since bought it in 2007 for $3,575,000 when the 1906 Raglan Street home was bought from the Hely family.

The two-storey home was renovated and extended in 2013.

McGrath's Jacqui Rowland-Smith was hoping for $4.8 million plus with Title Tattle not surprised if its snappy sale secured $5 million.

Robert Webster who retired from politics in 1995 sits on the board of Brickworks and Allianz Australia. 

Dwelling prices sit around 33% higher than the last peak, but is that a Sydney-wide boom or indeed bubble?

The catchup growth in the past year has been at around 15%, but over the past decade sitting at 5% annually, which was exceeded by Darwin (7.4%), Melbourne (6.4%) and Perth (6%).

There is no doubting many sales in many suburbs are seriously over priced. I would call them bubble prices. There was a Maroubra sale where with a coat of paint difference saw a $1.46 million sale of a two bedroom semi on 310 square metres that had last sold at $1 million in March 2013.

I couldn't spot the $460,000 difference. 

The silly prices could easily result in any exit - perhaps even over as long as the next decade - in tears given buyers are certainly seriously over paying currently.

If they want to keep it has their longtime, forever family home, the exuberance won't be as apparent longterm as if they were investing in a reckless pursuit of yield, frustrated by what returns they can get elsewhere.

Rental markets are softer, and looming construction supply will see further softening.

But it should be noted there are home sales and market segments where the market is yet to bounce to any significant extent - especially prestige homes where Chinese buyers are absent and from the indulgent coastal beach home market unless Justin Hemmes is present.

Title Tattle turned up to a recent weekend Queen Street Woollahra auction - where the only bid came from the McGrath auctioneer Scott Kennedy Green.

He had tried to get $7.5 million plus interest, and passed it in on a $7.2 million vendor bid. The sandstone semi-detached 1867 Victorian terrace set on a 417 sqm parcel close to the Woollahra Village featured in the Willem Rethmeier and Jenne Reed Burns 2000 book, Private Sydney after Elizabeth Wadsworth's renovation. Elizabeth Wadsworth popped into the auction from next-door where she has wanted $8 million plus for her 1850s terrace, St Aubyn since last year.

Not one attendee a the 188 Queen Street auction of apparent Asian descent, either fourth generational or fly in. 

They are all busy buying up in the re-emerging Bellevue Hill and Double Bay. Eventually disappointed underbidders from these adjoining suburbs will help underpin the eventual Woollahra recovery, but not yet.

Last month Title Tattle reported the mining heiress Sarah Louise Fudge sold Spicer House, Woollahra for $5.5 million.

Her landmark home in Woollahra was listed $5 million plus hopes given her relocation to Hollywood. 

The 1886-era residence Spicer House traded in May 2011 for $5.5 million.

Remember the former tennis champion Pat Rafter sold his Woollahra terrace for $2.4 million late last year.

The Wallis Street contemporary three-bedroom terrace cost $2.35 million in 2007, so price growth didn't cover the stamp duty over the seven year period.

The Noosa-based sportsman would have been wiser retaining his Sydney home on Hopetoun Avenue, Mosman which was sold in 2007 for $7.75 million. Onthehouse website cautiously suggests that Mosman home could be worth $10.6 million now.

But Chinese interest in Mosman is light compared to say Epping.

Last month 10 Hermington Street, Epping sold at $1.1 million, some $70,000 over reserve, which shows to me that over the top sale prices are in decline. But the auction was significant as there were 17 registered bidders, 11 of whom took part.

Low interest rates have encouraged many more buyers into the market, and as long as rates stay low, not withstanding APRA's macropridential attempts, local buyers will try their luck.

And if the RBA succeeds in being the dollar down, then foreign buyers and expats will underpin the market. 

Of course once rates rise then it will be regrets for many, despite the banks saying everyone is ahead of their repayments and that they are ensuring loans are being processed with anticipated higher debt borrower capabilities.   

The Balmoral Slopes trophy home of the former Elle editor-in-chief, now co-owner of Hush Communications, Debbie Coffey and her husband photographer, Ross, has been sold.

They had hopes of $6 million plus through McGrath. It was a two level Corben Architects-designed home that fetched around $5.8 million. 

The couple bought the four bedroom home on Edwards Bay Road in 2011 for $3.9 million.

Writer Craig McGregor and his family have snappily sold their five-acre farm at Tyagarah, in the Byron hinterland.

It comes with an extended 100-year-old farmhouse with five bedrooms.

Its verandahs over look the grounds that have pool, stable, round yard, orchard, flower beds and treehouse.

It is set 10 minutes from Byron Bay, Bangalow and Mullumbimby. 

After five years and two books, and another one on Bob Dylan on the way, the family have reluctantly decided times they are a'changing - as they move back to Byron Bay.

The original farmhouse was built in 1904 with views overlooking Koonyum Range, Night Cap Ranges, Mt Jerusalem through to Mt Warning and Mt Chincogan.

The First National agents James Young and Tara Torkkola had $1.1 million plus hopes and are understood by Title Tattle to have secured $1.05 million.

It was 2010 when the social commentator and his wife, Jane, sold their Wategos Beach property which had Ian McKay's first Byron Bay architectural commission. 

Alan James, the New York based, Macquarie investment banker has sold his Rose Bay Avenue, Bellevue Hill home to another Macquarie banker Sebastian Barrack.

Listed through Alison Coopes, the marketing described the home as a thoroughbred.

The property, 1 Rose Bay Avenue was architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson's first residential commission in 1923.

The seven bedroom, five bathroom house comes with heated pool, pool house and floodlit lawn tennis court on 2,415 square metre.

There's been no official sale indication to the banker who owns on Gladswood Gardens, Double Bay, nor price indication though Title Tattle gathered expectations were close to $25 million on its initial 2014 offering.

Sebastian Barrack heads the agricultural commodities division at Macquarie Bank which he joined in 1999 via Macquarie's acquisition of his disvision at Bankers Trust Australia.

The graduate from Australian National University is presumed to be a Professor Leslie Wilkinson devotee.

It last sold in 2002 when the Dawson Damer family secured $9.03 million, swapping its for another Wilkinson-designed house, Greenway in Vaucluse.

Sydney University's founding dean of architecture, Professor Leslie Wilkinson, designed the grand heritage-listed Georgian-style home for the Laidley-Dowling family, in collaboration with architect, John D Moore.

The Dawson-Damers bought for $6.15 million in 1991 from the Perth-based John Bond who'd paid $675,000 in 1979. The then Perth-based, Bond Corporation executive had extensively upgraded the seven bedroom home through Andre Porebski in the past decade. 

Wilkinson undertook just 40 house designs, finishing in 1968 with Anthony Coote's $80,000 Vaucluse waterfront, once briefly owned by Paul Hogan, who sold it for $11 million in 2004 to Precision Group's Shaun Bonett, the young property tycoon from Adelaide.

In 2013 Karl Lagerfeld sold his Gramercy Park, New York pied-à-terre to the Macquarie banker Sebastian Barrack for US$4.5 million.

Lagerfeld had purchased the stark white, three-bedroom apartment in 2006 for $6.575 million.

Rumour has it he never even actually moved in.

There was only one thing missing in today's thorough 3500-word Good Weekend profile of Mia Freedman.

Her new family home.

Title Tattle gleans the inspirational founder of the mamamia, Mia Freedman and her husband, Jason Lavigne may have bought the six bedroom, Fintry in Bellevue Hill.

Fintry, the starkly white exterior home with Blainey North interiors sits on a 1,368 square metre block.

No official sale price has yet emerged, but Title Tattle gleans buyers were being told around $12.5 million was required to secure the trophy home.

It came up for sale in 2012 with $15 million hopes.

The couple have apparently even moved in recently, under licence, after signing what Title Tattle gleans was a put and call purchasing option.

It last traded at $10.2 million in late 2007 - pre-global financial crisis through estate agent Brad Pillinger - in a sale which was described as fully-priced.

There was apparently subsequently a $1 million renovation that saw the addition of a salt water infinity-edge pool that overlooks Lachlan Murdoch’s compound, along with extensive interior and exterior refurbishments while maintaining the original house footprint.

It was briefly available at $6750 a week last year by vendor, Somna Kumar who had bought the Victoria Road property (pictured below before renovation) from the McWilliam family.

Somna Kumar and her partner, Macquarie banker Joseph Jayaraj are now London-based.

Title Tattle has been around long enough to recall the McWilliam family had bought it from the Heinze family in 1995 for $2.06 million through Raine & Horne Double Bay agent Bill Hall.

It had been longtime home of the late conductor Sir Bernard Heinze, complete with miniature 12-seat theatre fitted out by his son Adrian with Capitol Theatre furnishings.

It had been bought in 1957 for 22,000 pounds by Sir Bernard and his wife, Lady (Valerie) Heinze following his move from Melbourne to succeed Sir Eugene Goossens at the NSW Conservatorium.

Sir Bernard Heinze, who died in 1982, was one of the great figures of Australian music, and his wife, Valerie, was the daughter of Sir David Hennessey, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and Lady Hennessey.

Set among Sydney´s most prestigious hillside dress-circle residences, the 1930s Fintry comes with panoramic north-easterly harbour, district and ocean views.

It was marketed through Sotheby's International as having glamorous decor fusing the splendour of times gone by with the modern convenience.

It comes with grand entrance foyer, high ornate ceilings, parquetry floors, original fireplaces and wood-panelled walls.

Mia Freedman seemingly fell in love with the house at least six months ago given she posted pictures on pinterest well before word of the legalities started emerging. 

The entrepreneurial independent digital media couple have lived elsewhere in Bellevue Hill since paying $3,175,000 in 2004. It was briefly listed in 2008 with $4.4 million hopes before being withdrawn from sale. 

More than 650,000 people a month visit Mamamia, the Good Weekend's Jane Cadzow advised.

The harbourfront Double Bay trophy home of former Multiplex chief Andrew Roberts and his wife Andrea has been bought by Malaysian-born billionaire Seng Huang Lee and his wife Peggy Yeoh Pei Chee.

The property tycoon is the executive chairman of the lifestyle and tourism property group Mulpha Australia.

He owns in Woollahra having paid $7.5 million in 2007 for the inter war Edgecliff Road duplex home of Alex and Lynette De La Vega.

The $38 million Gladswood Gardens property comes with six bedroom, eight bathroom on the northern point of Double Bay. 

The 1145 square metre north-facing holding has a three-level house completed in 2005 after Roberts paid $10.1 million in 2003.

It was sold by the Bondi Beach-bound Multiplex scion Andrew Roberts who had it listed through Bill Malouf of LJ Hooker in April.

Andrew Roberts, the former chief executive of Multiplex, has spent a record $25 million off the plan for a luxury Bondi Beach penthouse in the Pacific Bondi Beach complex.

Mr Roberts now heads RF Capital, which invests in commercial property, listed equities, ­private equity, and resources.

The house, which comes with heated pool, four-car garage, jetty and mooring, was once part of the Gladswood House grounds until subdivided by the Parisi family in 1950 for 10,000 pounds.

Bill Malouf briefly had it for sale in 2010 when it was tipped to sit between the Sydney records set in 2008, when Craig-y-Mor fetched $32.4 million and Coolong sold for $45 million to Ivan Ritossa, the head of foreign exchange at Barclays Capital, through estate agent Bill Bridges. 

Title Tattle recalls the property was sold to Andrew Roberts through Laing & Simmons Double Bay agent Bart Doff by the Ho hotel investment family.

Businessman James Roche has secured $7,188,888 for his renovated Toorak home.

Title Tattle gathers 176 Kooyong Road sold to Chinese buyers from Parkdale.

Roche bought it for $6.51 million in late 2010 from Sarah Freeman who recently bought again in Toorak for $6.5 million from John McMurrick, co-founder of insurance giant Freeman McMurrick.

The single level residence on 1,140 sqm at 176 Kooyong had been listed through Kay & Burton since April last year.

Title Tattle recalls when Simone Semmens secured $2,625,000 back in 2000 after her renovation of the 1930s dwelling.

Headingley House, the Woollahra home of John Spender QC, has been sold, price undisclosed.

It was his diplomat father, Sir Percy Spender, who bought it from the Kater pastoralist family in 1949 for £11,676.

The dapper Queen's Counsel, who now does commercial arbitration, moved into the stunning Georgian-style Wellington Street residence in 1985.

While he was the Member of the House of Representatives for the seat of North Sydney - before Joe Hockey's election - he would occasionally take the trip from his eastern suburbs home to the lower North Shore electorate in his late father's white Rolls Royce.

His politician father, an eminent jurist, had left his bar practice in 1949 and entered, as member for Warringah, the federal political arena when the Liberals took office and Sir Percy Spender became minister for external affairs, during which he negotiated the ANZUS Treaty.

He then was posted to Washington in 1951 as Australian ambassador and in 1958 was appointed Australia's first judge of the International Court of Justice. In 1964 he became its president.

The Spenders' overseas posting spanned 16 years.

The Kater pastoral dynasty headed by Sir Norman was centred around the 1900 Federation Cudal property Nyrang. Sir Norman, who was trained as a doctor, then took over the Egelabra Stud at Warren in 1910. He died in 1965.

The LJ Hooker marketing noted the Woollahra house was built in the 1880s and then redesigned by acclaimed architect Professor Leslie Wilkinson in the 1930s.

On listing, selling agent Bill Malouf said he was not indicating a public price guidance, pointing to several recent Woollahra trophy home sales that all were in double digit millions instead.

Champion swimmer Geoff Huegill, and his wife Sara, have sold their three-level, four-bedroom Darlinghurst terrace pre-auction.

Title Tattle gleans it sold for $2.32 million ahead of its scheduled August 6 auction through Jason Boon and Geoff Cox at Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay.

The 133 square metre offering cost $1.97 million in late 2011. They bought it and still own 60% percent of the terrace, after it was bought in partnership with Geoff Huegill’s in-laws.

Sara Huegill, nee Hills, was in the Sweaty Betty PR fashion firm prior to their 2011 marriage.

The couple reportedly wanted mid-$2 million.

A $1,565,000 sale nearby at 473 Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst was secured earlier this year with three bedrooms, two bathrooms.

Winning bronze and silver at the 2000 Olympics, Huegill established himself as one of the world’s best butterfly swimmers.

All up he set eight world records.

The Melbourne businessman Sir Rod Eddington has sold his renovated 1930s Toorak home of the past eight years. 

More than $11 million was expected for the Ledbury Court property which came with pool and tennis court.

But Title Tattle gleans Chinese buyers paid $10.1 million.

The 2,154 square metre holding was bought by Sir Rod and his wife, Young Sook Park for $7.85 million in 2006 from the Ayre family who'd been there since paying $550,000 in 1980.

It was for sale through Kay & Burton's Michael Gibson.

The historic triple-storey mansion sits around a north-south tennis court, pool and cabana in manicured gardens. The four bedroom home comes with two studies, a gymnasium and conservatory.

The master suite has a super-sized dressing room.

Apparently the ground-floor study, with fireplace, is almost as big as the double garage. 

Melbourne businessman Sir Rod Eddington paid $6,175,000 to downsize Toorak homes.

The new acquisition of the contemporary abode (pictured below) was at a slight discount on its 2008 sale price of $6.3 million.

It was built by the developer Peter Gibson in 2007 to a design by architect Ilario Cortese.

Robert Page and Monika Tu of Black Diamondz Property Concierge have the 565 square metre apartment that comes with a lift that opens directly to its private lobby.

The four-bedroom, four-balcony, 40th-level Horizon apartment, comes with a separate one-bedroom unit and eight car spaces in the the Harry Seidler-designed tower.

Offers are due September 1.

The late Alan Bond’s home in Cottesloe has been listed for sale by his daughter, Jody Fewster, an estate agent with Acton Cottesloe.

The manor-style home comes with interiors by interior designer Jacquie McPhee with views across to Rottnest.

There is a formal dining room, a breakfast room and theatre room with oak flooring. There is a timber-lined lift to all levels of the house.

The Vaucluse waterfront trophy home, Loch Maree, home of entrepreneur Duncan Saville and wife Julie, has been sold.

The Saville family's 2311-square-metre Vaucluse waterfront estate comes with a vast modernist mansion built in the early 1970s for the late Gordon Barton, founder of IPEC.

Designed by architect Michael Dysart, it has had only two owners since it was built at 1a Loch Maree Place. 

After Barton experienced financial troubles, the property sold in 1993 for $4.75 million after being on the market for three years.

Hidden from view by established gardens, the property has two entrances, Loch Maree Place and Coolong Road.

The Michael Dysart-designed residence was completed in 1972 at a cost of $280,000.

Sotheby's agent Michael Pallier and BradfieldCleary's Bob Guth initially had $30 million-plus hopes in 2012, then $25 million more recently until yesterday's sale.

"Stone floors quarried from a 14th century convent in France by Burgundian monks to Leonard French´s stained glass feature windows, this is a unique home," the marketing said.

The Paddington residential home price record has almost been doubled when the converted Windsor Castle hotel was snapped up for about $13 million.

The landmark lavish former Windsor Castle Hotel was strangely bought by hotelier Ben May and his wife, Lucy who has been renting in the east after recently selling his Bungan Head home.

The previous suburb residential record stood at $7.75 million.

The new residence its stark polystyrene-looking exterior has been three years in construction by interior designer Rita Polovin and her husband, former restaurateur Peter Polovin who paid $4.3 million in 2009. At the time the price was going backwards at it fetched $5 million in 2007.

The house, sold through Ballard Property and Sotheby's, was designed by X.PACE Design Group spanning four spacious levels with 770sqm of internal living space flowing to 250sqm of outdoor areas with landscaped gardens designed by Annie Wilkes. 

Prior to renovation (below).