Bill Gates rents on Sydney Harbour: Title Tattle

Channel 7 Morning Show co-host Larry Emdur and his wife, Sylvie, have listed their redundant Dover Heights residence (pictured above). It follows their recent $6.8 million upgrading to a nearby mansion with dramatic oceanfront cliff-top views over the Pacific (pictured below).

The Emdurs have owned at Dover Heights since 1994, when they spent $770,000. They then rebuilt what its McGrath listing agent Bethwyn Richards describes as a contemporary house remaining true to its classic P&O style heritage. It is set on 417 square metres, whereas the Emdurs’ new home is on 1,062 square metres of cliff-top land.

"Defined by its unique park-side position and all-encompassing coastal and ocean views from each level, this architecturally renovated home is exquisitely finished, presenting a rare opportunity in a one-of-kind location," Bethwyn Richards' marketing spiel says of the current listing. It has been listed for October 29 auction, but Richards won't be drawn on price. However, based on their purchase, Title Tattle would suggest more than $5 million could be reasonably expected. The residence they've just bought was bought from the Moss family who had paid $7.1 million in February 2007.

New Fortescue Metals boss Neville Power has sold in Hawthorn East (pictured above). Power and wife Irma have moved from Melbourne to Perth, where the company is based. The sale price hasn't been disclosed, but it was listed in the hope of achieving more than $2.9 million. The Powers spent more than a year designing the four-bedroom, four-bathroom house, which has sweeping city views. There's a home theatre, a wine cellar, a pool and a gym and a four-car garage. All top-grade building material was used, since Nev was chief executive of Smorgon Steel Reinforcing at the time. Fraser Cahill of Thomson Real Estate secured the sale of the Grant Maggs Architects-designed house after it was passed in at $2.77 million.

Darren Lockyer, the 36-time Queensland State of Origin team hero, has found the Brisbane property market as enduringly tough as his recent on-field experience. His Paddington residence (pictured above) listed for early August auction remains for sale in the city’s challenging market.

The contemporary Paddington property cost Lockyer $1.49 million in 2004. It now comes with $2,275,000 hopes. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom place had been expected to fetch $2 million plus based on the standard growth (and then decline) experienced in Brisbane over the past seven years. A nearby $2.15 million sale will have given Lockyer some comfort. No official public price estimate has been given by its listing agents Tim Douglas and Gail Miller at Place Estate Agents.

In March the Broncos captain announced he will retire from all forms of rugby league at the end of the NRL season, his 17th season in first grade. Brisbane’s auction clearance rates have hovered around 25% in the first nine months of this year, according to Australian Property Monitors, although for the past three weeks there has been a notable improvement from 25% to 30% and a 42% clearance rate last weekend.

The Potts Point apartment (pictured above) of the slain Sydney racing identity Les Samba has been listed for sale with $2.75 million hopes through Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay. The Macleay Street unit cost $1.7 million when bought off the plan by Samba Group Pty Ltd in 2003 from the Winten development group. The Pomeroy apartment with extensive terracing but still no potted plantings settled in August 2004. Samba was shot dead as he tried to flee from a gunman police believe lured him to an ambush on a busy street in Melbourne's bayside suburb of Middle Park in February this year. Sydney-based Samba, a former horse trainer, was considered an expert judge of yearlings and was a big spender at sales around the country for many years. He and his family owned several top racehorses and had success with the 2006 Victoria Derby runner-up Gorky Park.

At Tamarama, the architect-designed house (pictured above) owned by Dan White, a great-grandson of the founder of the Ray White real estate empire, and his wife, Sam, fell short of its desired $7 million selling hopes when passed in at auction through Ray White Double Bay's Elliott Placks. The couple are selling because they're upgrading to a 2,460-square-metre Victoria Road Bellevue Hill property sold by the Sallick family. It’s a two-storey, period-style residence with tennis court. Placks hopes to secure a buyer in coming days for the house, which was completed three years ago. The interiors of the four-bedroom, four-bathroom residence were by Briony Fitzgerald, the interior designer daughter of the acclaimed designer Ann Gyngell.

The much-anticipated listing of the Sydney Harbour home of the late arts patron Ann Lewis has made its way onto the market (pictured above). But it comes at a time when there are two other premium Rose Bay harbourfront offerings. The Lewis family residence, Amaroo, comes with direct access to a sandy beach and private deepwater jetty, was her home for about 55 years. It has now been listed for October 27 auction by her four children, Amanda Zsebik, Tony Lewis, Annalise Scanlan and Daniel Lewis, following her death in May. Mossgreen is set to sell the contents at a forthcoming auction. Title Tattle heralded the listing in mid-July.

The Australian Financial Review speculates its pricing will exceed Rose Bay's $18.2 million top sale at its auction through Ken Jacobs at Christies International in conjunction with Andrew Livingston at McGrath Estate Agents.

The Bayview Hill Road house faces competition from two listings on Dumaresq Road, as Title Tattle has reported. There's the double-block offering of the late Bill Bursill, whose 1950s house (pictured above) has been listed for November 3 auction, with more than $16 million being sought by Wayne Yates from Laing & Simmons Double Bay. The family purchased the waterfront land in 1950 when it was being used as tennis courts.

And of course the neighbouring organic Modernist residence of former Justice of the High Court of Australia Michael Kirby and his partner, Johan van Vloten, has been listed for sale. Designed by one of Sydney's most influential Modernist architects, Neville Gruzman, the house was revolutionary when it was built in 1949 for Gruzman's aunt. The house with direct access to a sandy beach was  bought for $190,000 in August 1976. It has been listed for sale with Belle Property's David Vereker who expects to sell for about $12 million.

Former Melbourne AFL champion and now Footy Show host Garry Lyon has sold his Hawthorn abode (pictured above) to Washington DC-based buyers. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom period house in one of the suburb’s premier heritage streets had been passed in on a vendor's bid of $3.6 million. Lyon, who bought it in 2005 for $2.74 million, has been expecting $3.5 million plus through Jellis Craig Glen Iris listing agent Paul Keane. No price has yet emerged in The preliminary sale paperwork, which was lodged earlier this month.

Software entrepreneur Simon Clausen, who debuted on the 2009 BRW Rich List with a $180 million fortune after selling his software company, listed his Balmoral Slopes. abandoned construction site (pictured above) a few weeks back with no desire to proceed on his envisaged expansive three-level Mosman mansion. It was listed as 2,560-square-metre vacant block through McGrath agent Nigel Mukhi.  The block cost $19 million to amalgamate. Title Tattle notes its marketing now suggests it could be divided into four separate holdings.  The block sizes are 620 square metres, 638 square metres, 664 square metres and 638 square metres. Mostly Europe based these days, Clausen, who featured in eight spot on the latest BRW Young Rich list, reportedly dedicates part of his estimated $207 million fortune to creating the next generation of tech companies through incubator Startive.

Title Tattle aims to tell you first – and sometime before it has happened – so it was imperative that the mid-week second auction of the Bellevue Hill residence of Tim Clarke be attended.  It’s been the home that everyone had an opinion about. With lavishly appointed Marco Meneguzzi interiors, the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house was again being offered through Richardson & Wrench Double Bay agents James McCowan and Michael Dunn. There was a $5.8 million opening bid, then a $6 million vendor bid at which proceedings concluded. In between a casually attired registered bidder standing next to the auctioneer asked twice if it was on the market, without himself lodging any offer. Word is that a deal at around $6.41 million was soon secured with the obvious would-be buyer.

In June Title Tattle recalls there was a $6.3 million opening bid of $6.3 million and a vendor bid of $6.4 million with the auctioneer Peter Baldwin accepting incremental increases of $5,000 until the property was passed in at $6.52 million. The Clarkes had paid $2.55 million in 2005 and possibly spent quite a bit more than $3 million on the project. The buyer was none other than Darren Harvey – widely regarded as Australia’s best fixed-income trader and his wife, Jaz, who sat in the front row of the auction. They'd been perennials in recent months getting close to buying on Kambala Road and Victoria Road, elsewhere in Bellevue Hill.

Maybe it’s just the industry in which he worked, but the eastern suburbs property market was alight with speculation that he'd been offered $200,000 by the underbidder to sell soon afterwards— but said no. Harvey was at Deutsche Bank in Sydney and London, where he was head of derivatives, and now runs a very successful fixed-income fund called Bower Capital, which has generated spectacular returns over the last five years.

And don't tell anyone that Title Tattle told you but barring last-minute contractual gremlins, Bill Gates will be staying on the Point Piper harbourfront (pictured above) during his upcoming Sydney sojourn. Apparently he's set to stay at car-dealing yachtsman Neville Crichton's property. This week Bill Gates topped Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans for the 18th year in a row.