Russell Crowe re-lists his Potts Point investment apartment:Title Tattle

The Potts Point investment apartment (pictured above) of actor Russell Crowe – bought for $1.5 million in 2001 – has been relisted for sale. Around $2 million is tipped for the top-floor apartment through Brad Pillinger at Pillinger Property. More than $2 million was being sought on its initial October listing. Crowe was seemingly captivated by charm of Victoria Street – with the western sunlight filtering through the plane tree-lined Parisian-style strip, when it was bought in 2001 from the theatre director Jim Sharman. Sharman had bought it in 1984 for $310,000.

Just up Victoria Street, Walker Corporation’s national sales manager Don Carvalho has listed his Hordern Place investment apartment for March 17 auction.  With Opera House and Harbour Bridge views, the Potts Point unit (pictured above) was bought in 1999 as an investment with holiday rental of $180 to $250 per day for many years and the more recently as a $600 a week-long term rental. It’s a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with car space list through Matthew Carvalho at BresicWhitney Estate Agents.

It’s the kitchen that truly impresses in the latest offering on Kooyongkoot Road, Hawthorn (pictured above). It’s the cooking domain of well-known foodie Linda George and her husband, Peter, who’s an executive at headhunting firm Talent2. Linda has won numerous awards for her cookbooks. The six-bedroom Italianate Victorian mansion-style residence was constructed after the 1,250-square-metre block cost $855,000 in 1998. It has been listed through Michael Armstrong at Kay and Burton with $6 million-plus hopes. It’s the second major listing on the road in recent weeks, the other being a more pricier offering.

Russell Skerritt, the long-time board director of the Australian Nursing Home and Extended Care Association, and his wife, Patricia, have emerged as the buyers of the Cremorne Point apartment (pictured above) sold by investment funds manager Chris Cuffe for about $6.7 million at its private invitation auction in September last year through Belle Property Mosman's Tim Foote. In a boutique secure building on Milson Road at the tip of Cremorne Point, the three-bedroom apartment had been on the market since January, when it was listed with $8.75 million hopes. The 375-square-metre apartment with views to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge traded at $6.05 million in 2003. The Skerritts have sold their nearby Federation home through Foote at a still undisclosed price. It was bought for $3.16 million from the Jaggard jewellery family in 2004. The two-storey, strata-titled terrace built 14 years ago, has 369 square metres of floor space.

Mike Crivelli, the chairman of Perennial Investment Partners, and his horticulturist wife, Sue, have sold their Pomeroy, Potts Point apartment (pictured above). It was listed in October last year with price hopes of more than $7 million through Richardson and Wrench agents Jason Boon and Geoff Cox who apparently secured spot on $7 million. The seventh-floor north-east corner four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment has wide terraces and views of Sydney Harbour. The Crivellis bought the Winten-built apartment off the plan for $4.5 million in 2002 and then they worked with the building's architect, Susan Rothwell, to configure it to their specifications. In 2003 just before its completion the merchant banker sold his Longueville mansion, Kara, after 25 years’ ownership, for $4,237,500.

Mark Warburton, who has been head of equity capital markets in Asia for Macquarie Bank and based in Singapore since late 2007, has sold his $2,735,000 at Macmasters Beach property (pictured above) for $2.55 million. The contemporary four-bedroom, three-bathroom beachfront home with views from Second Point to Copacabana Beach last traded in 2008 when it had been on and off the market since late 2006 with $4 million hopes.

Title Tattle aims to tell you first – often before it happens – so the official sale price paid by Ros Oatley-Lambert, the former wife of the former Southcorp wine chief Keith Lambert, for her neighbouring Balmoral harbourfront property, Kahala (architect's impression above), was registered mid-week. It was $19 million with the suggestions it was all about seeking to improve her garden and boating facilities. The 1,485-square-metre Hopetoun Avenue acquisition was sold by Albert Bertini, the flamboyant property developer. Title Tattle had speculated the price was above $18 million, perhaps just shy of $19 million, when news of its sale broke on Property Observer last November. The subsequent newspaper reports were a little wayward, suggesting it was a $20 million sale through Raine and Horne agent Brendan Warner.

Bertini and his former wife, Heather, bought Kahala from the successful veteran property developer Phil Arnold for $22.5 million in pre-global financial crisis 2007. Arnold paid $380,000 for the estate when it was sold by Lady (Delzie) Hooker, the widow of the real estate tycoon Sir Leslie Hooker, whose ashes are buried on the foreshore rocks. In 1940, Les Hooker paid £3,050 for the property and during the 1950s he built a three-level house and a boatshed. Bertini started works to rebuild the house as well as two pools, garaging for eight cars and a $1 million tunnel with a lift to the boatshed. The Oatley viticulture family, who sold their Rosemount wine business to Fosters in 2001 for $1.4 billion, paid a then record $15.5 million for their Balmoral residence, Rivendell, which has limited boating facilities, when it sold through Richardson and Wrench Mosman agent Robert Simeon. Rivendell is a 2,000-square-metre double block. 

And lastly Title Tattle can report another very rare transaction - house swapping. Toni Collette was last week's unusual house swap play at Bronte. This week it's in Bellevue Hill, where David and Jaclyn Gazal have spent $12 million to upgrade to a six-bedroom house on a 2,148-square-metre Victoria Road holding. The sellers, Lloyd and Simone Berger, have then bought the Gazals' smaller house on Fairweather Street for $5 million. Let Title Tattle know if you know of another so we can complete the trifecta!