F45’s Rob Deutsch kick-starts trophy home market,buying Bellevue Hill mansion

F45 co-founderRob Deutsch has fired the starter’s gun on Sydney’s trophy home market for the year,buying a matrimonial mansion in Bellevue Hill just weeks after he married modelNicole Perso.

Talk of Deutsch’s off-market purchase over the summer break was echoed by title records on which Perso has lodged her name as the buyer,but it will be left to settlement to confirm the more than $36 million figure that’s been touted.

The Bellevue Hill residence has been renovated by Blainey North since it was sold in 2014 for $10.6 million.

The Bellevue Hill residence has been renovated by Blainey North since it was sold in 2014 for $10.6 million.Domain

At that level the sale price would be a seriously good windfall forDana andDavidLewis,the recently separated society couple who purchased it in 2014 for $10.6 million and commissioned new interiors byBlaineyNorth in 2017.

Rob Deutsch bowed out of the high-intensity gym franchise F45 three years ago.

Rob Deutsch bowed out of the high-intensity gym franchise F45 three years ago.Rhett Wyman

The Lewises have since gone their separate ways. Dana has taken up with high-profile architectNick Tobias. David is chief of investment management firm Oceana Funds and nephew to British blue-bloodMichaelLewis,husband toLadyKittySpencer.

The house’s ownership comes with a somewhat interesting provenance,having been owned in the past 20 years by the likes of the late Macquarie Bank chairmanDavid Clarke,Latitude Financial chairmanMike Tilley and American technology and trading guruJim Clody.

Rob Deutsch and Nicole Perso exchanging vows at their wedding ceremony last December.

Rob Deutsch and Nicole Perso exchanging vows at their wedding ceremony last December.Instagram @F45rob

Deutsch’s property interests have swelled in the three years since tapping out of the gym franchise he founded a decade ago withAdam Gilchrist. His exit was also a year before the company’s stocks plummeted 72 per cent from its 2021 debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Among Deutsch’s other notable property acquisitions of recent years is a $19 million beachfront house on Queensland’s Mermaid Beach and the Patchway estate in the Southern Highlands where he and Perso married in December.

A summer of trophy sales

Deutsch’s isn’t the only top-end sale that was quietly sealed over the summer break,reinforcing last year’s trend in favour of off-market sales in the more than $20 million range.

The Burley Katon Halliday-designed residence of Adriana and Eduard Litver sold for $24 million.

The Burley Katon Halliday-designed residence of Adriana and Eduard Litver sold for $24 million.Supplied

Prominent property developerEduard Litver and his wifeAdriana pocketed $24 million for their former home in Darling Point from a little-known twenty-somethingZhu Jiaxin,on the back of the latest sales campaign by Alison Coopes.

The Bellevue Hill-based Litvers purchased the Darling Point property in late 2004 for $3 million,and commissioned a rebuild by Burley Katon Halliday that was completed in 2007 with Tobias Partners interiors.

The couple’s former home is next door on the waterfront,sold in 2013 for $16.35 million to Double Bay plastic surgeonKourosh Tavakoli.

Meanwhile,in Vaucluse,the home ofBarry andMaria Sechos sold without any marketing for what sources say is about $29 million.

The Vaucluse mansion of Barry and Maria Sechos sold for a rumoured $29 million.

The Vaucluse mansion of Barry and Maria Sechos sold for a rumoured $29 million.

Records show the property is a consolidation of two lots purchased in 1995 for $720,000 and in 2010 for $3.55 million,and a redesign by architectVirginia Zanarini was approved in 2016 revealing a three-level residence with a new swimming pool,gymnasium,steam room,billiard room and library.

Barry Sechos,who runs the family office of philanthropist and arts patronDr Gene Sherman, and is a director of film producerEmile Sherman’s See-Saw Films,has plenty of shelter to move to once settlement takes place. He bought a house in the Double Bay village last year,paying $9 million with no finance.

Alistair Champion almost doubled his money on his Rose Bay beachfront house.

Alistair Champion almost doubled his money on his Rose Bay beachfront house.Dominic Lorrimer

Rounding out the off-market settlements over summer is the $35 million sale of Laser Clinics co-founderAlistair Champion’s Rose Bay beachfront home.

Champion almost doubled his money on the house in the three years he and his wifeKate owned it,having paid $18 million in 2019. It was sold on the quiet in May last year by The Agency’s Ben Collier,with settlement early this year to wealthy Vietnamese businessmanViet Dung Tran.

Testing times at Finger Wharf

Sanchia Brahimi has offered an early test of the high-end apartment market by listing her designer pad in Woolloomooloo’s landmark Finger Wharf about a year after she bought it.

The four-bedroom spread with Fleming Design interiors was purchased by the daughter of former rich listers and philanthropistsCharles andEva Curran last June for $11.7 million,following the sale of her Vaucluse home she previously shared with ex-husband,celebrity chefGuillaumeBrahimi for $17 million.

Sanchia Brahimi is selling her Finger Wharf apartment after just eight months.

Sanchia Brahimi is selling her Finger Wharf apartment after just eight months.

Brahimi’s apartment is among the wharf’s most expensive,topped only byRussell Crowe’s $14.35 million purchase in 2003 and the $15 million purchase byJohn Laws a year later.

This time around the guide is $10.5 million,although it remains to be seen if it will be a loss for Brahimi given Highland Property’s David Malouf said he has been “smashed by inquiry” ahead of the March 2 auction.

Commercial property bossJoshua Berger and his wifeMichelle look to have been inspired by Multiplex heirAndrew Roberts’ $24 million purchase at Bondi Beach last year to launch their penthouse atop The Bondi.

This is the luxury spread the FiveX owners purchased in 2016 from former Ramsay Healthcare chiefChris Rex and his wifeLynette,before the Bergers decamped for Rose Bay two years ago when they bought the Wintergarden penthouse for $11.25 million.

The Berger family’s three-bedroom penthouse in The Bondi is on offer with an $18 million guide.

The Berger family’s three-bedroom penthouse in The Bondi is on offer with an $18 million guide.Supplied

The Bergers’ penthouse is one of two that was formerly owned by celebrity accountantAnthony Bell,who bought it off the plan in 2005 for $7.725 million and sold it two years later at a loss for $7.35 million.

Now superfluous to the Bergers’ needs,the two-storey penthouse is listed with The Agency’s Steven Chen and 1st City’s Brad Caldwell-Eyles with a guide of $18 million.

Still with the high-end apartment market,pub baron and former Sydney Lord MayorNelson Meers and his wifeCarole are bowing out of Crown’s One Barangaroo tower after less than two years.

The Meers paid $17.5 million for the three-bedroom spread in April 2021,having sold their Point Piper pad a year earlier for $18 million.

The 220-square-metre spread returned to the market this week with a $21 million asking price.

Mosman’s frequent traders

The Balmoral slopes home of Eric and Vanessa Dodd carries a $10 million guide.

The Balmoral slopes home of Eric and Vanessa Dodd carries a $10 million guide.Supplied

Eric “the Rhino” Dodd and his wifeVanessa have long been frequent traders in Mosman’s high-end housing market,so it’s perhaps fitting that they are among the first locals to hit the market this year.

Dodd is the chairman of debt collector Credit Corp Group,and insurers First American Title and Integrity Insurance,but earned his moniker as the Rhino more than 20 years ago when he was NRMA Insurance chief executive and often went head-to-head with the company’s then chairmanNick Whitlam.

The Dodds’ current Balmoral slopes residence was purchased in early 2020 for $7.8 million fromBill andVicki Widin,owners of the Hunter Valley vineyard Leogate Estate. Ray White Mosman’s Geoff Smith takes it to auction on March 2 with a $10 million guide.

Gordon Cairns has done an off-market,$13 million sale of his Mosman home.

Gordon Cairns has done an off-market,$13 million sale of his Mosman home.James brickwood

The Dodd sales campaign coincides with settlement across the back lane of recently retired Woolworths chairmanGordon Cairns and his wifeJane’s home for $13 million.

Local sources pinned the sale on The Agency’s Nic Yates,but given no comment it was left to settlement to reveal the Palm Beach-based Cairns sold it to former part-owner of Vittoria CoffeeClelia Cantarella,who set a Mosman apartment high of $14.1 million last year when she sold her Watermarque apartment.

FromThe Castle to Palm Beach

Sophie Lee bought the beachfront house in Palm Beach in 2014 from Collette Dinnigan.

Sophie Lee bought the beachfront house in Palm Beach in 2014 from Collette Dinnigan.Supplied

ActorSophie Lee has sold her Palm Beach holiday home,securing what a local source said was close to the $6 million guide.

Sophie Lee appeared in classic Aussie films The Castle and Muriel’s Wedding.

Sophie Lee appeared in classic Aussie films The Castle and Muriel’s Wedding.James Brickwood

LJ Hooker’s Peter Robinson declined to confirm the result,but at that level it almost doubles the $3.2 million Lee and her husband,ad industry bossAnthony Freedman paid for it in 2014 when it was sold by fashion designerCollette Dinnigan.

Lee has been based in London since 2016 when she sold Bronte’s Shell House for $9.7 million. She first found fame in the 1990s asThe Bugs Bunny Show presenter and later starred in movie classicsThe Castle andMuriel’s Wedding.

Publisher swaps Alexandria for Erko

The three-level terrace owned by Piers Grove was designed by Grove Architects.

The three-level terrace owned by Piers Grove was designed by Grove Architects.Supplied

Piers Grove,former publisher of satirical news siteThe Betoota Advocate,has set a February 18 auction for his Alexandria home given plans to buy in Erskineville.

The corner terrace last traded 20 years ago for $470,000 and has been redesigned since into a three-level property by Grove Architects,the architecture firm founded by his dad John Grove.

Grove’s selling plans follow his decision to sell his stake in youth website Junkee to business partner and former Nine chairmanDavid Haslingden.

BresicWhitney’s Michael White has a $2.2 million guide.

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clarification

This story has been updated to say that Clelia Cantarella is a former part-owner of Vittoria Coffee.

Lucy Macken is the prestige property reporter and Title Deeds columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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