Football club co-owner lists Mosman’s Victorian Gothic mansion Allowah

Western Sydney Wanderers FC co-ownerGlenn Duncan lives in Florida nowadays – heading up the family’s industrial business Pirtek – which leaves the Mosman mansion he owns with wifeLisa fairly empty at times.

Cue the couple’s decision to sell the Victorian Gothic mansion,called Allowah,at auction on April 4 with a guide of between $12 million and $14 million through McGrath’s Claudia Portale.

Duncan – whose fatherPeter founded the family company in 1980 and who holds the mortgage on the Mosman residence – has owned the 1881-built home since 2014 when it was sold by banking executiveTim Robinson and his wifeKirstine for $8.5 million.

The 1239-square-metre property was once a boarding house and later a block of five apartments until the Robinsons converted it into a single residence. In recent years it has scored new interiors byLisa Burdus and aPaul Bangay garden.

Spread out in Mosman

Still in Mosman,the apartment of former Macquarie Media bossRussell Tate and his wifeCarole was slipped onto property websites on Friday before an April 6 auction.

This is the whole-floor spread that is regarded as the largest of its kind in the suburb,and comes with private lift access,a separate one-bedroom apartment and access to a tennis court,pool and gym.

Agents say the only pad that comes close in size is in the Watermarque development,where the suburb’s apartment high was set at $14.1 million last year thanks to the sale by Vittoria Coffee’s former part-ownerClelia Cantarella.

Tate,who last year was appointed chairman of Boost Media,bought the property in 2010 for $4 million when downsizing from the family’s waterfront home in Longueville.

Pello’s David Smeallie has a $7.8 million to $8.5 million guide.

BBC’s man in Mackerel

The sleepy Pittwater enclave of Great Mackerel Beach is set to lose its highest profile holiday homeowner,BBC correspondentMichael Peschardt,even as a who’s who of the eastern suburbs descend in ever greater – and richer – numbers.

Auntie Beeb’s leading interviewer and his wifeSarah have handed the plum offering – regarded as arguably the beach’s most popular holiday rental – to LJ Hooker Palm Beach’s BJ Edwards,who has a $6 million guide ahead of the official campaign launch.

The couple bought the classic 1960s beachfront house for $1.56 million in 2018,although they have undertaken what Sarah describes as a major “labour-of-love renovation” since.

Peschardt has been based in Sydney since 1990 despite his high-profile gig at the British broadcaster and for the past 23 years has called Bungan Beach home.

Among the eastern suburbs identities to have “discovered” Mackerel in recent years is tech billionaireMike Cannon-Brookes,who first bought locally in 2020 for $2.35 million and late last year added a second getaway for $2.55 million.

The eastern suburbs’ federal electorate of Wentworth is represented by Independent MPAllegra Spender,who – with her husband,Canva executiveMark Capps,bought a shack in 2017 for $535,000,and upgraded to new digs recently for $1.8 million.

And the buyer of Spender’s former getaway for $1.025 million? Space Industry Association of Australia chiefJames Brown,former husband ofDaisy Turnbull and son-in-law of former PMMalcolm.

Smorgon family sells

The prominent MelbourneSmorgon family have listed their Bondi Beach getaway after 20 years.

Buyers are being given a guide of $8 million by JT Allen’s Joshua Allen,who has set an April 4 auction.

The whole-floor spread with level access and three bedrooms is one of three in a triplex and was purchased new in 2003 by Toorak-basedNorman and Tania Smorgon for $2.8 million.

The Smorgons are one of Australia’s great dynasties,amassing one of the country’s largest and most enduring family fortunes,and a diversified portfolio of interests,most notably in steel. Smorgon Steel was sold in 2007 for $2.5 billion.

Modernist classic

A modernist house designed by iconic architect John James,of the Sydney School,is being sold by TV producerJennifer Cummins and healthcare property development executiveMichael Lochtenberg.

Built in 1959 by James as his own home,the four-bedroom house is one of the first examples of the Sydney School style of architecture,and was home to his architecture practice until he sold it in 1966.

Lochtenberg and Cummins,who owns the Heiress Films production company,bought the property for $2.05 million in 2012,making them only the third owners.

It was previously owned for more than 40 years byGeoffrey andElizabeth Hannes – parents of former Macquarie bankerSimon Hannes,who was convicted of insider trading in the late 1990s. It was the largest case of insider trading ever tried untilRene Rivkin’s 2001 Qantas share trading trial.

The four-bedroom house has been renovated in recent years and is set on 3800 square metres with a pool,sauna and fire pit. Ray White’s Lisa Davies and Nick Thompson have a $5 million to $5.5 million guide.

Psychic forecasting

Spiritual mediumDaniel Hawken has weighed into the property forecasting game,thanks to a bit of prompting from Title Deeds,predicting Sydney’s property market “will experience another boom from this October”.

Good news for next year’s vendors but not necessarily Hawken,who might have jumped the gun given he has listed hisMaroubra pad for about $2 million through Di Baker,of her eponymous agency.

According to Baker,Hawken’s celebrity clientele includes Irish singer-songwriterSinead O’Connor,and he’s selling up to move to the country,where he plans to start running retreats and write a book.

The two-bedder is one of six opposite Maroubra Beach,and has been renovated since he bought it in 2018 for $1.3 million.