Toorak
Clockwise from top: Apartment on Grange Road; the kitchen-dining area of the Palais Toorak penthouse; exterior of the building
J ONAT H A N C H A NC E L L OR
Shifting values
Known for its prestige houses, Toorak is now embracing the luxury apartment
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MANSIONAUSTRALIA.COM.AU
Two of Toorak’s priciest apartments have been listed for sale. Property developer Stephen Ariss is hoping for more than $14 million for his lavish ground-floor apartment on Grange Road in Toorak. The 900sq m, four-bedroom abode in the 2013-built Hemingway complex, has a 300sq m, six-car garage and is marketed as a “place of worship for car enthusiasts”. The apartment, in a block of five, has been listed through RT Edgar’s Warwick Anderson in conjunction with Kay & Burton’s Gerald Delany. Anderson says it is the best-finished apartment ever offered in Toorak. “During my 45-year career selling highend property I have not seen an apartment to rival its sheer opulence, quality, detail and authentic Art Deco revival,” he says. On the other side of Toorak Road, the recently completed Palais Toorak penthouse on Mathoura Road has been listed.
Inspired by New York’s cutting-edge Style Modern and infused with enduring Parisian Art Deco undertones, the luxurious twolevel, three-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse comes with a private pool and city views. The boutique residential offering on the edge of the Toorak village was conceived by Craig Easton of Easton Projects, with collaboration from architect Rob Mills, the SJB Interiors director Andrew Parr and garden designer Paul Bangay. It will have four hours of concierge attendance daily in a block of seven residences, which took two years longer than expected to create. Kay & Burton listing agent Ross Savas has the penthouse priced at $15 million, with an international expressions-ofinterest campaign under way. Toorak has been long known for its prestige homes, but there has been a surge in construction of luxury apartments over the past decade or so. Even so, apartments make up just 15 per cent of the market. Prices can range anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 per square metre, depending on size, location, orientation and obviously position. Stonnington Council’s three-storey planning rules make it harder to create the density some developers need to make projects work. The suburb had its first double-digit sale in 2018 when the penthouse at 29 Washington Street sold for $14 million. Developer Orchard Piper initially hoped for $20 million for the 1000sq m third-floor space boasting a pool, yoga room, sauna and 1300-bottle wine cellar, plus a lift from its four-car garage. One of the six residences in the building is now for sale at $6.38 million through Jellis Craig, having been bought off the plan in 2014 for $4.295 million. The 29 Washington Street penthouse sale almost doubled the previous record of $8.26 million at The Springfield, 19 apartments on the corner of Springfield Avenue and Orrong Road designed by K2LD Architects’ Tisha Lee for Chapter Group. Before that, in 2015, there was a $6.15 million sale on the third floor of the Douglas Street Art Deco-inspired Le Nouveau. Savas says the buyers of Toorak apartments are downsizing to low-maintenance and highly secure properties. “We are also finding a lot of expats are coming back and buying apartments as they have been used to living in cities such as London, New York and Hong Kong,” he says. Savas pinpoints Oxford and Cambridge, by Sam Tarascio of Salta Properties, on St Georges Road, as leading the shift to whole-floor triplex luxury around 15 years ago. Industry veteran Delany recalls that until the late 1960s, apartments were restricted primarily to low-rise two storey blocks and were not what is now considered luxury. “The late ’60s and early ’70s saw the emergence of luxury apartments,” he says. The 13-storey Greenways at 512 Toorak Road, alongside St John’s Church, was marketed in 1967 as offering “quiet opulence.” Moore & Hammond Architects went onto design the luxury project at 99 Spring Street, Melbourne. Kilpara, on the corner of Toorak and Orrong Roads, was designed by the late Barry Patten of Yuncken Freeman. He kept the penthouse, whose fitout was photographed by Wolfgang Sievers in 1971. The apartments, on the site considered the highest in the suburb and with city views, were priced from $42,000 in 1970. Barridene, at 546 Toorak Road, was marketed in 1972 as Melbourne’s most eminent and luxurious high rise. It had a display apartment by interior designer Peter Watson and half the building had been sold on completion. It quickly became one of Melbourne’s first residential towers of power. “These units offered a new style and standard, with the extensive use of sandstone and marble,” Delany notes. “Over the past 10 years we have experienced a new renaissance of luxury apartment buildings that have been primarily built in close proximity to the Toorak village. As would be expected, over the past six months we have not seen the commencement of projects. There are, however, sufficient planned and proposed projects to satisfy demand.” Savas is not so sure. “Over the past couple of years projects have been cancelled due to a tighter credit environment because of the [banking] Royal Commission,” he says. THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN
| AUGUST 8-9, 2020
