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Woollahra’s $8m designer digs fit for fashion’s high priestess Edwina McCann
By Lucy Macken
Australia’s high priestess of fashion publishing and doyenne of Vogue Australia, Edwina McCann, has made a glamorous return to Sydney’s high-end housing market, paying more than $8 million for the Woollahra home of bitcoin miner James Manning and his wife Louise.
The purchase comes two years after McCann sold her Rose Bay home, pocketing $11.5 million with David Basha, although her latest purchase is set to be in her name only after the two split recently.
The 1890s villa was sold for more than $8 million to fashion publishing doyenne Edwina McCann.Credit: Domain
The exact purchase price remains undisclosed by Highland Property’s William Manning (no relation to the vendors), but it was listed for $8 million to $8.5 million in March, and a well-placed source confirmed it sold within the range.
The freestanding villa comes with all the designer credentials you’d expect of McCann, officially titled editorial director of News Corp’s glossy magazine division News Prestige. Built in the 1890s, it scored a contemporary redesign a few years ago by James Garvan Architecture, complete with Tamsin Johnson interiors and Wyer & Co landscaping.
Edwina McCann is the former Vogue Australia editor-in-chief and now editorial director at News Corp’s News Prestige stable of glossy magazines.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
And yet, the four-bedroom house was no easy sell. It was first listed three years ago for $8 million to $8.8 million after the Mannings purchased a landmark 1960s house up the road – long known as one of Kerry Packer’s “grace and favour” houses - for $16 million from Henley Homes boss Rob Bowen and his partner Skye Holden.
It was a brief ownership. A year later, the Mannings sold the modernist digs for $15.5 million, copping a loss to high-profile developer Nabil Gazal and his wife Tahlija.
Manning, who founded bitcoin miner Mawson Infrastructure and chairs artificial intelligence data centre firm Sharon AI, did better from their more recently sold Woollahra home. Having paid $3.5 million in 2017, the more than $8 million sale price more than doubles the capital gain.
McCann’s purchase coincides with the sale a few doors away by fashion designer Camilla Frank, who sold her distinctively styled villa, Villa Camilla, for about $7.5 million through PPD’s Alexander Phillips, given an upgrade to a $12.5 million house in Bondi.
The Victorian villa was redesigned by James Garvan Architecture in recent years with interiors by designer Tamsin Johnson.Credit: Domain
Cash is king
Mark Chiba, chairman, partner and co-founder of Tokyo-headquartered private equity investment firm Longreach Group, has emerged as the $22 million buyer of Darling Point’s Victorian Italianate villa Trevenna-Roskear.
Chiba paid cash for the landmark residence after it was listed by The Agency’s Ben Collier with a $20 million guide.
The Darling Point residence Trevenna-Roskear is regarded as one of the suburb’s most romantic homes.
Former barrister-turned-vigneron Frank Kalyk and his wife Glenda have doubled their money on the property, having purchased it for $11 million in 2016 from JPMorgan’s Asia Pacific head of investment banking Paul Uren.
Built in the 1880s as two terraces that have long since been consolidated, it was renovated five years ago by interior designer Darryl Gordon and comes with Annie Wilkes’ parterre garden.
The Kalyks are increasingly based in France, where in 2015, they bought a chateau in Bordeaux but have also snapped up another Sydney bolthole, paying $12 million for the Paddington terrace of agent Maclay Longhurst.
Mosman’s off-market
Rosemary and Mark Mezrani, chief of kids toy retail chain Kidstuff, have quietly sold their Mosman home for about $25 million.
The couple has already moved out of the grand Federation home on 1440 square metres with a swimming pool that they purchased in 2001 for $5.5 million.
Mark Mezrani, owner of Kidstuff, at work in his Glebe offices.Credit: Nick Moir
Set to take the keys later this year is near neighbour Duane Cadman, a partner at StepStone Group, and interior designer Jennie Cadman, of Periwinkle Interiors.
Having sold the Cadmans into the property, Atlas’s Michael Coombs has also sold the Cadman home two doors away for what multiple local sources say was about $15 million, which is in line with the guide set earlier this year by Coombs.
The Mosman home of Jennie and Duane Cadman was redesigned by architect Adam Hampton.Credit: Domain
The Cadmans purchased it in 2018 for $7.4 million and undertook a dramatic redesign by architect Adam Hampton with Periwinkle Interiors.
Comedic timing
Two years after comedian Lawrence “Moonman” Mooney listed his Southern Highlands property, Wandarrie, it has finally sold, although with a few price discounts in the meantime.
The 1930s-built Wandarrie at Burradoo has been sold by Lawrence and Lou Mooney.
The historic 1930s residence in Burradoo was purchased by Mooney and his wife Lou in 2020 for $2.95 million after he joined Sydney breakfast radio as presenter of Triple M’s revamped breakfast show, Moonman in the Morning.
Lawrence Mooney moved to the Southern Highlands about four years ago.
He was sacked from Triple M in late 2021, and later settled his $1 million breach of contract claim against Southern Cross Austereo.
Mooney first listed the Burradoo property in 2022 with $4.8 million hopes.
Highland Property’s Corina Nesci took over the listing last year with a revised guide of $4.5 million, which was dropped to $3.8 million more recently before it sold this week.