Jonathan Munz sells Portsea pile to Russell Knowles for $2.5m profit

Rich Lister Jonathan Munz has made a $2.5 million profit from selling the Portsea house he purchased just two years ago to former rich lister Russell Knowles.

Mr Munz, whose estimated $1.1 billion fortune put him 50th on last year’s Rich 200, sold his mansion at 3808 Point Nepean Road for $13.5 million last Monday in a boardroom auction that pitted Mr Knowles against two other parties and drew 22 bids.

Mr Knowles, whose family’s retirement village empire sold to Stockland in 2007 for $329 million, confirmed the sale.

The sale of the five-bedroom home that last changed hands in February 2016 for $10.7 million – at $10.2 million for the house and a further $500,000 for the attached boatshed – shows the surge in demand for properties on the tightly held Point Nepean Road. The price guide was between $11 million and $12.1 million and with as many as 10 initially interested parties, the boardroom auction was triggered by an offer that was already higher than the price range.

A boardroom auction for the property pitted three bidders and elicited 22 bids.
A boardroom auction for the property pitted three bidders and elicited 22 bids. Image Factory
“We were lucky to have two people in the boardroom auction two years ago,” Kay & Burton agent Liz Jensen, who sold the property both times.

“This time … we had to go to seven other parties who were genuinely interested over the $12 million level.”
The vendor had spent about $300,000 on the property in the intervening two years, said Ms Jensen, who declined to confirm her client’s identity or the sale price.

The sale is subject to a lengthy settlement period of longer than a year, a person with knowledge of it said.

Mr Munz, who reaped an extra $373 million pay day last year from a further sell-down of shares in the plumbing supplies company Reliance Worldwide Corporation they listed in 2016, did not respond to a request to comment made via Reliance.

The clifftop mansion last sold for $10.7 million in 2016.
The clifftop mansion last sold for $10.7 million in 2016. Image Factory
Rovina, the clifftop single-level house set on 2000 square metres, was designed by architect Geoffrey Sommers in the early 1960s and clusters living areas around a central courtyard and pool with separate guest cottage.

The house drew extra attention because while on the cliff, it had a less severe drop and was more accessible to the beach than other houses along the Point Nepean Road, Portsea’s most prestigious strip.

“This is almost level and that’s multigenerational,” Ms Jensen said. “People love that. To use the Portsea clifftop, you need to be a mountain goat. You need to be fit.

“[With] this particular property, Rovina, you walk out onto the back terrace … and there’s a little walkway, a little gentle slope – you could carry a tray of drinks down to the boatshed without spilling anything.”

Read more: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/rich-homes-jonathan-munz-sells-portsea-pile-to-russell-knowles-for-25m-profit-20180424-h0z6ev#ixzz5DpWbH5RV
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