The grand home was listed with a price guide of $65 million to $70 million and has been marked as under offer on its online listing.
Chiminello confirmed the home is under contract at a higher price than the guidance range, but would not be drawn on the exact price or the details of the buyer.
Ed Craven previously bought an Orrong Road house for $38.5 million.Credit:Paul Jeffers
Known as Blair House, the Georgian Revival home is set on an oversized block of 7800 square meters and comes with a tennis court, kitchen with butler’s pantry and AGA oven, separate guest accommodation, expansive lawns and north-facing gardens.
The vendors are the Nanut family, selling a deceased estate.
Chiminello said Melbourne’s prestige market has gone “from strength to strength.
“It hasn’t taken a backward step despite the sentiment around property,” he said.
“These sorts of opportunities are generational, so whether the market is going up, down or sideways, there is always an undercurrent of interest in these sorts of opportunities.”
Victoria’s previous house price record was $52.5 million for the mansion known as Stonington, in Malvern, sold by art dealer Rod Menzies in 2018.
The previous highest price paid in Toorak was by Chemist Warehouse owner Sam Gance, who spent $43.1 million to buy a Lansell Road pile from British businessman Mark Healey and his wife Kelly last year.
In Hawthorn, former Australia Post boss and now Latitude Financial Services chief executive Ahmed Fahour sold his home Invergowrie for $40.5 million last year to Angela Tomisich, who co-founded the analytical science and devices company Trajan Group.
Stonington mansion in Malvern held the previous Victorian house price record.
Technology entrepreneurs have been active in Toorak’s top-end market. Kogan.com founder and chief executive Ruslan Kogan paid $38.8 million in the suburb in 2018.
Also on St Georges Road, an oversized block sold for $38 million in 2017 to mystery buyer Qi Yang, and a Grange Road home was sold by Guy King, co-founder of discount coupon website RetailMeNot.com, for $31.25 million last year. Music promoter Michael Coppel sold his Hopetoun Road home for $30 million.
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In South Yarra, a home near the Royal Botanic Gardens fetched $36 million when the Blythe family, of Spotless Group fame, sold to Owen Kerr, the co-founder of foreign exchange broking company Pepperstone, in late 2018.
High prices have been paid on the Mornington Peninsula too, where a Sorrento clifftop mansion sold for $30 million to private equity boss Ben Gray.
Melbourne’s prestige property market traditionally defies broader property downturns, as well-heeled buyers who have had business success searching for generational homes, undeterred by rising interest rates or broader market sentiment.
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