Mystery buyer of Sydney's skinniest waterfront revealed

Mercury

a day ago

Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Mark Kerry and his wife, interior designer Lynda are whispered to be the mystery buyers of Sydney's skinniest harbourfront property in Darling Point.
The property was listed with $20m hopes in January, which by its February exchange had been adjusted to $17.5m.
The four-level, four-bedroom, three-bathroom Carthona Avenue home occupies 207 sqm with a 6 meter sandy beach.
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It was a right-of-way slipway for nearby flat owners when the house was built in the early 1980s by the ­developer Bill Shipton, who died last September, aged 85.
Melbourne accessory designer Gregory Ladner and his partner, Mark Grenville were the vendors, having purchased it for $15.5m in 2022 from the Dicker Data co-founder Fiona Brown.
The bijou sur mer that sits between historic Carthona and Neidpath has been popular with Melburnians, with past owners including the late socialite Lady Susan Renouf.
It was Renouf's last Sydney house, which she sold when moving back to Melbourne to be with her daughters in the mid-1990s.
Renouf sold to the Melbourne socialite Dianne Allen for $2.9m with its next owner, the acclaimed Melbourne-based landscaper Jack Merlo paying $6.15m in 2009.
For many years it was dormant during absentee investor Carl Spies' ownership – other than its use by skylarking rich squatters for raves in the 1980s. The waterfront was then lavishly restored by interior stylist Barry Byrne under the generous patronage of landlady Dorothy Spry, who had paid $2.4m in 1989.
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The Kerry's recently sold a four-bedroom penthouse in Double Bay to Goodman Group chief executive Greg Goodman for $20m.
It had been a $15.25m off-the-plan purchase in the SJD development on Cross Street.
The couple had previously owned in Darling Point which they sold for $29.25m in mid-2023.