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Key points
- Huntingfield on Albany Road is listed for $55 million to $60 million.
- The late Ron Walker’s family home was built in 1998.
- It comes with an indoor swimming pool, outdoor swimming pool and eight-car basement garage.
Property listings
Ever wondered what it takes to live on one of Melbourne’s most exclusive streets?
The late Ron Walker’s family home at 55 Albany Road in Toorak is looking for a new owner, and comes with a price guide of $55 million to $60 million.
The late Ron Walker’s home in Toorak is for sale.Credit: Kay & Burton
The block sits in a sought-after pocket, close to wealthy neighbours such as the Fox, Gandel and Lew families, and was last listed for sale in 1981.
The grand residence known as Huntingfield was designed by Bates Smart and built in 1998.
It has five bedrooms — each with en suite — a home office, self-contained one-bedroom quarters, tennis court, outdoor swimming pool, indoor swimming pool, wine cellar, eight-car basement garage, gym, sauna, fountain and waterfall.
Known as “Mr Melbourne”, Ron Walker died in 2018 after a varied career as Lord Mayor of Melbourne, chairman of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, national treasurer of the Liberal Party, co-founder of the company that developed Crown Casino in Melbourne, chairman of Fairfax Media and Melbourne’s 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation chairman.
The agents on the sale are Kay & Burton executive director Gowan Stubbings and chairman Gerald Delany.
“The buyer for this house could come from one of the neighbouring streets, or it could come from across the globe,” Stubbings said.
“There are a few that are looking [at this price]. Over the last six to 12 months they are asking questions about ‘what have you got, what is coming up?’ And there hasn’t been a lot to satisfy them.”
Set on almost 3300 square metres, the home is ready to occupy, which could appeal to buyers wary of building delays and sets it apart from another ultra-top end sale.
There’s a tennis court, indoor pool and outdoor pool.Credit: Kay & Burton
Last year Melbourne’s house price record was smashed when crypto king Ed Craven spent $80,000,088 on a derelict house on St Georges Road, Toorak with a view to rebuilding on the block.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Grant Rule paid just short of $75 million for a mansion on the same street.
They are not the only well-heeled buyers willing to spend big. In nearby Hawthorn, a nine-bedroom Shakespeare Grove mansion listed with a price guide of $38 million to $41 million sold last month.
Even a Toorak mansion on Lansell Road, configured as a nursing home, sold within its guide of $20 million to $22 million and attracted seven parties who made offers on the property, which was ready for renovation.
And in the apartment market, businessman Adrian Portelli splashed $39 million for the penthouse apartment in the Sapphire by the Gardens development in the CBD, setting a Melbourne unit record.
The double-storey pad spans 1200 square metres and is still a concrete shell ready to be customised. The deal was handled by Colliers Residential Victoria managing director Tim Storey.
“I’m looking to install a swimming pool, multiple kitchens and potentially a bowling alley. Being a car enthusiast, I am also going to crane in a showstopping car, which will become a true centrepiece in the home,” Portelli said in a statement at the time.
The $39 million apartment sale set a Melbourne unit record.Credit: Colliers Residential
Portelli, who runs a promotions business, is also known as Mr Lambo after turning up to last year’s auctions for reality renovation TV show The Block in a luxury yellow Lamborghini. He bought House 3 for $4.25 million post-auction.
The problem for deep-pocketed Melbourne buyers is it can take time to find the right property as many owners at this level are unwilling to sell, unsure of where they would buy back in.
Stubbings said the top-end market was showing positive signs and attracting buyer enquiry.
“The market at this level, it is starved of good property,” he said.
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