Perth mining billionaire buys Sydney bolthole

PHOTO: Leonie Baldock has bought a Sydney apartment. Business News

The Eastpoint tower in Edgecliff has done developer Mirvac proud since it took shape in the early 1980s.

**The two-bedroom apartment in Edgecliff’s Eastpoint tower sold for $3 million.**

The late Lady (Florence) Packer was an early buyer on level 13 and made it her Sydney home away from Monte Carlo, until 2010 when she sold it for $2.75 million.

More recent additions to the building have included property magnate John Roth and his wife, lawyer Jillian Segal, former car dealer Neil Sutton, and missing fraudster Melissa Caddick, who bought the penthouse for her parents in 2016 for $2.55 million.

And this week, mining heiress Leonie Baldock has quietly bought a sub-penthouse for $3 million in a company name, amid expectations it is to be a Sydney bolthole.

Perth-based Baldock and her sister, Alexandra Burt, are ranked among Western Australia’s richest, thanks to the mining royalty agreements set in place in the 1960s by their grandfather, Peter Wright, and his late business partner, Lang Hancock.

Property pays off for press patron

Billionaire arts and journalism patron Judith Neilson did well on the sale of her designer Chippendale guest house when it exchanged on Thursday for $2.6 million.

**The four-bedroom terrace was renovated into a guest house for visiting artists.**

**Philanthropist Judith Neilson founded the White Rabbit Gallery in Chippendale.CREDIT:JAMES BRICKWOOD**

The four-bedroom terrace with no parking, which she bought in 2017 for $1.762 million to house visiting artists exhibiting at her nearby private White Rabbit Gallery, was initially listed for $2.2 million to $2.4 million.

Space Property’s Caleb Poka raised the guide to $2.5 million more recently, only to see six offers submitted in the expressions of interest campaign.

Neilson is a big fan of Chippendale, having first acquainted herself with the area working at Grace Bros on Broadway 30 years ago.

Among her vast local property portfolio is her designer home, Indigo Slam, a landmark architect William Smart-designed residence that won the nation’s top housing honour in 2016, the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture.

Dominion’s designer buyer

Interior architect Edwina Withers, who heads up Italian kitchen and bathroom designer firm Boffi Studio, is the rumoured $14.175 million buyer of the penthouse atop Darlinghurst’s Dominion building.

**The penthouse in the Dominion building last traded for $9.85 million in 2020.**

**Interior architect Edwina Withers is downsizing from her designer Bronte home. CREDIT: LINKEDIN**

The three-bedroom spread did well at its highly contested March auction. Richardson & Wrench’s Jason Boon kicked things off with a vendor bid of $12 million and buyer’s agent Deb West reportedly secured the sale from two other registered bidders.

To think the same apartment last traded for $9.85 million two years ago when bought by gold trader David Baker and Berry farmer Craig Hollway.

The widow of property investor and developer Andrew Towzell, Withers is downsizing from Bronte, where she sold her designer home for $15.5 million to human rights lawyer Bassina Farbenblum and her husband, Andy Kuper, founder and chief of LeapFrog investment fund.