$25m Manly home auction sets new Sydney record

A beachside trophy home has sold under the hammer for around $25m setting a new benchmark for Manly plus a record for the highest residential auction sale ever in Sydney.

The onsite auction of the six-bedroom designer home on Bower St on Tuesday night was a private affair but when the gavel fell it notched up a new suburb record for Manly and the highest price paid at auction in the whole of Sydney.

The guide for 77 Bower St, a three-storey home with pool, was $23m and talk in the village is that the sold price was around $25m.

Agent Anthony Calacoci, of Belle Property, was prevented from revealing the price of the Bower St property but he did say it was probably the best house ever to come to market in Manly.

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“The quality of workmanship of this extraordinary home is beyond compare — I’ve never seen a home quite like it, you simply have to see it to believe it,” he said.

It was rebuilt just five years ago by owner Cathal O’Rourke, a member of the O’Rourke family of Laing O’Rourke engineering and construction company. Mr O’Rourke paid $4.4m for the original 1920s house on the 708 sqm block in 2015 and set about building his dream home through Nanna Lesuik from Housed Architects.

The property is on leasehold land with dual access, north facing with a cabana and heated pool and views from Manly beach up the northern beaches’ coastline and out to the Pacific.

Inside the house is crafted with imported stone and select timbers and equipped with the latest technology and appointments. It comes with a media room, parents retreat, home office, gym, wine cellar, lift and double garage.

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Mr Calacoci said he had loved working for the vendor and had sold property for him before. Luke Burgess, of Belle Property Manly, also worked on the sale.

Business has now taken Mr O’Rourke to the UK hence the sale.

It is unusual for super prestige property to sell at auction, often they have an expressions of interest campaign and negotiations are carried out over an extended period. The highest auction price in Sydney is $24.6m for a house that sold in Vaucluse in September 2020 for more than $10m over reserve.

Bower St is Manly’s premier address, the previous record for the street was $23m for an off-market red-brick house at 32 Bower St which sold in January 2022.

According to PropTrack, the median house price in Manly is $3.85m, down 16 per cent over the past 12 months.

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