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A lavish estate at 26 Browns Road, Main Ridge, has sold to buyers who have made an unusual offer to the vendors.
A luxury Main Ridge estate with a truffle orchard and architect-designed barn set above its indoor-outdoor pool has sold to a buyer with an extraordinary offer.
A long list of inclusions at the 26 Browns Road property range from a series of dams and billabongs the current owners spent “vast amounts of money” transforming into a natural ecosystem.
But it’s an offer attached to the quaint garden cottage that has prompted Sotheby’s International Realty’s Rob Curtain to label the close to $9m deal a “perfect sale”.
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The homestead’s extensive gardens were a key part of the buyers’ interest.
The sellers might be back to spend more time in a charming cottage on the property.
“The new owners have said to the old ones ‘keep your key and you can always stay in the cottage when you like’,” Mr Curtain said.
“It’s the nicest thing I have ever heard in a sale. It’s one of those perfect sales where everyone is very happy.”
The vendors transformed the gardens, including creating a man-made ecosystem around the dams and more formal garden spaces fringing the home and its eye-catching barn – designed by Stephen Akehurst.
Productive greenery also includes vegetable patches and an orchard producing everything from citrus and stone fruit to truffles.
And despite the 3.24ha size of the property, it’s been snapped up by downsizers.
Despite available plans to renovate the main home, the buyers are happy with it the way it is.
Sweeping views are on show from several rooms of the main residence.
“A lovely family coming from a big acreage property in the country bought it,” Mr Curtain said.
“They wanted to downsize, but this gives them a bit of the best of both worlds. And they loved the view of the water and the garden.”
Rather than renovate the property following available plans, the new owners just intend to tidy it up a bit before moving in.
The sale emerged quickly, with the buyer making a move just two weeks after it hit the market.
The home’s barn-over-the-pool feature attracted multiple buyers despite a high asking price.
The striking cellar and entertainment space above the pool added to the appeal.
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“It was sold the day before the sale board went up,” Mr Curtain said.
But it almost got scuppered with another prospective buyer visiting the home while the buyers were on their way to finalise the contract.
“That buyer would have spent another $1m on the home (renovating and adding to it),” Mr Curtain said.
“I think we had four key buyers in, but within the timing only one wanted to put their hand up with a cheque — and that made the difference with this vendor.
The home’s extensive gardens are filled with quiet spaces to enjoy the scenery.
They also produce vegetables, herbs, a variety of fruits and even truffles.
“But they were even happier that it was going to someone who is going to keep the property in the same format that they had planned when they bought it.”
Mr Curtain could not confirm an exact sale price, but said it had been near the top of the home’s $8.2-$9m quoted range.
The new owners collect the keys in April.
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