May 12, 2011 – To be sold at an auction in Perth next week is one of the ostentatious Australian properties, the Devereaux Farm. It is said to be sold at a bargain price of about $50 million.
A 2470-hectre extensive property located one-hour north-east of Perth, Devereaux Farm includes a farm, an internationally-recognized polo field, two helipads, two swimming pools, a tennis court, its own river and dam as well as two mansions, plus three cottages.
It also includes 81 hectares of spare house land package that already has been approved to be sub-divided.
It has been said that the farm was so big that it would take more than five hours to inspect the entire property and has been valued as Australia’s most expensive residential property.
However, John Garland, the principal of selling agent Garland International, predicted that it would sell well below its original asking price of $68 million after it has been on the market for a year.
The property was likely to sell for about $50 million, Garland added.
“It’s the biggest [property] holding in the metropolitan area, we believe,” he said. “It’s a unique holding without parallel in WA or probably in Australia.”
The Bullsbrook property is said to date back more than a century.
It was owned most recently for 40 years by the reclusive billionaire mining magnate, Ric Stowe, whose WA company Griffin Coal collapsed in January last year reportedly owing $1 billion.
The property is now in the hands of receivers who, less than a year ago, are recalled to have demanded $68 million for the property.
After Angela Bennett, the iron ore heiress sold her Mosman Park mansion for $57.5 million in 2009, the farm’s price would have made it the most expensive property sale in Australian history.
The former agent split the property into 16 titles when he was unable to seal a deal, although the property is now being sold together.
When it goes to auction on May 18, Mr. Garland stated that he estimated Devereaux Farm to attract a price significantly lower than he originally sought.
He said that the richest of the rich within Australia as well as overseas are interested with the property.
Mr. Garland further added, “Not a large number because it’s a very, very select grouping of people from overseas, interstate and in WA who will be capable of raising the funds – it’s quite a restricted market – [but] we have sufficient people with very strong interest in the property.”
