Prestige Property: 7 Towers Road, Toorak, Melbourne, VIC
A prized, north-facing pile in Melbourne’s most sought-after suburb.
By Terry Christodoulou
Fri, Mar 26, 2021 9:05am
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Set in the elite enclave of Toorak is this magnificent family residence.
Offering 5-bedrooms, 5-bathrooms and a 6-car garage, the home is one of a select few properties on Towers Road to boast a north-facing rear.
The elegant manse sees a heady combination of soaring ceiling heights, stone and parquetry floors (with underfloor heating) delivered with the highest levels of craftsmanship throughout.
The impressive hall leads past an opulently fitted executive study and through to the elegantly appointed formal living and dining rooms. From here, one can access the casual living area and kitchen – the latter fitted with Gaggenau, Ilve, and Miele appliances, stone benchtops and walk-in pantry – overlooking the tennis court and swimming pool.
Glass doors provide an effortless transition from living to outdoor areas – a true entertainer’s dream – with the residence enjoying low-maintenance gardens designed by Paul Bangay and access to the aforementioned resort-like facilities.
The ground floor also boasts a self-contained guest room with ensuite and private front garden entrance.
Guided by a handcrafted marble staircase, one arrives at the master bedroom with a luxuriously appointed ensuite and expansive walk-in wardrobe. Three additional bedrooms – one with ensuite, the other two sharing a bathroom – are also found here.
The semi-basement sees a full bathroom – servicing the pool, home theatre, adjoining gym, communications room and fitted cellar. Further, another kitchen and home theatre is found here alongside a capacious garage for all the essentials.
The exclusive residence is close to Toorak Village, leading schools, transport, freeway access and the Yarra River.
The listing is with Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas (+61 418 322 994) and Michael Gibson (+61 418 530 392). Price guide $22-$24 million.
This article originally appeared on the Robb Report Australia & New Zealand.
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
By CHAVA GOURARIE
Mon, May 11, 2026 2 min
2 min
A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
