Crown Residences Sets Record Sales

The centrepiece of Sydney’s Barangaroo district – Crown One Barangaroo – has almost completed sale of the luxury properties that inform Crown Residences.

Of the 82 elevated luxury properties, only a small selection of two, three- and four-bedroom residences remain available – as well as a duplex penthouse.

While the price remains undisclosed, the latter is set to run to a decent figure (large two-bedroom, two-bathroom residences are currently on from $9.5 million) and boasts jaw-dropping panoramic views of Sydney Harbour, 6-bedrooms, multiple living spaces, 6.5-metre double-height ceilings, a media room and a wine room.

Even with properties remaining, Crown Residences has shattered existing sales records, pointing to the strength and allure of the Australian prime property market, even during the pandemic.

“Crown Residences at One Barangaroo has achieved a record $650 million in sales including an unprecedented 12 transactions over $20 million to date,” states Erin van Tuil, partner Crown Residences at One Barangaroo. “Despite the pandemic, we are experiencing a record number of enquiries and sales are performing phenomenally well.”

Designed by award-winning British architecture firm WilkinsonEyre, Crown Sydney’s petal-like formation sees each residence unique in size and layout and complete with dual or triple aspect views of Sydney Harbour and its surrounds.

Residents will also have access to hotel services from Crown Sydney – such as daily maid services, the hire of a private chef or wine sommelier, along with access to all the amenities such as the Balinese inspired resident’s pool, a luxury gym and more.

Six-star hotel features aside, the residences also rest above what is set to become Sydney’s bets new luxury dining quarter, the planned precinct set to feature, song others, Nobu, Woodcut by Ross and Sunny Lusted, a’Mare by Alessandro Pavoni, as well as sustainable local options from Michelin starred chef Clare Smyth which residents will be able to order up to their homes.

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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.

Crown Residences Sets Record Sales

The already iconic Sydney ‘sculpture’ scales to new heights.

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.