Prestige Property: 20 Linlithgow Road, Toorak, VIC

Toorak, Melbourne’s blue-chip locale is filled with a heady array of historic homes and modern mansions, yet few compare to the 950sqm contemporary masterpiece listed here.

Sprawled across a 1270sqm block, replete with low maintenance garden, the Stephen Jolson designed residence boasts 4-bedrooms, 3-bathrooms, 6-car parking across three levels in one of Toorak’s most prestigious positions.

The striking sculptural façade of cantilevered solid concrete ‘blades’ and tall window walls are the most salient features of the home.

Inside, it conceals lavish interiors highlighted by Australian Bluestone walkways, American Oak floors, and a hydronic underfloor heating system.

Arriving via the circular drive and grand bronze porte cochere entry one emerges into voluminous gallery-like spaces that provide sophisticated living, dining, and entertaining.

A central light atrium extends throughout all three floors while northern light pours in through walls of glazing that unfold to the entertaining terrace.

Elsewhere, the Statuario marble kitchen with separate scullery and bar is fitted with Miele appliances, three Vintec wine fridges and a Sub-Zero fridge and freezer.

The casual open living and dining areas include a hidden home theatre, descender TV and gas fire.

The first floor finds a library with yet another kitchenette, study or fifth bedroom while a central bathroom accompanies four retreat-style bedrooms including the palatial master suite with twin deluxe walk-in robes. Also here, a study, stunning open ensuite replete with marble benchtops, a freestanding stone bath and private terrace all enjoying panoramic valley views.

Downstairs sees a lounge with granite bar, concealed kitchenette, gym, steam room and bathroom complementing the jaw-dropping 20-metre indoor lap pool.

Throughout the home is fitting with smart technology including full CBUS home automation, enjoys access via private lift, boasts an oversized three-car garage (with parking for a further three vehicles) while enjoying Toorak’s conveniences moments from Toorak Village, High Street Armadale and Melbourne’s most esteemed private schools.

The listing is with RT Edgar’s Antoinette Nido (+61 419 654 856) with a price guide of $15.5m-$17m; rtedgar.com

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.

Prestige Property: 20 Linlithgow Road, Toorak, VIC

Step inside one of Melbourne’s architectural masterpieces.

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