Prestige Property: 3804/439 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC

Spread over two dramatic levels inside Melbourne’s landmark residence, the Collins Arch, comes the luxurious ‘Penthouse 3804’.

Located in the centre of Melbourne’s CBD, the penthouse arrives with 371.5sqm of internal living and a further 113.5sqm located on the external terrace. Throughout the 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom, 4-car garage residence, full-height windows take in the views of Melbourne’s skyline, with the accommodation arranged to maximise the availability of natural light.

With the interiors designed by Woods Bagot, the penthouse sees the use of ambient natural stone, oak flooring underfoot, brushed nickel finishes and custom joinery throughout.

Entering through the lower-level formal entry, complete with private lift, the penthouse extends to a formal living area with the aforementioned north-facing views of Melbourne’s skyline alongside heady swathe of built-in cabinetry and a marble fireplace.

Taking the spiral staircase, which is carved from marbled stone (no-less), sees one arrive at the primary upper-level living.

The residences upper level is split into two distinct pods. Here, the bedrooms encompass the entire eastern wing of level 39. The master suite offers commanding views and direct terrace access alongside further bespoke cabinetry and decadent ensuite. There is a further two bedrooms found here.

Elsewhere, the intelligently zoned living areas features a beautifully appointed kitchen complete with a Cote d’Azure marble used for the splashback and island bench alongside a butler’s pantry.

Marble also adorns the bathrooms throughout the residence while feature lighting is understood to be sourced from local brands, with bathroom feature lights from Articolo and kitchen pendant by Rakumba.

There are perks to being on the top, with the Arch privy to a three-level atrium style rooftop skygarden atop the building – which the penthouse has direct access to.

Further mod-cons within the $1.2 billion build include a 25-metre swimming pool, gym, yoga room, wine cellar, entertaining lounge and terrace (not that you’ll need that), and two private dining or conference rooms.

Located in the heart of the CBD, there is unsurpassable connectivity to the city and its surrounds.

The listing is with Colliers Sam Nathan (+61 4 075 552 922), price guide $7.85m; collinsarch3804.com.au

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: 3804/439 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC

Lofty living in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.

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