Sydney's 'Villa Florida' Is On The Market

Offering true waterfront, 12 Tivoli Avenue, Rose Bay, Sydney – built-in 1928 – is set across 1290sqm and is ready for sale.

Enjoying an extensive refresh courtesy of acclaimed architect Michael Suttor, the three-storey, 7-bedroom, 9-bathroom, 4-car parking residence – affectionately named ‘Villa Florida’ – offers an elusive street-to-waterfront property with views of Sydney Harbour.

Suttor and his team restored the home beyond its former glory, making use of its architectural features – such as the arched windows, a pitched cathedral ceiling, wrought iron balcony details and a jaw-dropping spiral staircase – drawing a line heightened levels of ‘European’ luxury.

The home sees a manicured courtyard area usher you into the approx. 930sqm home. Inside, the residence is replete with a combination of parquetry flooring, travertine limestone tiling and sandstone finishes alongside Venetian plastering finished in beeswax.

On the lower ground floor sits the billiard room, family room and kitchen, fitted with European appliances, granite benchtops and custom cabinetry.

Also on the lower ground floor are two bedrooms, each complete with an ensuite, accompanied by a further bedroom and access to the terrace.

Up the aforementioned spiral staircase to the ground floor lands the master suite which features a walk-in-robe and ensuite with access to a private balcony and the sunroom providing further water views through the arched windows. A further two bedrooms are also found on this level.

Elsewhere, on the ground floor, arrives the formal dining and living, complete with a working stone fireplace and another kitchen – with finishes coordinating with the downstairs offering.

Throughout the expansive residence, the nine bathrooms feature mosaic tiling and travertine limestone flooring with granite details.

Upstairs further to the first floor sees a further two bedrooms and a library that is accompanied by a large sandstone terrace that has capacity for 200 people.

Outside, the sandstone adorned pool loggia arrives with a bathroom and chef’s kitchen. Here, the terraced gardens guide you down to the water’s edge allowing the owner to soak in the best of what Sydney has to offer.

The listing is with Black Diamondz Property Concierge’s Monika Tu (+61 409 898 888) and Jad Khatta (+61 432 669 287). Price guide $45 million.

Blackdiamondz.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.

Sydney’s ‘Villa Florida’ Is On The Market

This historic waterfront pile could now be yours.

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