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Marianne Davey and her husband, co-founder of media agency Atomic 212, James Dixon, have emerged as the latest home buyers in Manly’s most coveted precinct for $22 million.
The beautiful Watershed Architects-inspired home on an exclusive Manly street is one of the top sales for the year in the suburb, bought in Marianne’s name.
The $22 million Manly home of James Dixon and Marianne Davey which overlooks the water.Credit:
Dixon, the 52-year-old chief digital officer, earlier this year sold his independent media company to French communications giant Publicis Groupe for an undisclosed price, although previous reports cited industry estimates of anywhere from $35 million to $50 million.
While Atomic is said to retain its brand, the 16-year-old company was Australia’s largest remaining independent media agency that represents major clients such as Dan Murphy’s, BMW Group, Salesforce, BHP, Origin Energy, Bupa and Tourism NT.
It will join the French advertising and public relations company’s stable that houses other agencies including Zenith, Starcom and Spark Foundry.
James Dixon of Atomic 212Credit:
It is likely to mark one of the last major deals of its kind in the industry. It’s no surprise the family went shopping earlier this year.
The purchase of the five-bedroom, three-bathroom house with a mortgage above Shelly Beach was from First Pharma director and executive chairman Andrew Howden and wife Julie. It sold through Jake Rowe of The Agency Northern Beaches, who declined to comment when contacted.
The Howdens had long called Manly home after they purchased the lease from the Catholic Church in 2013 for $3 million.
So have the Dixon-Davey family who are not moving too far, but upgrading from North Manly where a double-brick red house was purchased for $1.7 million a decade ago in Marianne’s name.
While Sydney’s trophy home market has been slower to move than usual this year, it has shown the buyer pool is willing to spend big on blue-chip addresses given Dubbo-based rich-lister Wes Maas and his wife, Emma, traded in the prized location above Shelly Beach earlier this year too.
Rare Manly semi on offer
The home of Anne Niland has a price guide of $3.5 million.Credit:
Other buyers who want to get into the Manly postcode have the opportunity to purchase a more budget-friendly property.
The home of Anne Niland, the eldest child of literary giants Ruth Park and D’arcy Niland, is on the market with a $3.5 million price guide. That’s at least less than Manly’s median house price, which sits at $4.135 million on Domain data.
On offer for the first time since 1986, when the long-serving Manly librarian purchased the house for $150,000, the north-to-rear full-brick semi is a rare chance to live in the heart of the beachside suburb.
The three-bedroom, one-bathroom home is a level stroll to Manly Beach, village shops and Queenscliff lagoon.
Anne’s love of books and long career in the local library no doubt stemmed from her parents, both successful authors in their own right.
Her mother was best known for The Harp in the South, Playing Beatie Bow, and The Muddle-Headed Wombat. Meanwhile, her father wrote The Shiralee in 1955, which gained international recognition for capturing the spirit of the Aussie bush and the tough, resilient people of the outback.
Anne’s home is selling through Vicki Lamb of McGrath Manly and is scheduled to go under the hammer on Saturday 12 July.
Legal eagle sells in Balmain
In Sydney’s inner west, the Balmain home of High Court judge Jacqueline Gleeson and her husband Angus Wells, a former director of Stevella Capital, has sold for $9 million prior to auction, local sources say.
The $9 million harbourside standstone home of Gleeson and Wells.Credit:
One of Balmain’s landmark harbourside residences that date back to 1844, the beautiful freestanding sandstone house has recorded the highest non-waterfront price this year in the Balmain-Birchgrove peninsula.
Justice Jacqueline Gleeson is the most powerful of the Australian legal fraternity’s many Gleesons.Credit: Rebecca Bana
The five-bedroom, two-bathroom home is set on a 824-square-metre elevated block with two street frontages and an uninterrupted harbour vantage.
Gleeson, who is the daughter of former Chief Justice of Australia Murray Gleeson, and Wells undertook a Paul Connor-designed renovation in 2022, which added a glass extension on the property, among other features, that integrated and respected its Victorian details.
The couple purchased the home for $3.3 million in 2010 and paid off the mortgage a few years ago.
Their home sold through Andrew Liddell of BresicWhitney Balmain, who declined to comment when contacted.
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In 2021, Gleeson was elevated to the highest legal decision-making body in the country after she was appointed by then-governor general David Hurley as Justice of the High Court of Australia, becoming the sixth woman to serve. Prior to that, she was a Federal Court judge from 2014. Before becoming a judge, she was general counsel at the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Gleeson is of no relation to former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson, SC, who this columnist reported sold his Bondi house for $10.8 million in May.
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