A home that sits on a sprawling 20,000sqm block was once on the market for $850,000 less than ten years ago – despite it now being worth up to $50million.
The house on Hambledon Road in The Ponds, in Sydney‘s northwest, has made headlines across the country due to the owners’ refusal to sell up.
For decades, the intensely private Zammit family have been the proud owners of the five-acre property that includes a 200metre long driveway and triple-car garage.
The home slices through a massive block of the new development, abruptly turning through-roads into cul-de-sacs, with homes wedged up hard against the home’s boundary fence.
It boasts breathtaking views across to the Blue Mountains with the spectacular Newnes Plateau visible in the distance, and is just a 40 minute drive from the CBD.
The Zammits have rejected offers from developers that are reportedly as high as $50million.
But in November, 2015, it was listed on the market for seven days with a price guide of $858,000 to $945,000, house records on RP Data show.
The home is smack bang in the middle of a new-build development in The Ponds area near Quakers Hill in Sydney’s northwest
The Zammit’s property is believed to have more than five bedrooms and boasts a large triple garage for the family’s cars, including a classic Ford Falcon XR6, and a basketball court
In February, 2016, the house went up for sale again for the same price guide, but was then taken off the market again after a week.
It hasn’t been listed again.
The Zammits are an extremely private family and have refused to discuss the offers they’ve been made to move out.
However, they have admitted the land is unrecognisable from when they moved in 16 years ago.
‘It used to be farmland dotted with little red brick homes and cottages,’ mother Diane Zammit, earlier told Daily Mail Australia.
The Quakers Hill home stands on 1.99 hectares and has a majestic, Windsor Castle-style, 200m-long driveway cutting through the huge lawn to the front door
Developers gradually brought up the surrounding blocks of land, but the intensely private Zammit family refused to sell
The family has refused to disclose the offers developers have put to them for the property
‘Every home was unique, and there was so much space – but not any more. It’s just not the same.’
Stunning aerial images have emerged of the home, and show the huge changes in the area since the family moved in two decades ago.
Australian buyers agent Ella Cas, 22, said the lot was worth so much because it could be divided into 46 or 56 lots depending on how conservative or ‘greedy’ the developer was.
The average lot size in the area is 300sqm, with each selling for about $780,000.
‘So if developed, the revenue would be conservatively $35.8million or $43.68 million dollars if I’m a Sydney developer,’ Ms Cas explains.
‘This doesn’t even include development cost, and already you have not made back the $50million dollars you spent on the land.’
The Zammit’s property is believed to have more than five bedrooms and boasts a large garage for the family’s cars, including a classic Ford Falcon XR6, alongside a makeshift basketball court.
Its massive but neatly-trimmed lawn takes around two-and-a-half-hours to mow, with the couple’s young son regularly tasked with the epic job.
The home is surrounded by around 750m of fencing to hold back the burgeoning and ongoing construction work erupting around them.
Neighbouring blocks of land sold for up to $239/sqm in 2012 – which would have valued the Zammits’ five-acre property at around $4.75million 10 years ago
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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