Shane Warne has reportedly bought his old home at Brighton for a sum ranging between $14 million and $16 million on 3rd August. The house comes with a stamp duty estimated to be over $800,000, and the ex-cricketer is expected to shift into his old family home in January 2017.
He had originally bought the 1880s Victorian bluestone mansion with his then-wife Simone Callahan in 2000 for $3.6 million, and had moved in by 2001. Back then, two out of his three children had been born, he had just become Australia’s greatest ever wicket taker, surpassing Dennis Lillee, and 86 was his new high score.
The house, dubbed ‘Melville’, at 32 Middle Crescent in the Melbourne suburb along the beach, had been bought for $3.6 million in 2000, according to Domain. Around the same amount was invested when the couple decided to renovate it before they decided to sell it for $8.8 million in 2008.
It was on-sold to the current vendors in 2009 for $10.1 million, and it had been on and off the market for the last two years.
Warne’s selling agents JP Dixon, who had brokered most of Warne’s real estate deals in Brighton, said that Warne plans to come back and spend some more time in Brighton. The spinner thinks that to be his favorite house, with his children having spent a considerable portion of their childhood there.
Warne had bought and sold about five properties in the area over the past 20 years. One of those properties includes 6 William St, which was bought by him in 2009 for around $8 million, before being renovated and sold in 2013 for $10.85 million.
In fact, Warne seems to have a thing for renovations. The 3014 square-meter property comes with a pool with a poolside pavilion and BBQ kitchen, a floodlit tennis court, change room and a separate mirrored gym, along with a four-car garage. The games room inside the house has a 9-seat theatre.
The six bedroom, 7.5 bathroom house has been described by Dixon as one of the most prominent period estates in the area, and one of the grandest places in the precinct of the Brighton school.
Before moving into his newly acquired property, however, Warne plans to sell his Kinane St home (again through Dixon), which takes just five minutes to reach by car from Melville, and is a block away from Dendy St Beach.
The French style four bedroom two storey Camden home has also had Warne’s personal touches and features an enormous bedroom, a self-cleaning pool in the backyard facing north, a kitchen, and a modernized family room.
The low-maintenance house was bought by Warne in 2014 for $4 million and is now listed privately with a price guide of $5-6 million.
Whatever his real estate aspirations, it seems that Warne is also on the lookout for another type of acquisition. Woman’s Day reported that 46-year-old Warne had been persistently sending messages to 28-year-old Bachelor contestant Kirralee ‘Kiki’ Morris.
Apparently he is trying to court her with his famous charm, and repeatedly asking to meet up with her. However, an unnamed source close to the TV star said that Kiki is smarter than she looks and is keeping her distance from the star, because she knows that Warne had been damaging for many of his past girlfriends.
When asked, Kiki said that they are friends, as they have been since 2011 when they met after she had modeled at an awards show. But there have been no hook-ups, no dates, and no flirting, apart from the occasional social media message.
This is contradictory to reports that claim that Warne had got hooked to Morris ever since she appeared on TV. Warne himself, in a Twitter post on Monday morning, denied having had anything to do with the current rumors surrounding him and dismissed them as laughable.