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London-based rag trader Malcolm Webster has sold his Darling Point terrace ahead of this weekend's scheduled auction, bringing an end to his extensive home real estate holdings in Sydney.
The sell-off comes after a decision earlier this year to place his high-profile brands David Lawrence and Marcs into voluntary administration, with debts of almost $30 million.
Webster's house sale result was being kept under wraps by Daniel Gillespie, of Belle Property Bondi Junction, but is likely to have sold well above the $4.5 million guide given the pre-auction deal. A source tipped a result closer to $4.8 million.
It comes just weeks after the fashion industry veteran sold his Paddington worker's cottage for about $1.72 million, again through Gillespie.
Webster, best known for co-founding Jigsaw in the 1970s, bought the grand Darling Point terrace with his wife Eileen in 2003 for $3,365,000.
Webster's residential sell-off, totalling some $6.5 million, comes as administrator Rodgers Reidy announced in February that more than 40 workers looked set to lose their jobs when the doors are closed on 13 Marcs and David Lawrence stores in coming months.
Webster bought the David Lawrence label in 2000 and added Marcs in 2006 when he bought it from high-end retailer Oroton.
The group has 52 stores, 11 outlets and more than 140 concessions stores across Australia and New Zealand.
In recent years Webster has been scaling back his Australian property interests, selling the historic Merrilla property near Goulburn for $6.06 million to London agribusinessman Anthony Crichton-Brown in 2015, and that same year offloading a commercial property in Waterloo for $29.5 million.
David Lawrence and Marcs closures are just two of the latest high-profile fashion brands to go into administration, and were followed by Herringbone and Rhodes & Beckett within days. Children's label Pumpkin Patch announced it was being shut down late last year.
