Art and trophy-home collector John Schaeffer has no sooner added his Frederic Leighton sculpture, An Athlete Wrestling with a Python, to the John Schaeffer Collection at the Art Gallery of NSW than he has listed his similarly prized Dover Heights landmark home for about $10 million.

Schaeffer and his film producer partner Bettina Dalton bought the distinctive art deco residence only two years ago for $4.85 million from locksmith Jason and Haley Carr, then gutted it leaving only the original brickwork.

Ric Serrao, of Raine & Horne Double Bay-Bondi Beach, is taking it to auction on December 14.

The listing follows Schaeffer's windfall of about $5.5 million last weekend for his Darling Point apartment through Paul Biller, just a year after he bought it for $4.25 million.

Birchgrove record

Healthcare boss Jayne Shaw has bought a waterfront residence in Birchgrove, setting a suburb record at $11.75 million.

Talk of a new suburb record had circulated in recent weeks, pinned on Danny Cobden, of Cobden & Hayson, but was only able to be confirmed when settlement records lodged the sale of the Wharf Road property.

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Jayne Shaw has bought a record-setting residence in Birchgrove. Photo: Peter Braig

Records show the 805-square-metre property was previously part of the Stannards holding, but was sold to property developer Thomas Tosich and his wife Suzanne in 1994 for $1.385 million, and the current residence built the following year.

Shaw, a former co-owner of the Sydney Breast Clinic and now chair of the breast cancer and blood screening business BCAL Diagnostics, is upgrading from her own Wharf Road waterfront home in the same suburb which she sold for $6.5 million in July, also through Cobden & Hayson.

Her purchase tops the $11.5 million high set in 2008 when pokie heir Mark Ainsworth, son of billionaire poker machine maker Len Ainsworth, bought a Gothic-style villa up the street.

The Sapphires' Beverly Briggs lists

Three of the original Sapphires, from left, Beverly Briggs, Laurel Robinson and Lois Peeler. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

Beverly Briggs, of the 1960s pop sensation The Sapphires, is selling her Zetland terrace about 40 years after she bought it to move to Melbourne closer to family.

Beverly Briggs and ???Naomi Mayers, Lois Peeler and Laurel Robinson were the inspiration behind the award-winning Australian film by the same name about battling racism and sexism in 1960s and '70s Australia.

The Zetland terrace is expected to sell for around $1.2 million. Photo: Supplied

Having moved from Shepparton in Victoria to her cherished "doll's house" in Merton Street, Briggs later worked at the Aboriginal Medical Centre in Redfern.

Dean Applegate, of Laing + Simmons CBD-Surry Hills, has set a December 9 auction and a guide of about $1.2 million for the three-bedroom home.

Stylish downsize

Bill Heaton and Peter MacCormick have bought into the Almora block. Photo: Supplied

The newly completed Almora boutique block of apartments on Balmoral slopes was always going to be a sure thing, downsizer demand being what it is locally. And look who's bought into the latest project of property developer veterans Bill Heaton and Peter MacCormick.

One of the first in was Fiona Biondi and Peter Hanscomb, chief executive of Belle Property, paying $6.65 million to convert the two top-floor apartments into one penthouse.

The latest into the PBD Architects-designed block is Barbara Ell, former wife of property developer Bob Ell, with records revealing a $5 million spend through The Agency's Nic and Kingsley Yates.

Change of focus for movie man

Dean and Annie Selmer have put their Balmoral home up for auction. Photo: Supplied

Academy Award-winning cinematographer Dean Semler and his wife, actor and director Annie Semler have put their Santa Fe-style home in Balmoral up for a November 25 auction.

Semler's work includes Mad Max II, We Were Soldiers, Apocalypto and Dances with Wolves, for which he won an Oscar.

Adam Vernon is asking $3 million to $3.3 million for the residence. Photo: Supplied

Through it all the Semlers have been long-time Mosman locals, and bought their Balmoral home in 1980 for $140,000, now with minor interest held by their daughter Ingrid.

Adam Vernon, of Vernon Partners, is asking $3 millon to $3.3 million.

Sum of whole greater than parts

This Point Piper apartment is selling for $6.9 million to $7.5 million???. Photo: Supplied

It says more about the value of land in Point Piper than the apartment market, that a block of absolute waterfront on Wolseley Road, which would arguably fetch about $30 million, has a mid-level apartment in the triplex for sale for $6.9 million to $7.5 million.

No slight on the apartment of the late accountant Jacob Belfer, who bought the neighbour to Aussie John Symond's mansion for $2.425 million in 1995.

The whole-floor spread goes to auction on December 2. Photo: Supplied

It goes back to the value of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, according to selling agent Ken Jacobs, of Christie's International, who sold the nearby Fairfax family's Elaine estate in April for $71 million - well above what it might have otherwise sold for if it had been sold piecemeal.

Jacobs has set a December 2 auction of the whole-floor spread.

Historic home should deliver

The historic Tullaree in Pymble is up for $2.9 million. Photo: Supplied

Francophile and founder of The Little Grocery Service Alison Wykes is selling her Pymble Federation house with a $2.9 million guide.

The historic Tullaree, owned for much of last century by the Widdis family, was bought by Wykes in 2007 for $1.345 million from a company name headed by architect Stephen Gunns.

It goes to auction on December 2 through McGrath's Alex Mintorn.

Founder of The Little Grocery Service Alison Wykes is ready to move on from the property. Photo: Supplied

After the big deal

IT industry veteran Ian Poole took a six-month sabbatical last year after his UXC Connect company was bought out by global IT services provider CSC for $428 million, and has followed up by listing his Mosman home with a November 25 auction.

Bought by Poole and his wife Yasmine in 1998 for $788,000, the three-level house with a pool and views over Quakers Hat Bay returns to the market with a guide of $4.4 million to $4.84 million through Tim Foote, of Belle Property Mosman.

The Mosman home of IT boss Ian Poole has views over Quakers Hat Bay. Photo: Supplied