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Wallabies great Matt Burke takes Newport home price hit

Wallabies great-turned-TV sports presenter Matt Burke and his wife Kate’s Newport listing has taken less than initial expectations, when it sold for $4.8m when they sold pre-auction earlier this year.

It had been offered with a $4.85m guide through LJ Hooker Palm Beach agent Peter Robinson.

The couple, who will be downsizing locally, first listed last September with $5m hopes.

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There had been a major 2014 renovation overseen by Iain Halliday after they bought the house in 2013 for $1,677,000.

Burke, who joined Sandra Sully on the desk of Ten News Sydney in 2013, played 81 Tests for Australia during his 12-year international career.

The settlement paperwork lodged this week shows the buyer of the five-bedroom house as fashion designer Imogen Merrony. She’s the daughter of Caroline Blackmore, the wife of Marcus Blackmore, the vitamins company entrepreneur.

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Merrony sits on the board of the Blackmore Foundation, which is the philanthropic trust of the Blackmore family.

The documentation shows her stepfather lent $5.1m to enable her purchase.

The Newport median house price sits at $2.7m according to PropTrack, down 19.4 per cent in a year, according to realestate.com.au, after 67 sales.

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Originally published as Wallabies great Matt Burke takes Newport home price hit

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