Juniper Green, the six-bedroom Pymble estate designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the mid-1930s, has come to market for the first time in nearly three decades and is set to go to auction on November 28 with a $9.5m–$10.45m price guide. According to realestate.com.au, Juniper Green was one of the last commissions Griffin undertook before he left for India in the 1930s, and Heritage NSW records only 13 surviving local houses designed by the architect best known for planning Canberra.
Juniper Green: A 4471sq m Estate Last Sold for $240,000
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom home at 88 Telegraph Rd, also known as the D.A. Pratten House, was commissioned in the mid-1930s by David Pratten, heir to the Pratten Brothers publishing fortune. Nick Muzha and Andres Jaramillo of Belle Property North Shore have the listing for the 4471sq m estate, realestate.com.au reports.
Kelvin Sherwood, retired founder of trucking suspension and brake specialist Air Brake Corporation, bought Juniper Green with his late wife Mary in 1999 for $240,000, according to the same report. The bottom of the current guide is therefore roughly 40 times that 1999 price, a REAStats calculation that does not adjust for inflation, renovation spending or holding costs over 27 years.
The house is built in the Prairie School style with decorative Art Deco flourishes. Realestate.com.au lists high ceilings, a banquet hall, a games room with a bar, a modern country-style kitchen, chandeliers, parquetry floors and period fireplaces. Outside there is a self-contained one-bedroom gatehouse, manicured lawns, a swimming pool and poolside cabana, a dual-access driveway, motorised gates, a porte-cochère and a multi-car garage.
Two Price Signals in One Campaign
The campaign carries two different price references in the source report. Its lead caption gives the $9.5m–$10.45m guide for the November 28 auction, while the body of the same article says the agents listed the estate through an expressions-of-interest campaign with a $14m price guide. Realestate.com.au does not explain the gap between the two figures. Buyers tracking the sale should treat the auction guide as the current reference point and confirm the latest guide directly with the listing agents.
The difference matters because heritage estates rarely have close comparable sales. With only 13 surviving local Griffin houses on Heritage NSW's count, there is little recent sales evidence for a house of this pedigree, size and land area. In that situation the guide itself becomes one of the few public signals of what the vendor expects.
Coppins: A Second Griffin Estate on Telegraph Rd
Juniper Green is not the only Griffin-designed estate on the street. Coppins, at 29 Telegraph Rd, was commissioned by David Pratten's brother Eric. According to realestate.com.au, Coppins has been seeking a buyer on and off since 2023. It was originally listed with $25m price expectations and, after a number of price adjustments, was relaunched two months ago with a new agent and a revised $17m guide.
That is an $8m, or 32%, reduction from the original expectation, by REAStats' calculation. Even after that cut, Coppins' revised guide is about $6.55m above the top of Juniper Green's auction range. The contrast gives the Pymble market two live tests of how much buyers will pay for Griffin architecture: one estate that has been relisted after repeated price changes, and one heading to a fixed auction date.
How the Guide Compares With the Upper North Shore
REAStats does not track a Pymble suburb median, but its indicative estimates for neighbouring Upper North Shore suburbs show how far Juniper Green sits above a typical local house. REAStats estimates Gordon's median at $2.1 million, with a 70% auction clearance rate and 26 days on market, and Turramurra's median at $2.25 million, with a 71% clearance rate and 25 days on market.
On those figures, the bottom of Juniper Green's guide is about 4.5 times Gordon's median and about 4.2 times Turramurra's. Even Mosman, at an estimated $4.2 million median, sits well under half of the auction guide. These suburb estimates are indicative and drawn from public market information, so they describe the broader market rather than a valuation of this house.
The wider auction market gives some context for the November 28 date. REAStats data puts Sydney's auction clearance rate at 70.8%, slightly above the 68.8% national figure, with the RBA cash rate at 4.85%. Clearance rates measure the share of reported auctions that sell, so they describe overall buyer activity rather than demand for one heritage estate. Readers wanting the method behind those percentages can read REAStats' auction clearance rate explainer.
What to Watch on Auction Day
For buyers, the key questions are whether Juniper Green sells under the hammer, whether the result lands inside the $9.5m–$10.45m guide, and how that result compares with the earlier $14m expressions-of-interest figure. For vendors of other heritage homes, the outcome will add one of the few public price points for a Griffin-designed house in Sydney.
The Coppins campaign suggests that rarity alone does not guarantee a quick sale when expectations run ahead of buyers. Juniper Green's result on November 28 will show whether an auction date and a lower guide produce a cleaner outcome for the second Griffin estate on Telegraph Rd.
