One of Australia’s top private boarding schools – St Margaret’s in blue chip Qld suburb Ascot – is the new owner of Jasmine Stefanovic’s childhood home after buying up an entire street there.
Records show a company founded by the 1892 religious order which created the school – Society of the Sacred Advent Schools – snapped up Stefanovic’s childhood home at 2 Towers Street, Ascot, almost as soon as it was listed for sale.
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The SSAS paid $4.1m for the circa 1890 six bedroom home as the popular school, known locally as Maggie’s, lays groundwork for the future.
The purchase is the largest sum the school’s owner has paid for land in the area since it was founded. It already owns all of Ascot’s Petrie Street – including the 3.9 hectare site that the school sits on.
The Society has patiently been buying up property around it as it lists including 825sq m at 5 Towers Street for $185,000 in September 1984, 20 Petrie Street (1,262sq m) for $355,000 in January 1986, 18 Petrie Street (2,552sq m) for $650,000 in July 1987 and 12 Petrie Street (814sq m) for $1.85m in July 2008.
Mrs Stefanovic, who attended Brisbane Girls Grammar, grew up in Ascot and went on to create shoe business Mara & Mine with Tamie Ingham of the Ingham’s Chicken richlist family.
Her parents Bob and Cheryl Yarbrough had bought the home in 1997, when Mrs Stefanovic was 13, for $485,000 – giving them a gain of $3.615m in 25 years.
The Stefanovic’s sole Queensland footprint – a beach home in Noosa’s Seaview Terrace that they bought for $3.6m in January 2020 and reportedly spent $1m renovating – did not sell when it went to auction this year.
The family plans to keep the holiday home for now as an escape, with it also listed for luxury short term rental at $3,700 a night.
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