Ex-garbo Ian Malouf buys his neighbour’s house to create $70m compound

It’s hard to believe there was a time in the not-too-distant past when former garbo-turned-yacht brokerIan Malouf stood apart from his fellow rich list mates as a die-hard renter. But there he was,in 2020,paying former Crown casino chairmanRob Rankin some $12,000 a week for the Woollahra trophy home Woodlands.

Haven’t things changed. In less than three years Malouf and his wifeLarissa have gone full property binge,coughing up more than $208 million in ultra-prestige real estate from Palm Beach to Double Bay.

The latest Double Bay purchase is a five-bedroom house for which they competed against two other buyers at Monday’s auction to buy for $9.5 million through Sotheby’s Michael Pallier.

The 230 square metres would be just the extra garden space Malouf needs to complement the two beachfront houses in front he bought for $61 million in 2021,although a three-lot consolidation might be tricky given it flanks the end of the cul-de-sac.

Malouf’s journey from renter to shopper was no doubt helped when his Dial-a-Dump business was acquired by Bingo Industries in 2018 for $578 million in cash and shares,of which the latter have since made him richer thanks to a $2.3 billion takeover in 2021 by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets.

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The Maloufs first showed their new-found penchant for trophy homes in May 2021 when they bought developer John Boyd’s penthouse atop the ANZ Tower for $60 million,which coincided with their $20 million purchase of a Palm Beach weekender.

And because Malouf really likes his neighbours’ homes,he bought the Palm Beach house next door for $18.6 million,then set a Palm Beach record of$40 million buying up the road from Uncle Toby’s founder Doug Shears.

Malouf now ranks alongside some of Sydney’s most acquisitive trophy home collectors,like techieRobin Khuda,millennial property developerWilliam Wu and top-shopperAnnie Cannon-Brookes (unlike her estranged husbandMike who – it is said – could just as happily live in a tent when not at his $100 million Fairwater estate).

Strathfield MP buys in

Two years after Labor MPJason Yat-Sen Li won the seat of Strathfield in a state byelection to replace former party leaderJodi McKay,he has finally bought into the electorate. Nicely too.

A Federation house in Croydon’s heritage Malvern Hill Estate neighbourhood settled to Li’s wifeLucy Cooper’s name this month at a cost of $4.3 million.

Helping to fund it might be his former Cremorne home,which was sold recently by Atlas’s Adrian Bridges for $6.29 million to Barrenjoey analystTom Kierath and his wifeLucy.

Li and Cooper had owned the Cremorne house since 2010,paying $2.86 million at the time when he was vice-chairman of the Australia-Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

Tinkler’s timing

Former coal magnate-turned-discharged bankrupt billionaireNathan Tinkler finally sold his Sapphire Beach retreat this week,as regular readers of this masthead would know,for $16 million.

For those out of the loop,the cash buyer wasJamie Craven,dad of crypto casino billionaire Ed Craven,making it a return to the family’s Coffs Harbour roots,of sorts.

It was great buying for the Cravens given Tinkler had listed it with $30 million hopes,and then almost sold it for $25 million before the deal fell through.

Sotheby’s James McCowan was not answering calls this week but,it turns out,according to a source familiar with the deal,that at the time the $25 million sale was in play the Cravens were among the interested buyers. Indeed,the touted buyer was said to have originally come from Coffs Harbour.

It remains unknown what soured the deal at the time but good thing it did,for the Cravens at least. Six months later they were clearly talked into buying it. This time for $9 million less.

Swan Isle returns

Randwick’s historic Swan Isle mansion is for sale for the first time in almost a quarter of a century with a $20 million guide that Ray White’s Kate Smith expects to smash the suburb’s previous $14.35 million high.

PublicanBob Richards,a former owner of The Strand Hotel in Darlinghurst,and his wifeMary Lou paid $2.02 million for the 1906-built mansion in 2000,complete with landmark castellated towers.

Also up for sale are two beachside semis in Bronte owned by Bob Easton,the former chairman and chief of Accenture ANZ.

Easton and his wifeMarie are expected to pocket a good $15 million for the two houses given the guide of PPD’s Alexander Phillips and his co-agent Ben Bickmore-Hutt,of Belle Property.

To think they bought them both in 2015 for $7.5 million and have done what looks like diddly squat since.

The Eastons are staying in Bronte,having paid $5.7 million for a house up the hill in 2018.

And the Vaucluse digs of medical cannabis industry bossMatthew Cantelo is listed for about $30 million with Sotheby’s Michael Pallier.

This is the X.Pace-designed residence he bought in 2018 for $19.5 million fromTania Mayer,wife of former Goldman Sachs directorKarl Mayer.

Cantelo,chief and founder of Australian Natural Therapeutics Group,looks to be increasingly based in Byron Baywhere his aptly named company,Doobie Investments,purchased a house in 2021 for $5.6 million.