From Alan Joyce to Nicole Kidman and Jackie O,Sydney’s property winners of 2023

In the game of snakes and ladders that is Sydney’s high-end housing market,it was the titans of corporate Australia who rose to the top in 2023,more often with their pockets stuffed full from their ASX gains. Chief among them,Alan Joyce.

The former Qantas boss earned his place as the poster boy of property chutzpah mid-year when as the Reserve Bank was handing down its fourth of five interest rate rises for 2023 he was cashing in $17 million worth of company shares to buy the sub-penthouse next door to his home at The Rocks. That would be $9.25 million paid in cash.

Mercifully Joyce’s new spread is out of arm’s reach of the mystery scamp who egged his Mosman mansion soon after he paid $19 million for it last year,not that he’ll be worried about that. Less than 18 months after he joined Mosman’s high-end home owners he sold out of the neighbourhood for $21 million.

The tech bros and billionaires were largely AWOL after a busy few years (missing youMike Cannon-Brookes),but Star casino’s former chiefMatt Bekier was a good example of how a property market windfall could put the gloss on even the most mixed of corporate careers.

His Newtown converted warehouse that set a suburb high of $5.8 million in 2020 resold for $13.5 million. That’s some fancy renovation work right there.

Former Rugby Australia chairmanHamish McLennan kept his eye on the ball. Not the rugby one. As the Wallabies were limbering up for their disastrous game play at the World Cup,McLennan put his real estate know-how to work by buying designer digs in Darling Point for $29.25 million. Lucky for him he still has his job as REA Group chairman,and has since snagged a $16.85 million buyer for his Lavender Bay property.

Telstra’s newly appointed directorMaxine Brenner shrugged off a 17 per cent protest vote against her election to the board to instead focus on the pressing issue of finding a $30 million buyer for her Vaucluse home. After all,TPG Telecom’s chairmanCanning Fok managed to score a $39 million house a few doors away.

But then,Fok’s buyer was Sydney FC chairmanScott Barlow,who was no doubt giddy with relief that he’d found an out from his doer-upper in Point Piper thanks to his own $60 million unicorn buyer.

The S&P/ASX 200 was up 8 per cent since the start of the year,compared with the 10.2 per cent rise for Sydney’s median house value in that time. A detail clearly not lost on ASX chairmanDamian Roche. He sold his Cremorne home for $11.2 million to Endemol Shine chief executivePeter Newman,who in turn has already found a buyer for his $4.5 million Annandale home.

Meanwhile,Roche has decamped for Paddington,paying $13.5 million for Canva CFODamien Singh’s terrace,which is now the most expensive house in the suburb given art dealerRichard Thompson is yet to complete on his $14 million terrace. Tick tock.

By the time Balmain-Rozelle locals had woken up to gridlock surrounding the Transurban-operated WestConnex,the company’s former chiefScott Charlton was gone,taking up the reigns at Sydney Airport instead,and set to take up residence in a newly purchased $8 million house in Mosman.

Headlines warning about a looming mortgage cliff failed to produce the housing market apocalypse,but still our banking senior executives tended to be sellers not buyers.

Investment bankerTim Burroughs got in early,securing an appointment to the Westpac board the same day he found a $30 million buyer for his Bellevue Hill home.

ANZ’sMaile Carnegie was another seller pocketing almost $10 million for her Hunters Hill home,and Bank of America country headJoe Fayyad flipped his Bellevue Hill house for $21 million,more than doubling the $9.26 million he paid for it two years ago.

Politics at large

One Nation leaderPauline Hanson spoke for many Australians when she rallied against the cost of living crisis,but not for all the same reasons as many home hunters lining the rental market queues.

Hanson’s concern wasn’t so much about soaring rents,but the plight of landlords and the neglect they have endured at the hands of the Albanese government. So concerned was she that the Maitland pub she bought in 2012 for $449,000 had to be sold. And it did,for $1.1 million.

Joining Hanson on the property market were a bevy of political types. Former prime ministerTony Abbott didn’t just sign up to join the board ofLachlan Murdoch’s Fox Corporation,but also bought a $1.425 million waterfront getaway for his summer vacay on the Mid North Coast.

Nationals MPBarnaby Joycewants $1 million for the Tamworth family home he once shared with his former wifeNatalie and four daughters,former Liberal premierNick Greiner cashed in his Point Piper pad for $14.5 million,and former Liberal MPJohn Alexander is hoping to do the same on his Southern Highlands retreat if anyone has a spare $10 million-plus.

Independent MPKylea Tink sold out of Northbridge for $6.35 million,freeing her to join the renters of Lane Cove,and Labor’s rising starAndrew Charlton put down more permanent roots in his Parramatta electorate when he bought a second property there for just shy of $2 million.

Stars of Sydney

Even beforeKyle Sandilands and “Jackie O” Henderson made radio history signing a new contract with KIIS FM reportedly worth more than $200 million they had found ways to spend it.

Jackie bought a knock-down rebuild on the Clovelly oceanfront for $13.25 million,and Sandilands got out of the rental market buying a house in Vaucluse for $14 million.

Best-selling novelistLiane Moriarty paid $19.5 million for a Mosman mansion,and her mateNicole Kidman expanded her hold on Lavender Bay’s Latitude building by $7.7 million when she bought her sixth apartment in the block.

Seven’sLarry Emdur secured a $1.9 million sale of his Berowra Waters retreat this week. It’ll swell his coffers nicely with the $2.78 million he scored in August for his Kangaroo Valley holiday home. And hours after Emdur’s sale logged on property portalsThe Project’s former hostCarrie Bickmore sold her Byron Bay getaway for $4.3 million.

The Cricket World Cup failed to interrupt the property plans of some of our best players.Steve Smith listed his glamorous Bronte digs for $7 million,now discounted to $6.7 million.

Knocking everyone for six wasMitchell Starc and Alyssa Healy’s play of the year,paying $24.5 million for the luxury Charlotte Park equestrian estate at Terrey Hills from the parents of Swans co-captainCallum Mills (known asDarren) andSimone Mills. Good thing Starc’s play for India’s Kolkata Knight Riderstopped out at a record $4.43 million this week,making him the most expensive IPL player ever.

Tennis champLleyton Hewitt and his former actor wifeBec made a grand return to Sydney,paying $10.3 million for fairly schmick acreage at Glenhaven from none other than former Parramatta Eels greatNathan Hindmarsh.

Snakes,not ladders

But in the game of snakes and ladders,for every ladder on the board,there is a risk of sliding down a snake. Ask former billionaire mining magnateNathan Tinkler. His bid to sell his resort-style mansion on the beachfront north of Coffs Harbour looked like a done deal in August. It wasn’t the $30 million he’d hoped for,but at $25 million it was still a ripper deal.

If the buyer just hadn’t failed to complete on the deal.

Since then,things have been a little awkward. City of Coffs Harbour council wants its $105,000 worth of outstanding rates,more caveats from outstanding creditors have accumulated on title,the local market has come off,buyers are reticent ... and you start to see why the asking price is now $15.9 million.

The receivers for missing fraudsterMelissa Caddick are also yet to sell. The Edgecliff penthouse she purchased nominally for her parents waslisted in spring with $5.5 million hopes only to be pulled from its October auction.

The latest price guide remains a secret,butBruce Gleeson,a principal at the court-appointed receiver Jones Partners,did say that while “no acceptable offer has been received so far … we remain confident of a sale in the near future”.

Michael Teplitsky’s bid to buy arguably the best property development site on Sydney Harbour for $115 million came to naught. Instead,businessmanJohn Roth has bought out his stake to take up the grand scheme instead.

Hold for 2024

Not everyone got to play their hand. HeiressFrancesca Packer Barham is yet to land her hoped-for $32 million for her Horizon sub-penthouse and tech entrepreneurPatrick Grove is still patient almost eight months into his campaign to sell his $70 million Darling Point house.

Freight bossArthur Tzaneros isn’t sweating it on his $45 million Vaucluse home despite paying $61.5 million in Bellevue Hill,and chicken heiressJessica Ingham awaits her $15 million buyer for her Finger Wharf pad.

For those still waiting for a buyer,let Mortgage Choice co-founder Peter Higgins be a beacon of hope to you all. Thirteen years after he listed his Marara estate in Avalon Beach for $40 million,inflation and a buyer finally caught up with him in April and he sold it for just that amount.