The three-bedroom house on Wategos Beach is set to be a,and was closely followed by the $22 million purchase in May by fellow billionaireJustin Hemmes on nearby Belongil Beach.
The Wategos Beach house sold early this year for $23 million to Anthony Eisen,setting a new record for Byron Bay.Domain
Our billionaire class were not the only high-profile identities who helped set suburb records from Byron Bay to Bermagui,and added fuel to Sydney’s 10.2 per cent median home value growth. Joining them was a who’s who of business,sport and environmentalists.
The top sale of the year of $76 million set a Bellevue Hill record thanks to the upgrade of flower businessmanLeo Lynch,although the eastern suburbs show-stopper was the $45 million house sale in Tamarama to New York-based ad-manDavid Droga.
Venture capitalistCraig Blair,of AirTree Ventures,and his partnerMelanie Caffrey set a $29.25 million high in Bronte,buying the home of Cygnet Capital’sDarien Jagger. A record of $14.2 million was also set in Coogee thanks toJonathan Lim,of private equity outfit Liverpool Partners.
Adman and Accenture Song chief David Droga paid $45 million for Tamarama’s Lang Syne.Domain
Elsewhere in the eastern suburbs there was a $9.55 million sale in Queens Park,an $18.45 million record in Maroubra and a $33 million house sale in Watsons Bay for the home of Clear Skincare Clinics founderDr Philippa McCaffery.
Twenty-two years after former Arnotts chief executiveSandy Dawson snr and sculptorJane Dawson sold their Randwick family home,their son,McKinsey&Co’sAngus Dawsonbought it back for $14.5 million.
Dr Gene Sherman surrounded by artworks at her recently sold,$26.5 million home in Centennial Park,Braelin.Louie Douvis
Philanthropist and galleristDr Gene Sherman sold her historic Centennial Park mansion,Braelin for,making it the third time the house has claimed the suburb’s top result since 2015. Tech billionaireMike Cannon-Brookes did it first when he bought the home for $12 million,and did so again when he sold to Sherman in 2018 for $16.5 million.
Downsizers led the records in Paddington and Elizabeth Bay. The former when environmentalistGeoff Cousins and his author wifeDarleen Bungey paid $20 million for a penthouse in the Paddington Green development,and Elizabeth Bay’s apartment records were smashed by yachtieMatt Allen’s penthouse purchase in the Billyard Avenue development.
Inner-city slickers
ArchitectAdam Haddow pocketed $8 million for his award-winning apartment atop the Cleveland&Co development,and The Rocks house price record was smashed early in the year when aged-care mogulDr Shane Moran sold the historic Darling House for $23.1 million to the family of Filipino businessman and Western Sydney Wanderers co-ownerJefferson Cheng.
Provectus Care chief Dr Shane Moran at historic Darling House at The Rocks before he sold it for $23.1 million.Louise Kennerley
Newtown scored a couple of top sales. First when a Victorian terrace sold for $6.85 million to barristerJason Downing andAmanda Lintott,founder of luxury car products company Autonomy Co. That sounds impressive but only until former Star casino bossMatt Bekier almost doubled that selling his converted warehouse for $13.5 million.
Bekier also set a record for Callala Beach when he sold his South Coast weekender for $5.3 million toMelanieandGlenn Poswell,the Gannet Capital founder and former chief of thePacker family’s Ellerston Capital.
Northern highlights
Portovenere is a 3000 square metre property in Clontarf that sold for $32.18 million by the one of Cambodia’s ruling families.Domain
Clontarf’s landmark 1960s-built residence Portovenere previously held the suburb high thanks to the $11 million sale in 2016 by the estate of the late arts patronsAmina andFranco Belgiorno-Nettis,but its sale in May for $32.18 million stunned even the most seasoned local agents. It was sold by former husband and wife from Cambodia’s ruling familiesMadina Tao andMongkol Phara,the latter of whom is the son of Cambodian Deputy Prime MinisterChea Sophara.
Cathal O’Rourke returned to the UK this year to take up a senior executive role at the family company Laing O’Rourke.Renee Nowytarger
A couple of weeks later at a private auction for the Fairy Bower home of Cathal O’Rourke,of UK’s largest private contractor Laing O’Rourke,a new high was set for Manly of $25.05 million thanks to buyersLucy andPaul Dundon,chief of absence management company Direct Health Solutions.
Up the Northern Beaches at Whale BeachCatherineandRenato Coneliano,of the recently floated chemical distributor Redox,set a $14.3 million high.
The couple didn’t need a mortgage to settle on the clifftop house of veteran merchant bankerMike Crivelli,no doubt in some small part thanks to the timing. The day after they bought it the family-run Redox hit a peak on the ASX at $2.62.
Star cricketersAlyssa Healy andMitchell Starc smashed all previous records for the Forest District when they bought the luxury equestrian estate in Terrey Hills called Charlotte Park for $24.5 million.
Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc purchased Charlotte Park at Terrey Hills for $24.5 million.
It not only topped the Terrey Hills high of just a few months earlier of $14.1 million by GWS Giants deputy chairmanAdrian Fonseca,but also the Elanora Heights record of $15.83 million for the landmark Starship Enterprise house sold to Belrose localsSarah Burns andGreg Stockley,of GPM Marine Constructions.
The upper north shore also cracked the trophy home price range for the first time when“Alex” Chao Duan,a director of Chinese smartphone Oppo’s Australian distributor OMC Electronics,paid $20.5 million for the home of commercial property businessmanJohn Virgona and his wifeAnna.
Warrawee’s record was closely followed by a $19 million sale in Killara,purchased with no need for a mortgage byBei Chu,a director and owner of Chinese-backed property giant Greaton. Chu and her husbandKaitang Wang made headlines in early 2020 when they were among some 240 evacuees from Wuhan held in quarantine at the Christmas Island detention centre for two weeks at the onset of the pandemic.
The Killara residence of Simon Choi and Xinrong Li sold for $19 million to Greaton’s Bei Chu.Domain
Longueville recorded a $23 million sale thanks toSandy Chen Yi Fei,sister to financierOwen Chen. The Chens are familiar with the local high-end real estate,having set a Northwood,only to see the heritage house destroyed by fire last year.
The Hills District recorded a $14 million high in Middle Dural – again with no mortgage – thanks to COVID test supplier from Victoria,Gavin Grace,a director of laboratory equipment supplier Westlab and an associate ofBruce D. Hales,the global leader of the.
The luxury acreage in Middle Dural sold for $14 million to Ballarat-based Gavin Grace.Domain
At Glenhaven,former Parramatta Eels greatNathan Hindmarsh and his interior designer wifeBonnie Hindmarshsold their luxury acreage home for a record $10.3 million to celebrity coupleLleyton andBec Hewitt.
Bec and Lleyton Hewitt bought luxury acreage in Glenhaven for $10.3 million.Scott Barbour
Get out of town
Regional holiday spots also saw a slew of sales far above anything previously set on local title records. Chief among them was the South Coast oceanfront property at Bermagui,Nerimbah Farm.
It sold for $10.5 million to a company majority-owned by Macquarie Capital’s executive chairmanDavid Roseman.
Further north in Narrawallee a beachfront house sold for $12 million – again in cash – to retiring farmersRoz andMax Graham,whose Galong property Argyle sold recently for a reported $33 million.
On the edge of the Royal National Park at Bundeena an $8.2 million deal was struck for a beachfront house purchased by property investorsDion Morrison andCharlotte Breen, the.
The Horderns Beach house at Bundeena sold by Debbie Donnelley for a record $8.2 million.Domain
The Central Coast’s Pearl Beach logged a $12.25 million sale on title records thanks to the purchase of UK private equity investorThomas Fussell fromLinda Cunningham,wife of former Goldman Sachs group treasurerMichael Cunningham.
At Boomerang Beach there were two records. First at $5.575 million thanks toKate andSam White,of the real estate franchise family,and soon after at $6 million thanks to the holiday home plans of neurosurgeon and former AMA presidentProfessor Brian Owler and his partner,AMA NSW chiefFiona Davies.
Reclusive Savage Garden musicianDaniel Jones and his wife,former Hi-5 starKathleen de Leon Jones paid $5 million for The Coppice at Tuckombil in the hinterland,but by far the most impressive deal set for regional NSW was set again in Byron Bay.
Not by the billionaires Hemmes or Eisen,but byTom andEmma Lane,of the Oroton fashion empire family. The Lanes sold their,known as The Range,for $33.65 million to a company trust fronted by Bondi-based tech company bossBen Bray,who turned 28 this week.
The Range at Coopers Shoot was described by Tom Lane as “a perfect fusion of an Australian farmhouse with Spanish Finca influences”.Supplied