A judge has warned billionaire investor Alex Waislitz and his singer fiancée Rebekah Behbahani that their legal costs in a dispute with Rebekah’s sister, Venus, will soon pass the value of a Toorak townhouse in dispute, unless the two sides try to reconcile.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Claire Harris on Thursday rejected a legal application by former Melbourne Real Housewife Venus Behbahani to include new claims against the couple, relating to content scoured from an old iPhone which was Rebekah’s but has come into the possession of Venus.