Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes buys three houses next door for $12.25m

As investment strategies go, you could do a lot worse than buying next door to tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes. After all, he takes a really keen interest in his neighbours.

Not so much in the hopes of scoring a spare cup of sugar. It’s more the title to your home you’ll be hoping he’ll ask about.

Greyladyes Farm on the north-facing side of Mt Gibraltar was sold by property developer Andrew Richardson in late 2022 for $13 million.

Take his latest acquisitions downhill of his Greyladyes Farm on the north-facing slopes of Mt Gibraltar at Mittagong. What was a 9.8-hectare property he bought for $13 million in 2022 is now almost 20 hectares, for which he has forked out a total of almost $35 million.

The co-founder of software giant Atlassian first added to his local stock by buying Tintagel next door for $9.1 million a year ago, making him the owner of two of Mt Gibraltar’s best properties (both of which were coincidentally owned previously by fellow environmentalist Geoff Cousins).

This week, three more properties, each with a four-bedroom house on title, were added to the Cannon-Brookes name for $12.25 million. All are settling without a need for finance.

The largest of the three properties features a funky 1970s-era house purchased for $6 million. According to council records, it has remained unchanged since last trading for $1.3 million in 2017.

It’s not the first time Cannon-Brookes has shown such a deep-pocketed affection for his neighbour’s houses.

It was a similar situation when he and his estranged wife, Annie Cannon-Brookes, had a hankering for Double Bay real estate. What started with a heritage house for $7 million in 2016 developed into pricier house purchases nearby of $9.1 million and $17 million two years later.

This Mittagong house on 4336 square metres sold for $2.25 million to Mike Cannon-Brookes.Credit: Bethany Rae

Likewise, Cannon-Brookes didn’t stop at the $24.5 million he paid for the Newport home of Jennifer Hawkins and her husband Jake Wall. Months later he added a block behind for $1.4 million, and last year Annie added the house next door for $14.25 million.

Having established themselves as Palm Beach locals in 2013 the then-couple started exploring the western foreshores of Pittwater in more recent years, buying two houses on Great Mackerel Beach for $2.3 million and $2.55 million apiece, a house at Coasters Retreat for $4.65 million and an $8 million estate on Scotland Island.

The largest of three properties sold recently to Mike Cannon-Brookes is a 1970s house on 2.45 hectares for $6 million.Credit: Domain

The jewel in the Cannon-Brookes portfolio remains the $100 million Fairwater estate in Point Piper, to which they have since added the $12 million house next door and a $4.3 million apartment in a neighbouring block.

But wait, there’s more. As well as the Mt Gibraltar stock, there are another 11 properties in the Southern Highlands from Joadja to Moss Vale and Kangaloon, totalling more than $114 million.

Annie hasn’t let up either. Since she and Mike’s separation was announced last year, she has added the historic Anglewood House at Burradoo for $14.5 million.

Rove’s semi flip

The Coogee semi was redesigned and extended before it sold for about $7.25 million this week.Credit: Domain

Comedian and television presenter Rove McManus and his wife Tasma Walton unwittingly showcased the crazy state of Sydney house prices on Thursday when they sold their Coogee semi for about $7.25 million.

Rove McManus and Tasma Walton have flipped their Coogee semi for about $7.25 million.Credit: Chris Hyde

There was at least a major rebuild undertaken by the Perth-based couple since they purchased it at auction in 2021 for $3.76 million as a dilapidated two-bedder.

The redesign – spearheaded by Walton – created what is now a three-level semi with four bedrooms and a swimming pool. But still, it’s a semi.

The price was not on offer from The Agency’s Bethwyn Richards, who also sold their former Bronte house for $14.6 million in late 2020.

Seven’s quality content

Amid an exodus of Seven’s top brass – from Bruce McWilliam down to News director Craig McPherson and Spotlight’s executive producer Mark Llewellyn – senior executive Angus Ross looks unlikely to be handing in his security pass anytime soon.

After all, Seven’s chief content officer and his wife Joanne are the rumoured $12 million buyers of a Federation house on the Coogee-Randwick border known as St Ives.

The European-style villa in Woollahra owned by Angus and Joanne Ross hit the market this week.Credit: Domain

The 1100-square-metre property was listed by Rove McManus’s selling agent and owner Bethwyn Richards, who was asking $10 million with co-agent James Ball, of Sotheby’s.

Seven’s chief content officer Angus Ross is swapping Woollahra for Randwick.Credit: Daniel Munoz

Neither agent would comment on the sale, but they have promptly co-listed the Ross family’s European-style villa in Woollahra in the $9 million range.

The four-level home has been renovated since they bought it in 2015 for $3.85 million with interiors by designer Phoebe Nicol, as featured in the May 2019 issue of Belle magazine.

Heritage winners

In Balmain, the landmark converted Gothic-style convent owned by former Colonial First State board member Penny James and retired healthcare worker Stephen James has sold for a suburb high of $13.05 million by Laing+Simmons’ Megan Smith.

Settlement records show it was purchased by Thomas Bailey, who is coming from a nearby cottage he owns with his partner Jocelyn Li Jiayang.

The 1876-built convent was designed by colonial architect Edmund Blacket for the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.Credit: Domain

Built in 1876 by colonial architect Edmund Blacket for the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, the sale shows the market has caught up with its bullish $12 million asking price of 2020.

Still with heritage sales, the Double Bay home of Jacqueline MacMahon, of the Field pastoralist family, and her architect husband Bill MacMahon scored a sold sticker this week, six months after it was listed for $25 million by Goodyer’s Pauline Goodyer and Sotheby’s Michael Pallier.

MCA Buyer’s Agency’s Tina Clark declined to confirm the $21 million result, saying only that it sold to an expat.

The Gladswood Gardens home of Jacqueline and Bill MacMahon sold for about $21 million this week.Credit: Domain