Mamamia’s Mia Freedman plans $3.9m home reno with winter storage closet

There may be a cost-of-living crisis but you wouldn’t know it at the top end of town. The rich and famous are some of the biggest spenders, with multimillion-dollar renovations and rebuilds in the works all over the eastern suburbs.

Media entrepreneur Mia Freedman and her husband Jason Lavigne plan to knock down their Point Piper home bought for $12.75 million house in 2020.Credit:

In Point Piper, Mia Freedman, founder of news and lifestyle website Mamamia, and her husband Jason Lavigne have submitted $3.9 million plans to demolish their existing home, which they purchased at the height of the pandemic in 2020 for $12.75 million.

Mia Freedman’s home renovation will include two walk-in wardrobes with en suites in the master bedroom, plus a winter storage closet.Credit:

In its place they will rebuild a Roth Architecture-designed home spanning three levels. While the new home will still have five bedrooms, it will have a few notable additions, including an en suite in every bedroom. The home will also have an outdoor gym, a walk-in pantry, a butler’s kitchen, a cellar and an internal lift, in addition to the stairs.

The most boujee upgrade? Perhaps the his-and-hers wardrobes in the master bedroom, where the couple will have a separate en suite each, while Freedman will have an extra room for her winter clothes storage. Not a bad upgrade in this economy.

In nearby Elizabeth Bay, Janette Waterhouse, the former wife of ex-bookie David Waterhouse, has submitted plans to redevelop an impressive 3300-square-metre landholding, which was bought for $11 million in 2002. While the plans are still under assessment by the local council, they are grand indeed.

Tresco, which is on an impressive 3300-square-metres, was bought for $11 million in 2002, records show.Credit:

The property will be subdivided into four lots. The eight-bedroom home Tresco, which was one of seven houses designed by colonial architect Thomas Rowe in the 1860s, will sit on about 1000 square metres. Three new lots will be carved up on the remaining land, on which two Tonkin Zulaikha Greer-designed homes will be constructed along with a community title at 1302 square metres where the new home owners will share driveway access, the existing ocean pool and boat shed, as well as the surrounding gardens.

Both homes will span up to six levels, with a lift in each and luxury features such as a sauna and cellar. The development application states an objective of providing housing variety that meets the community’s housing needs. But at a cost of $22.7 million, that may end up blowing out in the current inflationary climate. The buyers would need to be well-heeled indeed.

Meanwhile, audio king Peter Freedman is also spending a pretty penny redoing his Potts Point heritage home Jenner House, for which he paid a cool $30.35 million. Plans are under way to conserve and restore the grand property, which is subject to strict rules, to the tune of $10.8 million.

That multimillion-dollar renovation will include an extension of the existing basements, a new glass house and a reinterpretation of the stables, as well as the addition of an internal lift in the historic home. The most striking detail is the bulletproof windows in the west wing of the house – to store valuable collectables, one would imagine.

Rode Microphones chief Peter Freedman has $11 million plans to restore and redevelop historic Jenner House in Potts Point.Credit:

Up the road, the Vaucluse home once linked to former Chinese billionaire and shipping tycoon Shannian Huang is also set to get a glow-up, worth $11.45 million. The existing five-bedroom, five-bathroom Durbach Block-designed house, which was bought for $8.2 million in 2015 through a company Huang was connected to until 2021, will be demolished to make way for a Tzannes-designed two-storey glass house.

Plans submitted by Min Lu, now the director and secretary of the company, show the new house will have double-glazed windows wrapped around most of the building. The first level will have an open- floor-plan living area with a butler’s kitchen and a glass skylight that runs through all levels with operable shading louvres. The second level will have four bedrooms with an en suite in each.

The rebuild will also feature two double garages, a swimming pool and extensive landscaping works. Atop the home will be a pebble roof decked out with solar. When finished, the rebuild will bring the value of the home close to $20 million.

Dana Lewis with her former husband David Lewis in 2021.Credit: Facebook

Dana Lewis, who sold her Bellevue Hill mansion with ex-husband David Lewis to F45 co-founder Rob Deutsch  for more than $37.5 million, has submitted plans to combine her Watsons Bay home with the home of her architect beau Nick Tobias next door, which will cost a mild $742,500.

Lewis paid more than $8 million for the home of former Australia trade commissioners Roger and Julie Bayliss just months after she sold her marital home. Lewis and Tobias will build a three-storey house that will combine their neighbouring homes, creating a six-bedroom property complete with a music room and bar.