Tech rich listers join the billionaires of North Bondi in $8.5m digs

Rich listers Collis and Cyan Ta’eed made tech corporate history in May when the tech firm they had co-founded, Envato, was sold for $373 million. It was just what they needed to buy into Sydney’s housing market.

This is no trophy home mind, but it is a really nice house nonetheless in the billionaire enclave of North Bondi.

The contemporary four-bedroom house in North Bondi was listed for $8.5 million before it was sold before auction.Credit: Domain

Settlement on the deal is yet to take place so it remains unknown how much they paid for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom house, but it was listed with an $8.5 million guide by Raine & Horne’s Mark Yeats and sold prior to auction. Pre-auction offers usually come in well above the guide in order to get a deal done before the competition shows up.

Cyan and Collis Ta’eed sold Envato in May for $US245 million ($373 million).Credit: Nakita Pollock

For those who missed the highlights of the Envato story, it was founded 18 years ago in a Bondi garage by the Ta’eeds and their friend Jun Rung only to become one of Australia’s most successful private tech companies valued at more than $1 billion on the Australian Financial Review Rich List.

In terms of their own fortune, the Ta’eeds debuted on the AFR Young Rich List in 2016 worth a combined $184 million, as did Rung and Collis’s brother Vahid Ta’eed with $43 million each.

Then along came global giant Shutterstock with $US245 million cash for the owners of the “digital assets marketplace” firm.

The home of Andrew Hayes and Joanne Schaeffer last traded in 2009 for $1.86 million.Credit: Domain

For their money the Ta’eeds have purchased a house designed by architect Mary Ellen Hudson using recycled bricks and Shou Sugi Ban black cladding (think charred timber), set across two levels with parking for two cars and a swimming pool.

The house was commissioned by Andrew Hayes and Joanne Schaeffer, the latter of whom is the daughter of the late arts patron and trophy home collector John Schaeffer. The couple purchased it in 2009 for $1.86 million.

The purchase marks a handsome return to Sydney for the Ta’eeds. In 2022, they sold their Melbourne home, a four-bedroom semi in Windsor, for $2.41 million, to move to Darwin to focus on their First Nations-focused philanthropic programs.

Avalon Beach’s price champion

The home of Shane Gluskie was built on a waterfront parcel that was once part of the Finisterre estate.Credit: Domain

Mortgage Choice co-founder Peter Higgins and his wife Rebecca had already set an Avalon Beach high last year when they sold the Marara estate for $40 million, and have now taken second place in the local house price record books.

The couple’s latest deal is a purchase for more than $20 million for a house just up the Pittwater shoreline.

The exact price remains unknown given no comment by LJ Hooker Palm Beach agents Peter Robinson and Jonothan Gosselin, but it is estimated at $21 million – above the $20 million guide.

Peter Higgins at his Richmond polo estate, the Sydney Polo Club.Credit: Brook Mitchell

The contemporary four-bedroom residence with jetty, pool, boat shed and slipway is set near the tip of Stokes Point and was once part of the Finisterre estate when owned by the late publican John Toohey.

In 1990 Toohey subdivided a 2000-square-metre portion of Finisterre and sold it off for $1.67 million to Shane Gluskie and her late husband Laurence, parents of fund manager Angus Gluskie.

Toohey later sold Finisterre in 2002 for what was then a record $20 million to the late yachtie winemaker Bob Oatley, which is now relegated to the third most expensive local sale result.

The Marara estate at Avalon Beach sold for $40 million.Credit: Domain

Higgins co-founded Mortgage Choice in 1992 with his brother Rod, but is no longer a director of the broking firm after it was acquired by REA in 2021 for $244 million.

Higgins was a patient vendor of the Marara estate, having listed it 13 years before it sold in April last year for $40 million, and he is yet to settle on the deal.

Higgins is proving almost as patient on the sale of his Richmond polo estate, Sydney Polo Club, which was listed in 2019 with $75 million hopes but was last pitched to buyers with a $55 million guide.

Bellevue Hill big spender

“Phoebe” Chunlan Liu has amassed quite the collection of high-end real estate since she moved here from China, clocking up more than $61 million worth of prestige real estate in recent years.

The Bellevue Hill house sold by Kim and Mike Buchanan is set on a battleaxe block of 1400 square metres.Credit: Domain

Liu, a director of her own investment company Phoebe Jade, has most recently purchased for more than $26 million the Bellevue Hill residence of Kim and Mike Buchanan, the Singapore-based expat who heads up the Australian investments of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

The Michael Robilliard-designed residence with pool, cellar and a gym was originally listed for $30 million.

Liu first lodged her name on high-end title records in 2021 when she paid $22.6 million for an apartment in Crown’s 71-storey tower One Barangaroo, adding a $12.46 million house in Bellevue Hill last year from Mark Chikarovski, son of former state Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski.