City Beat: Brisbane developer hints he may buy historic Lamb house

A mega-wealthy Brisbane property developer has coyly suggested he might dig deep to buy one of the city’s most historic homes, which has just come on the market after years of neglect.

Prominent Brisbane developer Kevin Seymour outside Lamb House. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Will he or won’t he?

A mega-wealthy Brisbane property developer coyly hinted Monday he might dig deep to buy one of the city’s most historic homes, which has just come on the market after years of neglect.

Rich Lister Kevin Seymour has long had a passion to return the vacant, heritage-listed mansion atop the Kangaroo Point cliffs to its former glory, a restoration project he estimates could cost as much as $12m.

But that effort came to nothing after he had a falling out two years ago with eccentric elderly owner Joy Lamb, who has now lost control of the grand old home after the Public Trustee won court orders to oversee her estate.

Kevin Seymour

Seymour, whose family fortune is estimated to exceed $900m, told City Beat that he would consider acquiring the property after initially insisting that he was no longer interested.

“We’ll think about it but we’ve been burned before,’’ he said.

Offers to buy so-called “Lamb House,’’ which dates from 1903 and is considered of the state’s finest examples of federation architecture, close on May 27 through real estate agency Savills on behalf of the Public Trustee.

The land valuation alone on the 3146 sqm site was last pegged at $6.1m in 2019, with speculation the site could change hands for more than $8m.

But the Leopard Street home is in a shocking state of disrepair, a problem made worse by vandals and squatters.

Lamb, who moved out in 2015 after the second-storey bathroom floor collapsed, accused Seymour of wanting to knock down the home to make way for a unit tower. He rejected that claim as a “total fabrication,’’ noting the site’s protected status.

Joy Lamb

“Our ambition was to create something for the city, to preserve it for the city,’’ said Seymour, who previously retained architects and builders to advise him on the scope of works needed.

“We’d just love to see history recreated. You’d have to start from scratch. If you do the house, you’d need to recreate the entire premises. The roof is falling in, there are cracks in the brickwork and vandals have smashed the stained glass.’’

Lamb said she was “very unhappy’’ about the sale and claimed she was seeking advice to challenge the intervention of the Public Trustee.

The Brisbane City Council flagged plans last year to sell the property after Lamb’s delinquent rates bill topped $335,000. Nearly $400,000 is also owed for disputed land tax.

She stopped paying to protest the council’s allegedly improper development approval for neighbouring properties, which she claims damaged the home.

A spokesman for the Public Trustee declined to comment.