A tycoon from China has snapped up Vaucluse icon Villa Igiea making it second priciest home in Sydney

IT has been home to some of the biggest names in Australian business but now Villa Igiea in Vaucluse has been purchased by a young property tycoon from China.

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IT has been home to some of the biggest names in Australian business but now Villa Igiea has been handed over to a new generation, a 27-year-old property tycoon from China.

The Vaucluse mansion has fetched around the $52 million mark and was negotiated off-market by China’s 92nd richest person “Jim” Shangjin Lin.

The grand Villa Igiea in Vaucluse was built in the 1920s.

Mr Lin is a recent graduate of Macquarie University and managing director of property development giant Aqualand.

It is expected to be the second most expensive property in Sydney behind the $70 million paid by Chinese billionaire Chau Chak Wing for the mega-mansion of Erica and James Packer.

Villa Igiea was built by the Grace retail family to a design by Neville Hampson in the 1920s and was inspired by a grand 1908 villa in Palermo, Sicily.

It is perhaps best knows as the home of the late TNT transport magnate Sir Peter Abeles who owned the property until he died in 1999.

With views to the Harbour Bridge and surrounds what better place to bring in the New Year?

Since then the property was owned by Nicky McWilliam who sold it to entrepreneur Wayne Burt in 2005.

Mr Burt spent around $10 million on the property and also bought the property next door.

When Mr Burt moved to Switzerland with his Swedish wife in 2012 Villa Igiea became one of Sydney’s finest short-term rental properties.

The home has hosted celebrities like Stevie Nicks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and their six children, Beyonce and JayZ and Katie Perry.

Those rentals and the long list of others who have booked to stay in the home in coming months mean Mr Lin will be waiting months before he can move in.

Around $10 million has been spent on the property since 2005.