How PR guru Roxy Jacenko made a fortune in real estate

She ran a hugely successful PR agency, but Roxy Jacenko says while many were gossiping about her and her lifestyle, she was doubling her money in the real estate game.

Briana DomjenSunday Confidential

4 min read

March 10, 2024 - 5:00AM

The Sunday Telegraph

How Roxy Jacenko turned $37k into a property empire

NSW

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Many believe Roxy Jacenko made her millions thanks to her hugely successful PR agency, Sweaty Betty.

Others scoffed at her flashy lifestyle claiming there was no way she could be living that life on a publicist’s wage.

Truth be told, Jacenko is quite the property mogul and it was multiple smart real estate moves that has resulted in the polarising publicist having owned five blue-chip properties in the second most expensive city in the world.

And it all began with $37,000.

“So many people have whispered and gossiped about me and how it was “impossible to make the money Roxy is making” through a career in PR and I always laughed,” Jacenko told The Sunday Telegraph.

Roxy Jacenkohas made a fortune in the Sydney property game. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I made a motza over the course of my 18 years in the PR game but, what they didn’t realise while they were busy gossiping, I was going out, buying and doubling my money with property – it made me laugh all the time.”

It was Jacenko’s mother Doreen Davis who encouraged her into the property game, despite the then 21-year-old fast-food employee wanting to spend her pay check on clothes.“ I started unwillingly at 21, sounds crazy to use that word but I was unwilling,” Jacenko said. “I remember my Mum pushing me and saying I needed to use my money for a property. From my then part time jobs with McDonald’s and the local florist, all I wanted to do at the time was spend it in my local General Pants. In hindsight, she was genius.

“That first apartment I bought in Sydney’s Double Bay was for $337,000 and a deposit of $37,000.

“I later sold to a developer who paid over $800,000 some four or so years later.”

Throughout the next couple of decades, Jacenko bought four other Eastern Suburbs properties, sold three and has profited substantially.

Roxy Jacenko pictured at a home in Cronulla she is giving away to one of her online course participants. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

And despite being married to wealthy investment banker Oliver Curtis, she’s done it almost on her own.

“I have pretty much always purchased on my own,” the mother-of-two said. “There was just one property – a family home, Edward St, Woollahra which I purchased with Oliver – but, other than that, I have always done my own thing. He has always been really respectful of that and appreciates that I want to ensure I establish and continue to grow my own personal wealth.

“I worked since I was 14 in order to have money to give me these opportunities. It was just fortunate that pricing was accessible when I started and interest rates were far more palatable.

“It would be impossible to do what I have done now.”

It is for this reason Jacenko announced this week she would be having an “Oprah moment” and will give people who sign up for her famed Roxy’s online Bootcamp the chance to win a $10m waterfront home.

“I wanted to give one lucky Australian the chance to win the waterfront property in Cronulla,” she said. “It gives them an opportunity which they would have likely only ever dreamt of. They could rent, live or sell it and be a multi-millionaire overnight.”

While Jacenko, who currently lives in Singapore with her husband, has sold majority of her Australian properties, she still holds 7-13 Elizabeth St, Paddington.

“It is a commercial space currently rented out,” she said. “This was formally my headquarters for my PR Agency before I decided to close the chapter on that part of my life,” she said.

And while entering the property market might not be as tough for her Instagram famous daughter Pixie and son Hunter as it is for others, she isn’t yet pressuring her kids to spend on bricks and mortar just yet.

“Pixie is 12 now, and only interested in what new releases have hit Mecca, and Hunter is nine and focused on being the next Cristiano so we don’t talk property just yet,” Jacenko said.

“That said, I do remind them that when I am old they will need to buy somewhere so I can live with them.”

ROXY’S REAL ESTATE DEALS

Roxy Jacenko’s first purchase bought at the age of 21 at Double Bay. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

8 Guilfoyle Ave, Double Bay

- Purchased in 2001 for $337K when Roxy was aged 21. She used money from her part-time job at McDonald’s and The Flower Man, at Double Bay

- Deposit was 10 per cent, timed right when the first home buyers grant came into effect. The grant contributed $14K to the property purchase

- Sold for more than $850K to a developer

- Roxy held out, as the block’s three other unit owners sold, knowing the developer couldn’t act without her unit – so she cashed in

Jacenko said she paid too much for this home in Woollahra. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

12 Nelson St, Woollahra

- Cottage-style property purchased in 2007 for $2.6m

- Underbidder was former PM Malcolm Turnbull

- Purchased with plans to redevelop into a four bedroom home but decided to sell when she became pregnant with Pixie

- Roxy says she just broke even when she sold the property, with DA approval for a new home. She reckons it was one of her worst investments because she paid too much from the outset

- Sold in 2013 for $2.63m