The Sell: Annie Cannon-Brookes returns family portfolio to acquisitive overdrive
The property portfolio of Mike Cannon-Brookes and estranged wife Annie has returned to acquisitive overdrive – with three recent purchases, all bought by Annie.
NSW
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The expansive property portfolio of billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and his estranged wife Annie has returned to acquisitive overdrive with three recent purchases.
But all have been bought by Annie, suggesting she is intent on shining as a property princess in the wake of their separation last July.
All three purchases have been in familiar territory, with the latest reputedly being the restored 1890s heritage-listed Southern Highlands estate, Anglewood House, which has been sold off market by Matthew Csidei for $14.5m.
Last month, she bought Bonython, the hidden office compound of adman John Singleton in Paddington, for about $30m, despite already having family offices in the now remodelled $18.5m former German consulate on Trelawney St, Woollahra.
Last June, Annie alone spent $14.25m to buy a neighbouring property to Casa Paloma, their tropical Newport getaway that the Cannon-Brookes family bought in 2020 for $24.5m after its construction by Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall.
Annie also acquired Dunk Island on the Great Barrier Reef for $24.5m in 2022.
In recent years, the pair spent more than $500m on about 30 properties in Sydney and southern NSW, topped by the 1.1ha Fairwater estate in Double Bay in 2018 from the estate of the late Lady Mary Fairfax for $100m.
Their first buy in the Highlands was when they bought the 390ha Joadja Creek Farm for $3.3m in 2016.
There is continued speculation on the Cannon-Brookes’s northern beaches cluster as their name is bandied around as the mystery buyer of Rocca Bella, the current Whale Beach spec-build of Hawkins and Wall, for about $30m.
Works remain under way with its Christmas Eve 2022 off-the-plan sale creating continuing intrigue.
Mike Cannon-Brookes hasn’t been known to have bought since April last year, but has not sold either.
He ranked sixth among the billionaire winners of 2023 after a comeback for tech stocks on recently published The List – Australia’s Richest 250 in The Australian newspaper.
The shares in the NASDAQ-listed software business Atlassian surged more than 80 per cent last year, and by last month Cannon-Brookes’s wealth was put as $22.92bn compared to the previous year’s $16.06bn.
Rich 250 editor John Stensholt wrote last December that it remained to be seen what effect the break-up of Cannon-Brookes’s marriage had on their wealth.
COUCH POTATO RICKI-LEE SITTING PRETTY IN RENTAL
Singer-songwriter, Australian Idol co-host and Nova FM presenter Ricki-Lee Coulter and her husband Richard Harrison have announced their recent arrival on the fringe of the Sydney CBD.
They have not bought following the sale of their $2.485m longtime Avalon Beach home, but rather taken a luxury rental.
They’ve taken up residence in a vast three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment on College St overlooking Hyde Park, St Mary’s Cathedral and the Harbour that last sold for $4.48m in 2013. It was marketed at $4000 a week.
It is in the same building that singer Delta Goodrem bought into in late 2018, paying $4,825,000 for a two-bedroom apartment that she briefly sought to replace in season three of Luxe Listings Sydney.
The shared facilities in the 87-unit complex include wine storage, a 20m lap pool, gym, spa, sauna, steam room and 24-hour concierge.
Coulter revealed the apartment interiors on her Instagram recently when she shared an image of her lying on her custom-made sofa.
She advised she would be on the couch for the fortnight that she was off the air for the break in the radio ratings from the afternoon drive show she co-hosts with Joel Creasey and Tim Blackwell. Coulter took over from Kate Ritchie officially in March last year.
They had a 9.7 per cent share in the first survey of 2024, seeing them ranked as the third most listened to drive line-up in Sydney behind smoothfm and KIIS FM.
“Officially on holidays! If anyone needs me, this is where I’ll be for the next two weeks … nestled into the comfiest couch in the history of the world!” Coulter captioned the picture to her 329,000 Instagram followers.
“Haven’t been able to enjoy it much cos I’ve barely been home the last few months but Idol is done now and the album is out so I can RELAX.”
But she added that sitting on it came with rules.
“No red wine, no Doritos, no avocado, no dinner,” Coulter advised.
She said that Crafted Furniture, founded in 2015 by Paul Deuk and Rahul Raja, produced the sofa.
“Home is really where I can switch off and relax and a lot of people say that the heart of the home is the kitchen but, for me, it's the couch,” she said in the video. “I’m a real couch potato. It is the most important piece of furniture in my eyes.
“We did the U-shaped couch and we have the two ottomans we can push both into the middle to make a giant bed.”
The couple first called a Bondi apartment home together in about 2010, a year after they met.
FLANAGAN AND FIANCEE’S FIRST HOME A FAMILY AFFAIR
NRL St George Dragons player Kyle Flanagan and his fiancee Caity Airey have secured their first home together.
Their $2.65m acquisition was off-market.
They’ve bought the Burraneer home from Caity’s parents, Janelle and Craig Airey, a former director at the Cronulla Sharks, where Kyle previously played under his coach father, Shane.
Now both the Flanagans are at the Dragons, where the pair have slipped to winning only two of their first five games after going down to the Knights in a wet 30-10 Friday-night clash at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The two-storey, mid-century, modern-style home had been bought by Craig and Janelle for $1.38m in 2008.
It has five bedrooms, three bedrooms, water views and a pool. The Aireys retain a home on the same street bought for $5.3m in 2003.
They also spent $7.7m on an apartment in the Opera Residences apartment development at Circular Quay in 2017, securing a three-bedroom place off the plan in the 2019 completed Macquarie St building.
Kyle and Caitlin were engaged in Hawaii late last year after being together for about a decade.
Kyle was congratulated by his former teammates at the Bulldogs and the Sharks.
A subsequent profile on the clubs’ players and their partners noted it was the only social media posting by the private couple
The 25-year old five-eighth started his career at the Sharks in 2018 before joining the Roosters for a season in 2020. A year later, he joined the Bulldogs up until this season, when he joined the Dragons, having made 79 NRL appearances.
He is under contract with the Dragons until at least the end of the 2025 season.
PropTrack puts the median five-bedroom Burraneer house price at $3,075,000. Overall house prices sit at a $2,922,500 median, down 27 per cent annually after 44 sales in the past 12 months.
DANIKA’S GOAL TO SELL HER RENTAL
Channel 9 NRL presenter Danika Mason has listed her Maroubra investment apartment.
It’s not the Maroubra home she shared with her former fiance Todd Liubinskas, but one she bought seven years ago when she was a first-homebuyer.
The NRL lead paid $640,000 for the one-bedroom Fitzgerald Ave apartment in the 2014-built block near Coral Sea Park.
Since then, she’s updated the interiors of the top-floor unit which has 45sq m of internal space and a small balcony.
Belle Property Randwick agents Shane Vincent and Clive Carter have a $710,000 guide.
There have been more than 1800 views so far on realestate.com.au.
The apartment became a $525-a week rental in 2021 when Mason and then-boyfriend Liubinskas, a personal trainer, spent $1,525,000 on a townhouse in Maroubra, on the other side of the park.
The four-bedroom townhouse remains in both of their names.
The last one-bedroom apartment sale in the block was late last year when a ground-floor apartment with a private rear courtyard sold for $725,000 with a parking space. It had previously sold off the plan in 2013 for $565,000 by Robertson Gray Developments.
PropTrack puts the median one-bedroom apartment price at $710,000, up 16 per cent annually after 61 sales in the past 12 months.
Overall apartment prices sit at a $970,000 median and rent for $750 a week reflecting a rental yield of 4.1 per cent.
Mason and Liubinskas had been in a relationship for more than three years.
He proposed in July 2021, but last September Mason called off the scheduled Hunter Valley wedding four weeks out.
UNIT HAD A BASKET-FULL OF BIDDERS
A ground floor garden apartment in the Rockwall Gardens, Potts Point complex has been sold for $3.58m.
It sold as part of the deceased estate of Fleming grocery family matriarch Lois Fleming, who died late last year at 91.
There were six registered bidders when the Tusculum St apartment went to auction through Vicki Laing of Laing Real Estate.
The apartment cost $2.75m in 2015 when it was bought from The Block’s 2003 contestants Gavin Atkins and Warren Sonin, long known as Gav and Waz.
The duo had purchased it for $2.25m in 2014 from architect Deece Giles who had paid$1,237,500 in 2009.
It first sold in 1997 for $389,000.
Financial adviser Kenneth Fung is the executor for the estate.
The two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment is one of a handful of north-facing ground floor apartments in the building,
The 180 sqm space comes with a wraparound terrace.
It has a basement parking space and access to the facilities including pool, spa, gym and sauna. There is a smart marble lobby with 24-hour concierge.
Its levies are $3215.55 per quarter.
PropTrack puts the median Potts Point two-bedroom apartment price at $1,337,500 after 58 sales in the past 12 months.
She was married to Jim “The Grocer” Fleming from 1955 to 1982, with the prominent racing industry couple having three sons – Lee, Dean and Paul.
BEN BUYS AT BEN BUCKLER
Ben May, who co-owns the newly opened The Joey at Palm Beach, has secured a three-bedroom apartment on North Bondi’s Ben Buckler peninsula.
May’s investment vehicle, Mays Boys Pty Ltd, spent $7.85m on a three-bedroom Brighton Boulevard apartment. The 270sq m, split-level space, which was a $2600-a-week rental, was selling for the first time in two decades.
May’s been Tamarama based since paying $5.45m in 2020.
MUSICIAN’S SANCTUARY
Violist Roger Benedict, the accomplished conductor, soloist, orchestral player and chamber musician, and his wife Elizabeth have listed their Chatswood home.
The Centennial Ave home has been listed for May 4 auction through DiJones agents David Howe and Max Yue with $3.2m guidance.
The home comes with four bedrooms and an oversized office with views of the bushland reserve.
AUCTION FAIL FOR ‘PIGGY’
The Shellharbour home of 2GB Continuous Call Team member Mark “Piggy” Riddell and wife Karli was passed in on a $2.35m vendor’s bid at its midweek auction.
It has a $2.5m asking price through local agent Amanda Bonnici.
They bought the now stunningly renovated four-bedroom home in 2018 for $1,078,000 after selling at Silverdale for $1.7m.
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