‘Not spent $10’: Billionaire’s ex-wife’s eye-catching new home

Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond’s ex-wife Amber is putting the finishing touches on her new home which is a far cry the couple’s former $200m mansion.

Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond ex-wife Amber has an eye catching new home. Photo by Brianne Makin

Amber Symond, the former wife of Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond, is incrementally nearing completion of her residential conversion in Paddington.

Symond is converting the former Savill Galleries art space into her residence after buying it for $5.3m in June 2021.

The semi-retired art dealer Denis Savill, who offered seven paintings by artist Arthur Boyd for midweek auction, had owned it for four decades. He boasted during the Hargrave St terrace marketing that after his 1985 renovation he’d not “spent 10 dollars on it since”.

RELATED: Aussie John wants record $240m for waterfront mansion

Before.

Almost after.

The renovation plans are expected to cost close to $1m

The initial plans by Hancock Architects for Symond were approved in February 2023. They were costed at $924,000 in the development application submitted in August 2022.

Last month, Symond got approval for her fourth modification to the plans, including reconfiguring internal walls, moving skylights and windows as well as moving the location of a toilet.

Her first Section 4.55 modification was submitted in June last year. The next a month later.

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Plenty of character.

Plenty of skylights.

They were approved in August and September.

These amendments included the layout and depth of the basement.

The third application was submitted last November and given the green light in January this year. It included the installation of a lift.

Symond has also made changes to the master bedroom, walk-in robe and ensuite layout.

Amber Symond. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Meanwhile, no sign of her approved $4.9m renovation to Killountan at Potts Point getting underway.

The 1890s-built former boutique Simpsons hotel premises on Challis Ave were bought for $12.5m in late 2020.

The local whisper is that it could be onsold if the right offer lobbed with the Mosman-based fashion designer whose Common Hours label has released a 1920s-inspired collection

Across town John Symond has already received “multiple offers above $200m” for his Point Piper mansion Wingadal, reliable sources say.

Entrepreneur and Aussie Home Loans founder 'Aussie' John Symond's Point Piper mega mansion is up for sale.

He is seeking a ‘dream price’ of $240m.

The home boasts an extensive art collection.

The Alec Tzannes-designed waterfront residence on 2,676 sqm — the size of four normal housing blocks — at 2 Wingadal Pl hit the market on May 1 with hopes of more than $200m.

Yet a separate industry source advises Symond’s dream price is $240m — “and he’ll probably get it,” the source added, who said one of the offers on the table was $206m.

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Originally published as ‘Not spent $10’: Billionaire’s ex-wife’s eye-catching new home