Redfern house price record: Macquarie banker buys schoolteacher’s house for $5.75m

The mystery buyer who paid the record $5.75m house price in Redfern for a schoolteacher’s house that cost $800k two decades ago has been revealed for the first time.

700 Bourke St, Redfern, was always going to be popular because it’s on a 335 sqm block, which is large for the inner city.

The mystery buyer who paid the record $5.75m house price in Redfern for a schoolteacher’s house that cost $800k two decades ago has been revealed for the first time.

The online sold sticker on the four-bedroom freestanding residence on a 335 sqm block in Bourke St went up last week.

It had been quietly listed with Ray White Touma Group principal Charles Touma on his agency’s website since June and he has remained silent on both the price paid or the identity of the purchaser.

But the chatter in the neighbourhood has been in overdrive since last week’s gobsmacking deal, with first the price and, now, the purchaser identified: an executive at a subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, long known as“The Millionaire’s Factory”.

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The large freestanding home sits behind a high fence in Bourke St.

The dining room opens through timber doors to the large yard.

The Redfern purchasers have been confirmed as Scot Thompson, a division director at Macquarie Asset Management, and his wife, Heather.

The couple are upgrading from a terrace in Surry Hills, which is yet to hit the market.

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The Redfern market has changed considerably since the owners of the Bourke St house, a now retired science teacher from Sydney Boy’s High School, Michael Kay, and his wife, Claerwen, bought for $807,500 in 2001.

Back then, the median house price was $397,500. Now, according to realestate.com.au, it’s $1.75m.

Timeless interiors.

There are multiple living areas, inside and out.

Large homes on big blocks have been increasingly highly sought after, particularly since Covid, and the 335 sqm block owned by the Kays is one of the largest residential blocks in Redfern.

The previous record for a Redfern house was $4,975,000.

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That was achieved a year ago by Maclay Longhurst of BresicWhitney for a three-bedroom, three-bathroom Thurlow St terrace, designed by architect Luigi Rosselli, which is on a 168 sqm block.

These sales both relate to regular houses. A warehouse conversion at 86 George St, Redfern sold a year ago for $6.85m via BresicWhitney’s Shannan Whitney. The buyer was Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci.

With four bedrooms, there’s plenty of room for most families.

The big private yard would be popular with kids and pooches.

The Bourke St freestanding house offers a private and sunny garden with terrace and a garden studio, which has access via the rear pedestrian lane.

The home is close by St Jude Café and Little Eve and a short walk from the new Surry Hills Village shopping centre and apartment redevelopment.

Originally published as Redfern house price record: Macquarie banker buys schoolteacher’s house for $5.75m