From $1m to $37m and back: Chinese investor unwinds empire
A Chinese-born property developer has continued unloading the mass property portfolio he accumulated before the Covid pandemic, raking in millions of dollars.
Chinese-born property developer Zhang Bo has resumed unwinding his Mosman property portfolio.
His 77 Bay St investment property, one of the six purchases he fronted between 2017 and 2019, has been listed for April 12 auction.
It has been listed for sale through Yuanchao Pei and Weijia Pu of Ray White Green Square.
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Set on a 986sq m holding, the seven-bedroom residence offers 270-degree views stretching across the Middle Harbour, St Leonards, and Chatswood’s skylines.
Zhang Bo directs Cuilam (Australia) Investment, which purchased 77 Bay St for $7.65m cash in 2018. He owns 82 per cent of the company, with the remainder held by Haiqiang Wang from Wolli Creek.
It was bought from James Spenceley, who founded telecommunications business Vocus, and his wife, Viktoria.
It is the last of Bo’s three Bay St property purchases to be sold.
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The 69 Bay St acquisition, bought for $6.6m in 2019, sold for $9.2m in 2021 and 101 Bay St, purchased for $3.075m in 2019, was sold in 2021 for $6.2m.
With Australian residency, he still retains 26 Beauty Point Rd and 26 Euryalus St, which were bought by Cuilam for $6.2m and $8m respectively in 2017. There is also a Tivoli St purchase that cost $5.3m in 2017, which remains listed as his residential address on ASIC returns.
In just two years, Zhang went from a $1m Wolli Creek apartment to over $37m worth of Mosman property.
Zhang, born in 1987, in Guangdong in southern China, was a business partner of the billionaire Yuhu Group property developer Huang Xiangmo, who had his Australian permanent residency cancelled on national security grounds in 2018 on the advice of ASIO.
The duo had teamed up to buy $1.2bn worth of hotel and apartment developments in Sydney and the Gold Coast, which have since been offloaded. One was the upcoming One Circular Quay project.
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Originally published as From $1m to $37m and back: Chinese investor unwinds empire