‘I’ve been inside the $73 million Elaine, and quite frankly — it’s ugly’
NSW Property Editor Stephen Nicholls has revealed all after an exclusive tour inside Australia’s record breaking $73m home, Elaine. Spoiler alert: The word ugly is used a lot.
WHEN I went on my exclusive tour inside the Fairfax mansion, Elaine, last February, I can remember feeling underwhelmed.
The agent, Ken Jacobs of Christies, warned me: “It’s not much inside ... the interiors aren’t what it’s about.”
I was advised ahead of the tour that I was not permitted to take photos inside the mansion.
The reason for that became clear.
While some of the upstairs rooms had been styled for marketing photos, exposing the derelict rooms on the lower level would not have assisted a sale.
Fifteen months later — three years after the Double Bay property went on the market and a buyer’s agent suggested it might fetch $100 million — the 37-year-old co-founder of the software company Atlassian,Scott Farquhar, has paid something well above $70 million for it.
That’s the highest price for a house in Australia, but luckily, Mr Farquhar is a billionaire, because he’s going to need to redecorate before he moves wife Kim Jacksonand the kids into the tired 1863-era mansion.
The last renovation was in the 1950s and it’s been a big, empty shell for decades.
Beyond its grand foyer, stairs lead down to poky flats in the lower level. There are ugly baby-blue cupboards and chequerboard lino in the kitchen.
And the big tubs in the adjoining laundry reminded me of those in my long-dead granny’s house — though this laundry was considerably bigger.
Yes, the ballroom is stylish and has a gorgeous window seat overlooking the tennis court and harbour — the scene of many glamorous parties.
But the seven bedrooms and five bathrooms are all ugly.
Fortunately, the property was sold with plans — approved in December 2015 — to give the mansion a $4.7 million overhaul by heritage architectJohn Roseof TKD Architects.
And Mr Farquhar can even reinstate the swimming pool under a section 96 approved last September.
The interiors and clunky add-ons aside, the north-facing 6986sq m waterfront property — with its ivy-lined path leading down past huge Norfolk Island pines to a gate to Seven Shillings Beach — is magnificent.
Luckily, Mr Farquhar can see Elaine’s potential.
“It would have been a great loss to see this rare property sold to developers and carved up,” he said.
That was on the cards, too.
Although Woollahra Council had declared the house must remain, it had approved a subdivision plan for the rare and historic waterfront site.
Mr Jacobs said at the time of my visit that the mansion — even if sold off separately — might suit a large family who could appreciate the “mystique and prestige of the Elaine name and pedigree”.
Fortunately, there was no carve-up: someone came along who fully appreciated that the best option is for the estate to remain intact.
As Mr Jacobs said back then: “It will appreciate at a higher rate than the rest of the market because of the size — it’s unrepeatable.”
This week, Mr Jacobs said he was permitted to make only the following statement, approved by both John B. Fairfax and Mr Farquhar.
“I am delighted with the outcome — it is the perfect match for both buyer and home, as the entire estate will be revitalised and remain in one ownership for many years to come,” the statement said.
“This result has been the desire of the owner and Sydneysiders alike.”
Indeed, it’s understood Mr Fairfax was prepared to lower his most recent $75 million asking price by several million in order that the property remain as one.
MEET SCOTT FARQUHAR
AT THE age of 37, most Sydneysiders these days are struggling to take that first step on the property ladder, or counting on the Bank of Mum and Dad to help fund buying an apartment.
But not Scott Farquhar. He’s not your average 37-year-old.
Mr Farquhar, with Mike Cannon-Brookes, famously founded their software company Atlassian with $10,000 of credit card debt.
By 2014, they’d entered the BRW Rich List as billionaires.
Then last Friday, having previously shown little interest in Sydney property — owning only two apartments in Pyrmont — Mr Farquhar bought Australia’s most expensive house, the Fairfax mansion Elaine, for an estimated record $73 million.
The house, built in 1863, has seven bedrooms and five bathrooms but needs a renovation (see right), having last been updated in the 1950s.
It’s been a meteoric rise to the very top rung of Australia’s property ladder for Mr Farquhar who is a father of two.
Growing up in a working class family in Sydney’s west with three siblings, his family couldn’t afford to buy him his first computer let alone an apartment.
Mr Farquhar attended James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford and then, in 1998, at age 18, arrived at the University of NSW where he’d won a scholarship to a business IT course.
That’s where he met Mr Cannon-Brookes.
In 2014 Mr Farquhar told journalist Caitlin Fitzsimmons it was on the first day and they didn’t immediately click.
“People from Cranbrook had a bit of a swagger about them before they started university,” Mr Farquhar told her.
Growing up in the east, Mr Cannon-Brookes was from a different world.
His dad, Michael, had brought the English family to Sydney in 1984 to set up Citibank.
Now that Mr Farquhar has grabbed the east — and Australia’s — most valuable prize, he’s set for a local hero’s welcome.
Woollahra Council was never going to agree to a date with the bulldozer for the grand old dame, Elaine.
Allan Coker, director of planning and development for the council said last year that it had “special significance”.
“The significance is much broader than just the buildings, it relates to the house, ground and interiors,” Mr Coker said. “Particularly the large tree canopy around the house and Seven Shillings Beach.”
But the council did agree to carving up the site — which apparently horrified Mr Farquhar who’d tweeted last week after his purchase “couldn’t let it be chopped up by developers”.
It had remained the preference of the vendor John B. Fairfax that the property sell in one line.
But it looked like nobody wanted it — because of the house that had to stay on the prime waterfront site of almost 7000 square metres.
That was despite a highly publicised international campaign — perhaps spooked by the buyer’s agent suggestion that $100 million would be needed — after the property was announced as on the market in September 2013.
So out of desperation to sell, in 2015 a series of development applications were submitted to Woollahra Council.
In May of that year, it was announced that a buyer — even a foreigner — could snap up the two harbour-front blocks with development approval for two designer residences where you can actually “own” the beach for $25 million and $27.5 million apiece.
The buyer of the old mansion — for $13 million to $14 million — would still get a view of the harbour because the two homes at the front could be no higher than 9.2 metres.
And the stables at the rear of the property could now be bought separately for between $4 million and $4.4 million.
By last February, the carve-up plan was said to be attracting good interest.
Yet still no sale.
Until last Friday, when Mr Farquhar emerged as the buyer.
And the billionaire would have none of the subdivision.
On the weekend he, with his investment banker wife Kim Jackson, released a statement: “We’re thrilled with the purchase and honoured to take over the Elaine estate from the Fairfax family.
“It would have been a great loss to see this rare property sold to developers and carved up.
“When we heard of the plans, we just couldn’t let this beautiful piece of Australian history be turned into a development site.
“There is a certain nostalgia in knowing that multiple generations of an iconic Australian family have grown up on these lawns and we very much look forward to raising our family here.”
He wasn’t available to elaborate on his plans, with his minders advising: “He’s flying to Europe now so unfortunately we’re not going to be able to meet your deadline.”
Among the questions we’d hoped for answers, were: What were his first impressions of the tired old house; will he be proceeding with the approved plans by John Rose to overhaul the house; will he do something different with it; and when will he and his young family be moving in?
Or, were there perhaps, some pictures of the Farquhars at the house?
It’s a story to be continued. Before Elaine’s rise to prominence internationally as Australia’s “most expensive house”, she’d not been as well-known as the neighbouring estate of Fairwater, home to Lady Mary Fairfax. That’s certainly changed now.
Sydneysiders, and especially those in the eastern suburbs, will watch the Farquhar family’s plans for her to evolve with increasing interest.
Originally published as ‘I’ve been inside the $73 million Elaine, and quite frankly — it’s ugly’