Rupert Murdoch’s billionaire daughter gets a windfall she might not need

Rupert Murdoch’s eldest daughter Prudence MacLeod and her husband Alasdair MacLeod look to have found a buyer for their Sydney bolthole three years after they launched it to the market with $15 million hopes.

When the designer digs in the heart of Woollahra village never sold it was withdrawn from the market last year to be rented out instead. It was a good decision, in hindsight, given the house’s recently agreed sale price of about $17.5 million.

The house that John Laws built has been sold by Prudence and Alasdair MacLeod.Credit: Domain

Settlement will confirm the 2023 result, but the buyer was an easy find. It’s the tenant, Craig Carracher, president of Volleyball Australia and co-founder of the Scape Australia rental accommodation operator.

The Espie Dods-designed house was purchased in 2014 for $10.65 million as a home away from their country estates, of which one is Prudence’s residence at the family’s Cavan station, near Yass, and another being Alasdair’s New England farm Wilmot.

Prudence MacLeod at the 2016 wedding of her father Rupert Murdoch to Jerry Hall.Credit: Yui Mok

Radio legend John Laws commissioned it in 1985 as two residences: the main at the front privately set behind a double garage and a second residence at the rear for family and friends.

Laws sold it in 2004 for a then suburb high of $7.7 million to mining magnate Nick Curtis and his wife Angela, who then sold it to the MacLeods.

Despite relocating to London, MacLeod still has a foothold in the local property market. A grand Victorian Italianate terrace in Potts Point has been the headquarters of their venture capital outfit Macdoch Ventures since 2018 when it was sold for $14.7 million by property investors Roy and Anthony Medich.

MacLeod is the eldest of Murdoch’s six children, and daughter of his first wife, former model Patricia Booker. She and her brother Lachlan Murdoch are the only two members of the family known to have Australian citizenship, earning both a place on the AFR Rich List worth an estimated $2.57 billion and $3.35 billion respectively.

The Woollahra house sold by Prudence MacLeod last traded in 2014 for $10.65 million.Credit: Domain

Murdoch, who at 92 remains in charge as executive chairman of News Corporation and chairman of Fox Corporation, relinquished his Australian citizenship in 1985 in order to buy a network of American television networks.

Murdoch’s main property interests in Australia are his long-held Cavan Station, to which he added the Boambolo property next door earlier this year for $15.5 million.

House of Faber-Castell

Germany’s oldest and noblest of families are not Title Deeds regulars, so it is with some excitement that the grand North Turramurra home of Count Andreas Wilhelm Graf von Faber-Castell and his wife, Countess Virginia was listed this week.

Count Andreas, or “Andy” as he prefers, is the former Asia Pacific managing director of the family’s 1761-founded art supply company, but retired in 2017 following the death of his brother, and former company boss Count Anton Wolfgang Graf von Faber-Castell.

Countess Virginia is from the United States, but was working in Switzerland in a dental research department in 1970 when she met Count Andy, and the couple moved here on a whim soon after.

Count Andreas Wilhelm Graf von Faber-Castell with his late brother Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell.Credit: Louise Kennerley

“Three children and six grandchildren later, we’re still here,” said Countess Virginia, who added they are selling to downsize locally and spend more time travelling.

The Georgian inspired mansion featuring a pillared portico entry and sweeping staircase was built about 30 years ago, and purchased by the Faber-Castells in 1996 for $2.25 million.

The semi-rural estate of the Faber-Castell family claims almost 1.3 hectares on the Upper North Shore.Credit: Domain

The semi-rural estate with a tennis court, swimming pool and a vast pond is listed with Christie’s Darren Curtis and Sydney Country Living’s Taylor Snell with a guide of $11 million to $12 million.

Trading places

Young Rich List-er Jane Lu and her husband James Waldie are selling their Balmain home following their recent nearby waterfront home purchase for $13.75 million.

The Balmain home purchased by Jane Lu and James Waldie in 2013 sold for $1.8 million.Credit: Domain

The founder of Showpo, and Waldie, Showpo’s chief financial officer, purchased the Birchgrove waterfront home of top energy tsar Dr Kerry Schott last month in an off-market deal timed to coincide with Schott’s purchase of a $9.5 million terrace up the road.

Jane Lu is the chief executive officer of online clothing retailer Showpo.Credit: Peter Braig

The couple have owned their Balmain home since 2013, paying $1.8 million just three years after Lu swapped corporate life to set up the online clothing retailer.

The four-bedroom house returns to the market ahead of a September 23 auction and as buyers are offered a guide of $3.2 million by Laing+Simmons’s Megan Smith.

Schaeffer’s influence

It seems the late art and trophy home collector John Schaeffer is still influencing the property market from beyond the grave. Following the recent sale of his former Bondi Beach apartment by his partner Bettina Dalton for $10.36 million another apartment in the same Pacific complex has sold for the same price.

Start-up investor Jeffrey Levy has sold his Bondi Beach pad in the Pacific complex.Credit: Domain

The three-bedroom spread overlooking the beach was sold by The Agency’s Steven Chen and Raine & Horne’s Ric Serrao on behalf of start-up investor Jeffrey Levy, although the buyer remains undisclosed by buyer’s agent representing them Simon Cohen.

Levy, the former chief operating officer of Hong Kong-based investment management firm Turiya Advisors Asia, purchased it in 2018 for $7.1 million from Jackie Baron, wife of developer Gil Baron.