Sirius’ mystery $35m penthouse buyer revealed amid hopes of $50m resale

As the finishing touches are made to the redeveloped Sirius building at The Rocks – gone are the public housing residents, replaced by luxury finishes and multimillionaire buyers – there are already resale plans by the mystery buyer of the $35 million penthouse.

As this masthead revealed earlier this week, the penthouse that sold off-the-plan three years ago – nicely timed to coincide with the release of sales in the $150 million residential project – is for sale for $50 million without the buyer having settled on the purchase.

An artist’s impression of the Sirius penthouse, now back up for sale for $50 million.Credit:

The lack of information about the buyer was keenly felt by the likes of Title Deeds given they were said to come from Point Piper, which conveniently cast the buyer demographic of the former housing commission block in a wholly different light.

Jean-Dominique Huynh heads up JDH Capital, which bought the Sirius building for $150 million.

Mystery solved now, though. That buyer was Jean-Dominique Huynh, who heads up the developer behind the Sirius redevelopment JDH Capital. In other words, the penthouse was an in-house sale.

And Huynh isn’t from Point Piper at all, although Vaucluse is not far distant.

It’s not the first time a developer has released details on a top sale as the rest of the building is released to the market. Remember James Packer’s purchase in Crown’s One Barangaroo tower?

Crown announced it to the ASX in 2017 as a $60 million-plus sale, which was followed soon after by a dozen trophy sales in the building. It settled to Packer’s corporate interests four years later at more than $72 million.

The redevelopment of the Sirius building at The Rocks is nearing completion.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Huynh’s penthouse is again listed with CBRE and Stuart Residential’s Ben Stuart, and is set in a newly built, almost 400 square metre section of the building atop the original Tao Gofers-designed brutalist landmark.

Huynh, who turned 40 last Sunday, and his wife Rianna Yanhui Huynh are instead planning a rebuild of their $4.2 million Vaucluse house, for which council has already approved demolition to make way for a three-level residence designed by MHN Design Union.

Little was known publicly about Huynh before his JDH Capital purchased the landmark site from the state government in 2019 for $150 million, other than that he is a former Macquarie banker and has family links to Vietnam’s “fashion power couple”, Johnathan Hanh Nguyen and his actress-turned-entrepreneur wife, Le Hong Thuy Tien.

JDH Capital’s next big gig is a redevelopment of the Sir Stamford hotel at Circular Quay, which was sold for $380 million by Singaporean tycoon Chio Kiat Ow. Corporate records show the company that bought it is linked not just to Huynh but also to fellow eastern suburb local Garrett Jandegian, a former co-owner of the alkaline water business Aqualove.

Second time lucky

It seems Monte Carlo-based art adviser Richard Thompson won’t be claiming bragging rights to Paddington’s $14 million house price record after all, given the property for which he agreed to pay that amount is back up for sale.

Brompton is a consolidation of two Victorian terraces set on a 400 square metre parcel in Paddington.Credit: Domain

Take two of the campaign to sell the grand Victorian residence on 400 square metres, called Brompton, comes 10 months after Thompson exchanged to buy it just days before its scheduled June auction.

Jacqueline Bailey at her Paddington home, Brompton, with her dog Honey.Credit: Natalie Boog

Long before doubts were raised about whether Thompson would settle on it, the result was regarded as a triumph fit to mark the height of the housing boom. For agent Maclay Longhurst, now of Sotheby’s, it topped the nearest house price by $2 million, and for vendor Jacqueline Bailey it was a credit to her lavish Versailles-inspired renovation.

But what a shemozzle it’s been since then. Bailey moved out in readiness for the new owner, only to have to move back when settlement was delayed well past the November final deadline.

And the suburb record has been reset at $20 million for an apartment bought by writer Darleen Bungey and environmentalist businessman Geoff Cousins.

Longhurst has again been enlisted to sell Brompton, and again with hopes of claiming suburb record status – for a house at least – at $14 million, this time with much of the lavish furniture included.

Sticky listings

Still with buyers who don’t settle on purchases, remember Christian Wang? He is the Australia-China trade specialist who went on an $80 million buying spree from Point Piper to Vaucluse, only to not settle on any of them.

The Vaucluse house sold by the Thomson family twice, most recently for $17 million to Nico Tjen.Credit: Domain

One of those purchases was for about $23 million for a Vaucluse house owned by recruitment businessman Duncan Thomson and his wife Verity. Despite Wang lodging his interest on title in a company name, the deal never settled, and a year later it was returned to the market.

It has sold again, once more by Laing+Simmons’ D’Leanne Lewis, this time for $17 million to Nico Tjen of the Oceania Property development family.

Wagstaffe’s top buyer

Prominent thoroughbred owner and breeder John Cornish clearly has a deep-pocketed affection for Wagstaffe, judging by his recent $8 million cash purchase of a two-bedroom house on the waterfront.

It takes Cornish’s tally of houses in the Central Coast enclave to four.

John Cornish is the former chairman of the Australian Turf Club and Australian Jockey Club.

Cornish’s purchase comes as one of his other local houses goes up for sale by McGrath’s Dale Bassett for $5.75 million. Having bought it for $3.5 million in 2020, Cornish has renovated it throughout.

The former chairman of the Australian Turf Club and Australian Jockey Club has been spending more time in Wagstaffe following the death of his wife Pam in 2020 and the sale of his Hunters Hill apartment the following year for $7.8 million.

The Wagstaffe house being sold on behalf of John Cornish has a private jetty and a boatshed.Credit: Domain