As interest rates rise, cash is king for Sydney’s billionaires

Billionaire Greg Goodman has long been known for his aversion to debt since the global financial crisis wiped billions from the market capitalisation of his industrial property powerhouse Goodman Group.

It’s a predilection that seems to have carried over to his personal property portfolio judging by his latest purchase of a Victorian cottage in Woollahra for $7 million, in cash.

The Victorian cottage in Woollahra sold for $7 million.Credit: Domain

Local chatter suggests the double-fronted house a few doors from the family home was purchased by Goodman and his wife Anna for one of their sons, Josh, Sam and Harry, although which one isn’t made any clearer by the company name, JSH Services, in which the title is held.

The property giant’s fortunes have done well since the dark days of 2009 when shares were trading for a little more than 30 cents. Earlier this week those shares were trading at just shy of $20.

Goodman’s personal wealth saw him restored to billionaire status in 2016, which no doubt helped fund his other mortgage-free property acquisitions, like his $15 million, Will Smart-designed family home in Woollahra and the $8.1 million house directly behind it bought from St Hilliers’ Tim Casey.

Greg Goodman is the founder and chief of property giant Goodman Group.Credit: Rhett Wyman

As the Reserve Bank has hiked interest rates for the past five months in a row, many of Sydney’s ultra-rich have clearly learnt a few lessons from their highly geared peers of the GFC and are instead buying their trophy homes without a mortgage.

Among this year’s shoppers alone, “Mr Sydney FC” Scott Barlow and his wife Alina didn’t need a lender to buy their $45 million home Akuna in Point Piper, nor medical entrepreneur Dr Glenn Haifer for his $60 million Darling Point home.

Likewise, Telstra chairman John Mullen bought his $12 million Terrey Hills acreage from rugby league legend Brad Fittler unencumbered, and mechanic Steve Davidson and his wife Carmen had $28.5 million ready for their Bellevue Hill digs.

Ditto Bob Teoh, the 28-year-old son of billionaire telco founder David Teoh, paid cash for his $16 million Cremorne home, and early childcare entrepreneur Gabriel Jakob consolidated three waterfront properties in Point Piper for $99.5 million.

Goldman Sachs boss buys big

If Zac Fletcher’s ears were burning this week it might have been because the co-head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs Australia’s was widely rumoured to have bought new digs in Point Piper for more than $25 million.

Goldman Sachs co-head of investments Zac Fletcher. Credit: LinkedIn

The purchase, through One Buyers Agency, is a non-waterfront house set on arguably Australia’s most expensive street, and is set to be a major home renovation for Fletcher from his contemporary three-level residence in Rose Bay.

Neither Laing+Simmons Double Bay’s D’Leanne Lewis nor Jacob Hannon would comment on the deal, opting only to say that Lewis is “37 weeks pregnant and still going strong”. Let that be a warning to her competitive co-stars on the upcoming season three of reality show Luxe Listings.

Fletcher was last heard from in property circles in 2019 when he bought a beachfront house in Palm Beach for $10.35 million, which at the time seemed like a big price until last October when restaurateur John Szangolies coughed up $27 million two doors away.

Blanche’s discounted digs

The downturn is finally starting to show itself in the luxury market, prompting Blanche d’Alpuget to lop $300,000 off her initial hopes on her apartment in the One30 Hyde Park tower.

Blanche d’Alpuget has dropped the guide on her apartment in the One30 tower.Credit: Tim Bauer

Ray White Residential’s Michael Lowdon had a guide of $4.3 million to $4.5 million six weeks ago, but without a sold sticker to show for it has now listed it for $4.2 million.

The widow of former prime minister Bob Hawke bought the apartment off the plan in 2015 for $3.63 million as a city retreat near Hawke’s office, but opted to move there instead after Hawke died two months after they settled on it in March 2019.

The two-bedroom apartment is the largest of its kind in the Bates Smart-designed tower.

D’Alpuget is moving to The Hyde tower next door where she recently paid $4.6 million for a two-bedder overlooking the Anzac Memorial.

The author and Hawke biographer isn’t the only vendor who missed the peak of the market and is now adjusting price expectations downwards to try to catch up to buyers.

Melbourne’s prefab construction boss Nick Leos and his wife Emma have abandoned their $38 million hopes for their Bellevue Hill trophy home and relisted it with The Agency’s Steven Chen with a $28 million guide.

The Luigi Rosselli-designed residence has had $10 million cut from the guide.

According to Chen, the $10 million discount may well have done the job, with 68 enquiries in his first week on the listing.

The 1930s residence was redesigned by architect Luigi Rosselli when owned by fashion designer Camilla Freeman-Topper and her husband David Topper, who sold it to the Leos family on Christmas Eve 2018 for $16.5 million.

The Leoses are returning to their Melbourne hometown, having bought the Toorak home of Bain & Company’s Chris Harrop for about $22 million so the Harrops can move to Woollahra where they bought former Crown boss Rob Rankin’s home Woodlands for $35 million.

And investment banker Peter St George and his wife Liz may have been a little optimistic on their $20 million guide for their Palladian-style mansion Tarrant in Bellevue Hill.

Listed in March, it had a brief respite from the market of a few days to return for sale this week for $13 million-plus before a September 20 auction complete with new images that show no signs of the telegraph wires out the front.

Built for the late real estate supremo Andrew Gibbons and designed by architect Andre Porebski, it was purchased by the St Georges in 1999 for $4.025 million, with little work done to it since.

News travels slowly north

News of the market downturn is yet to reach the grand estate owners of the Upper North Shore where a few suburb records have been smashed in quick succession.

The recently resigned chief of cloud software company Rhipe Dominic O’Hanlon and his wife Karen had already set the Wahroonga high in 2018 when they sold for $13 million, crossing the road at the time to buy $9.5 million digs.

Dominic O’Hanlon is the chairman of BeMoved software company.Credit:

Four years later and after a decent renovation they have done so again, this time pocketing $14.5 million in an off-market deal through DiJones’ Tim Fraser.

The downsizing plans by O’Hanlon, now chair at BeMoved software app, follow last year’s delisting of Rhipe from the ASX after it was acquired by Norwegian IT company Crayon for $400 million.

In Turramurra, Tim Fraser has also sold the home of Brad Dowe, founder and chief of electrical parts’ distributor Legend Corporation, and his wife Louise for $11.2 million just days after it was passed in at auction.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom residence designed by Harvey Little with tennis court and swimming pool has long been known as Courances and touted as arguably the suburb’s finest house.

The Turramurra residence Courances is touted as the suburb’s finest house.

And there’s talk of a $16 million sale in Warrawee, which at that level would eclipse the $15 million high set by the “Chilton Hilton” when it was sold in 2020 by interests linked to “Shoe King” Wilson Xue.

Tones and I doubles down on Byron

Tones and I, or Toni Watson to her accountant, has bought a second holiday home in Byron Bay for $2.15 million.

The three-bedroom, weatherboard house on a corner block settled this week into a company name, Johnny Run Away (named after her debut single), solely owned and directed by the acclaimed 29-year-old singer.

Tones And I has a $13 million property portfolio that stretches from Victoria to Queensland.Credit:

The same company first bought in Byron Bay in 2020, $3.3 million purchase in the same year her hit song Dance Monkey ranked globally as Spotify’s second-most played song, landing her a $12 million payment. Last year she also bought a three-bedroom house on Queensland’s Gold Coast for $1.175 million.

Rounding out her $13 million portfolio is a $7 million mansion with pool, tennis court and spa in Victoria’s Mount Eliza, bought last year following the sale of her $6.17 million home nearby.

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