Exclusive Brethren’s leading family expected to cop a loss on $9.5m Dural estate

The leading family behind the fundamentalist Exclusive Brethren sect were always going to struggle to make a profit on the sale of their luxury Dural weekender given they purchased it for what local agents say was a top price of $9.5 million in 2022.

But at least they scored a buyer on Friday. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the closed nature of the fundamentalist church, the sale price remains a tightly guarded secret by the Manor Real Estate agency and listing agent William Brush.

Gareth Hales has sold his luxury Dural acreage just two years after he bought it for $9.5 million.Credit: Domain

Gareth Hales, the son of the church’s global leader Bruce D. Hales, spent at least $10.1 million on the property given his purchase had incurred almost $600,000 in stamp duty costs alone.

Brush listed it six weeks ago with a guide of $9 million to $9.5 million, and local agents anticipate it sold for less than that. Settlement will reveal the exact result.

Gareth Hales heads up the global medical supply company Sante Group.Credit:

According to former members of the sect, now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, Hales’s purchase of the two-hectare estate caused consternation within the church because its leadership used to espouse a doctrine of a simple and somewhat humble life, rather than a portfolio of statement homes and trophy estates.

The Dural property included a five-bedroom house with a marble foyer, bespoke home theatre, billiard room with a wet bar, flood-lit tennis court, fire pit and a swimming pool.

Hales jnr, head of global specialist sourcing and supply company Sante Group, and his brother Charles sold their office design firm Unispace for $300 million in 2021 to investment firm PAG Asia Capital.

The resort-style estate of Gareth Hales cost $9.5 million and incurred $600,000 in stamp duty.Credit: Domain

The sale comes just months after the tax office conducted a raid on the global headquarters of a business run by some members of the fundamentalist Christian sect.

Tower of money

The recent completion of Sydney’s latest tower of power by Lendlease, One Sydney Harbour at Barangaroo is welcoming the first buyers into the 76-storey building, revealing a slew of wealthy families among the buyers and no shortage of cash buyers.

The Renzo Piano-designed skyscraper One Sydney Harbour is welcoming its first residents, of which four of them have secured whole floors.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Enter “Alex” Chao Duan, a director of Chinese smartphone Oppo’s Australian distributor OMC Electronics, who has purchased three apartments that make up the whole 65th floor for a total of $39.2 million.

Duan was among the earliest of buyers into the Lendlease tower in early 2018 when, aged just 32, he exchanged on the apartments off the plan. Five years later Duan became better known among local property watchers when he set an upper north shore house price record of $20.5 million paying cash for a Warrawee house.

Duan is one of four buyers who have secured a whole floor of apartments, not including the mystery $140 million buyer of the penthouse and sub-penthouse, who is yet to be revealed on settlement records.

Three apartments that make up level 71 were purchased for a total of $42.9 million by foreign companies – Fortune Four Seasons, Fortune Good Returns and Fortune Absolute - all directed by Luvena Katherine Kusuma, of the billionaire Indonesian family headed by property development tycoon “Aguan” Sugianto Kusuma.

Another whole floor apartment was purchased for $38.95 million by mining boss Qing Zhong, who heads up Admiralty Resources, a mining company focused on iron ore in Chile and Western Australia.

The largest apartment on level 73 owned by Everest Financial director Yu Zhong was recently listed for $22 million.Credit: Domain

Level 85 is owned by Yu Zhong, a director of private investment management firm Everest Financial, and her corporate interests, for a total of $43 million. The largest of the three apartments, a four-bedroom spread for which Zhong paid $19.6 million in 2020, has already returned to the market with a $22 million guide through McGrath’s Richard Shalhoub.

President of Sydney Olympic FC Damon Hanlin has paid $10.1 million for an apartment in Lendlease’s One Sydney Harbour.Credit:

Shalhoub declined to comment on the resale, but the two neighbouring apartments owned by Zhong’s Coreco Group are not currently listed for sale.

Among the slew of cash buyers are Dennis Lo, chairman of one of Hong Kong’s oldest fast food chains Fairwood Holdings, who paid $18.7 million, and Shuorong Cynthia Li, a member of the family that heads up modern Chinese medicine giant China Shineway Pharmaceutical Group, who paid $17.38 million.

Nick Manettas, of the seafood empire family, has splashed $13.6 million in the building, Damon Hanlin, of Titan Cranes and president of the Sydney Olympic Football Club, has paid $10.1 million, and Rashmi Jain, wife of property investor Sukender Jain, bought into the tower for $3 million.

Carinya’s return serve

The Killara home of Elizabeth Yates, widow of the late entrepreneur and NRMA board member Ian Yates, is set for auction on June 29 with an $8.5 million guide.

Yates, who died in 2007 aged 56, made headlines in the 1980s when the state government resumed his land at Darling Harbour on what is now the Chinese Garden. Yates had paid $5.1 million for the site in 1983 and after a public, years-long stoush with authorities was eventually paid $22.3 million compensation for the site.

Carinya, set on 1700 square metres, was built in 1924, and has been redesigned by Playoust Churcher. Architects.Credit: Domain

A year after he died the family purchased the 1924-built house in Killara, called Carinya, for $4.1 million, and later commissioned an extension by Playoust Churcher Architects into what is now a six-bedroom residence with a pool and tennis court. It is listed with Stone’s Matt Payne and McGrath’s Will Geist.