How $32.5m mansion sale triggered huge year in prestige property

When the oracle of Sydney’s high-end housing market, Seven’s Bruce McWilliam, kicked off the year listing one of his Point Piper waterfront investment properties for $32 million to $35 million, industry watchers sat up and took notice.

It was, after all, a bullish ask for a house best known for being subject to a loan dispute which ultimately led to the shooting of Michael McGurk and landed Ron Medich behind bars for murder. The fact it had last traded for $10.65 million in 2013 wouldn’t have helped.

Bruce McWilliam’s Point Piper waterfront house. Credit:

When it sold for about $32.5 million a few weeks later, it was as if a starter gun had been fired on what has turned out to be the strongest performing trophy market ever.

Empty-nesters across the eastern suburbs decided it was finally time to cash in their high-end housing, and William Wu was on hand to buy much of it.

At last count, the 29-year-old had amassed $110 million worth of real estate, largely held in corporate interests shared with his property developer mother, Jing Wang, taking him from relative anonymity to being one of this year’s biggest property players.

This $25.5 million Bellevue Hill house was one of William Wu’s many high-end purchases this year.Credit:

Wu even outspent techie Mike Cannon-Brookes, as the Atlassian co-chief executive opted for Southern Highlands life and a mere $40 million worth of bucolic acquisitions.

But this year’s top Title Deeds marks go to former garbo Ian Malouf, who went from renter to spender of more than $140 million on high-end real estate, including a $60 million city pad for him and wife Larissa.

The Boyd penthouse atop the ANZ Tower is set to be Ian and Larissa Malouf’s new home. Credit:

Honourable mentions go to China’s commercial property magnate Sam Guo for securing almost $20 million for his neglected Hunters Hill pile, Skye Leckie for her $17 million sale in Woollahra, and her former neighbour Kerry-Anne Kennerley for negotiating her own $22 million deal. (KAK would have received two gold stars but failed to hold the suburb high for more than a few weeks thanks to Rosemont’s $45 million sale by the blue-blood Burrells).

Tech-savvy real estate

If lockdown didn’t remind us about the vital role internet technology is playing in our lives, the property purchases of the tech sector sure will.

It wasn’t just AirTrunk’s Robin Khuda ploughing his new-found wealth into $124 million worth of bricks and mortar.

Joshua Chan, founder of one of the largest online gambling websites, set an auction high when he bid $20.1 million for yachtie James Mayo’s Bondi Beach pad and then pocketed $12.2 million from Bitcoin entrepreneur Kain Warwick when he sold his Bronte digs.

Online gambling website founder Joshua Chan paid $20.1m for a Bondi Beach pad.Credit:

Finder founder Fred Schebesta paid $16.85 million to become king of Coogee, and blockchain start-up co-founders Joanne Way Yee Huynh and Dorjee Sun briefly held the Bronte record of $23.388 million before baby sleepwear entrepreneurs Hana-Lia and Gavin Krawchuk reset values locally with their $25 million purchase.

Fintech stocks may have been on a rollercoaster but Australia’s youngest billionaire Nick Molnar didn’t let that interfere with his plan to buy most of Ben Buckler.

The Afterpay co-founder wasn’t content to buy up the whole clifftop triplex in North Bondi as his own, but added the block of apartments next door, as well as a $5.8 million Bowral getaway for good measure.

BigCommerce co-founder Eddie Machaalani prompted eastern suburbs locals to ask “where’s Abbotsford?” after he paid $25 million for a waterfront estate on the Parramatta River.

The Abbotsford property sold for $25 million, smashing the nearest Inner West house price record by $10 million.Credit: Janie Barrett

Children of the rich list

Estate planning has clearly been on the to-do lists of some long-term members of the rich list.

Harry Triguboff’s daughter, Dr Orna Triguboff, bought a block of North Bondi apartments for $11.5 million, and soon after, her daughter Ella Lizor scored $15 million digs in Bellevue Hill.

Monica Saunders-Weinberg, daughter of the late Westfield co-founder John Saunders, bought three houses in North Bondi in company names that are a mash-up of her children’s names for a total of $23 million this year.

Sophia Forrest bought her first Sydney home for $1.8 million.Credit:

Charles Fairfax, youngest son of the late society queen Lady (Mary) Fairfax, bought $15 million digs in Vaucluse, while his distant cousin, Angus White, grandson of the late newspaperman Sir Vincent Fairfax, upgraded to a Birchgrove waterfront for just as much.

Software developer Vito Belgiorno-Zegna of the wealthy Transfield family and his wife, Kate, saved one of Forest Lodge’s oldest houses from demolition when they bought it for $4.62 million.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest is worth an estimated $27 billion, but his daughter, Sophia, is getting by in a $1.8 million penthouse in Waterloo.

According to widespread reports, Gina Rinehart paid $34 million for a Queensland getaway on Sunshine Beach. Curiously, five months after the sale was reported, the title remains in the name of vendors Murray and Margaret Charlton, although it did score a mortgage to thoroughbred race horse owner Peter Tighe at the time.

Making the property news

A slew of big media names made headlines for real estate deals, including James Packer, scion of former Nine owner Kerry, who finally paid up for his apartment in Crown’s Barangaroo One tower.

That’s the apartment Crown announced it sold off-the-plan four years ago to its major shareholder for more than $60 million, but which translates in casino-speak to $72,229,573 on settlement.

The Middle Cove home of the late Nine legend Brian Henderson set a suburb high of close to $12 million, as did Nine’s deputy chairman Nick Falloon and his wife, Diane, when they sold their Longueville home for $13.5 million to little-known Yifang Liu.

The Longueville home Nick and Diane Falloon set a suburb high of $13.5 million.

Peter Overton and Jessica Rowe traded in their $8.1 million Vaucluse house to move closer to the harbour for close to $11 million.

Seven stalwart Ann Sanders secured about $12 million for her Hunters Hill digs, and new recruit Natarsha Belling sold in Lane Cove for $3.42 million to buy in Longueville for $6.1 million.

All of this made the remuneration packages of the ABC’s star news teams look a little tight: Stan Grant and Tracey Holmes swapped Auburn for a $2.85 million penthouse in Coogee, while Indira Naidoo bought into Potts Point for $472,000.

Star-studded homes

Simon Baker and Rebecca Rigg did well out of their Bronte home when they sold for $17 million less than a day after word broke their hillside house was even on offer.

Simon Baker and Rebecca Rigg ended almost 30 years of marriage and sold their Bronte home for $17 million.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Rachel Griffiths made her return to local property records after a seven-year absence, buying inner-city digs for more than $2 million. Justine Clarke was forced out of her Rozelle terrace by WestConnex to take shelter in a $2.47 million house in Drummoyne.

Nicole Kidman rounded out the renovation of her Latitude penthouse at Milsons Point by buying one of the apartments a few floors down for $2.78 million.

No sooner did Test cricket captain Pat Cummins buy into Bronte for $9.3 million than former captain Michael Clarke showed he still has a penchant for high-end harbourside real estate by buying $13 million digs in Vaucluse.

It was a year of runaway house prices and a seemingly never-ending rollcall of new names buying our best homes. But as Sydneysiders consider just how rich some among us have become, will the rich look back at the rest of us and see how far they’ve gone?