‘Millionaire’s factory’ CFO Alex Harvey buys doer-upper in Kirribilli for $18.7 million

Macquarie Group’s Alex Harvey earned the distinction of being the highest-paid chief financial officer in the country last year, so it is perhaps unsurprising that he and wife Tess took the opportunity to buy a doer-upper on the Kirribilli waterfront for $18.7 million.

There was no marketing for the three-storey Federation house before it sold, leaving the pricing benchmark to lean on the recent $19.1 million purchase by Next Capital’s John White a few doors away and Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s $19 million new home in Mosman.

The three-level Federation house on the Kirribilli waterfront sold for $18.7 million.Credit: Domain

Given Harvey’s $8 million salary last year, the absence of a mortgage is no great surprise either, especially coming six months after the Harveys sold in Mosman for $10.5 million.

Harvey’s new home was previously owned by Barbara May, who owned it since 1975 when it was sold for $127,000 by the home’s original owners, the Sandeman family.

Macquarie chief financial officer Alex Harvey took home $8 million last year.Credit: Elke Meitzel

Local talk has pinned the sale on Ray White Lower North Shore’s David Gillan, who has also sold May a nearby waterfront pad for $5 million on behalf of former Australian Rugby Union president Phil Harry and his wife, Meryl.

Even before Macquarie’s share price hit a record in January of close to $220, the upper ranks of the investment bank had been busy on their property portfolios.

Top earner Nick O’Kane bought a Point Piper house for $40 million last year and chairman Peter Warne bowed out of his $21.5 million Clifton Gardens mansion, Stonehenge, to downsize to $16 million digs around the corner.

But not the chief. Shemara Wikramanayake keeps it real, by the standards of her colleagues, and does not own any real estate in her name.

Rothesay mystery deepens

Bellevue Hill local Andrew Gray, who runs private equity outfit Potentia Capital with former MYOB boss Tim Reed, and his wife Emma have bought the Mosman home of former Perpetual boss Geoff Lloyd for $17 million.

The Federation mansion, Cambria, on Balmoral slopes was bought by Geoff Lloyd in 2015 for $7.8 million, and resold recently for $17 million.

It is an intriguing purchase not only because eastern suburbs locals were once unheard-of buyers over the Harbour Bridge, but because it has again sparked talk the Grays have quietly sold their Victorian Italianate mansion, Rothesay.

When rumours sprung last year that the grand 2000-square-metre estate in Bellevue Hill had sold for $25 million, Title Deeds ignored it because it was resolutely ruled out by Gray, and sources have since suggested you’d have to fork out more than $35 million for it in any case.

Geoff Lloyd has traded in one Mosman residence to buy another for $14.25 million.Credit: Janie Barrett

Gray has again denied he has sold Highland Double Bay’s Bill Malouf (who was showing it last year) said he had “absolutely no comment to make” and other agents have been told it’s not for sale.

Meanwhile, Lloyd is staying in Mosman. He and his wife Carly have bought contemporary digs overlooking Mosman Bay for $14.25 million through Atlas’ Michael Coombs.

Lloyd’s new home, sold by Coombs on behalf of little-known Shao Ying Zhang from China, scored an impressive jump in value in the post-pandemic boom. It last traded two years ago for $11.75 million.

And former Olympic sprinter Matt Shirvington and his author wife Jessica slipped their Federation home in Mosman onto the market this week with Coombs advising buyers of $14 million expectations.

The six-bedroom house with tennis court and swimming pool up the road from Sirius Cove Beach last traded in 2017 for $7 million.

Set on 1300 square metres, it was previously owned by retired petroleum consultant and WorleyParsons executive Emil Finn and his wife Genevieve, who bought it 1980 for $322,000.

The Mosman Federation home of Matt Shirvington is on offer for about $14 million.Credit: Domain