Son of one of China’s billionaire car dealers pockets $27 million for block of rubble in Point Piper

A block of land on the Point Piper waterfront that was once slated to be part of a larger luxury development spearheaded by developer-turned-murderer Ron Medich has sold for $27 million to serial entrepreneurs Alexandra and Gabriel Jakob.

Despite featuring just weeds and rubble, the 740 square metres has been a highly contested patch of dirt since Medich’s mooted development was abandoned in 2010, given a handful of owners trading it in quick succession in the years since.

The 740 square metres at the end of a steep driveway off Point Piper’s Wolseley Road has traded frequently over the past decade.Credit:

Alexandra and Gabriel, aged just 40 and 41, are no strangers to the value inherent in the prime waterfront site, given their own home two doors away shares the same battle-axe driveway and views of the Harbour Bridge.

The millennial tech investors made a big impression on Sydney’s trophy market in 2019 when they paid $40 million for the home of former Westpac director Steve Harker, making it the highest house sale of that year.

The couple’s recent purchase – with no finance required – through Highland Double Bay’s Bill Malouf and William Manning did well by Mu Li, the 33-year-old son of billionaire Li Guoqiang, founder and chief of one of China’s largest car dealers, Zhongsheng Group.

An artist impression of the Tzannes Associates-designed house that scored DA approval for the site.Credit: Woollahra Council

Li made a $5 million capital gain on his three-year ownership, having bought it for $22.5 million from accountant Peter Wyer, who was holding it on behalf of yachtie Jim Cooney.

It proved a loss for Cooney, given his purchase price of $22.5 million a year earlier from Hugh Huang, son of Shanghai shipping magnate Shannian Huang, and who had knocked down the 1970s house on site amid plans to build a Tzannes Associates-designed house.

Incidentally, Sydney FC owner Scott Barlow had sold it to Huang in 2013 for $14.35 million, to move to his street-front house up the driveway, which he sold last year for $40 million to Macquarie’s Nick O’Kane. He has since moved to the Akuna trophy home down the road bought this year for $45 million.

Wallabies great’s empty nest

Wallabies great Matt Burke and his wife Kate are downsizing from their Newport “empty nest”, setting a September 27 auction and a guide of $5 million through LJ Hooker’s Peter Robinson.

The Newport home of Matt and Kate Burke was redesigned in 2014 by architect Iain Halliday.

The couple purchased their family home in 2013 for $1.677 million, soon after commissioning a redesign by their architect of choice, Iain Halliday, of BKH.

Ten sports presenter Matt Burke.

The sale comes amid talk the couple are hoping to downsize locally, preferably with scope to add their own touch, as they did on their former home on Mona Vale’s oceanfront reserve, which was given a redesign by Halliday before they sold it in 2012 for $3.4 million.

Burke, a sports presenter on Ten, recently sold the family’s long-held Northside Hotel in Albury for $16.2 million to fund manager Harvest Hotels.

Kings Cross loses legend

Kings Cross has lost one of its most enduring locals, Max Whitby, after the legendary racing identity sold his apartment in the Ikon building for $7.3 million and moved to Queensland.

The three-bedroom spread in the Ikon building sold for $7.3 million.

Whitby, who once ran the Bourbon and Beefsteak bar, pocketed a decent capital gain on his way out, selling through Richardson & Wrench’s Jason Boon for more than $2 million more than he paid four years ago.

Businessman and race horse owner Max Whitby has moved to Queensland.Credit: James Brickwood

Whitby has done all right from Kings Cross since 1968 when, aged just 17, he took up his first job there for Texan hotelier Bernie Houghton. He went from washing dishes to becoming a stockbroker, racehorse owner and a backer of the $15 million Everest at Royal Randwick.

The three-bedroom spread wasn’t the only property that served Whitby well locally. In 2018 he sold the penthouse of the nearby Villard building for $12.5 million to Hardie Grant chairman John Gerahty and his wife Patricia, almost doubling the $6.6 million he paid for it in 2012.