The $60m Sydney penthouse apartment that Ian Malouf ‘had to have’ tops mansion sale list
Ian Malouf’s dream buy — which even came with Dom Perignon chilling in the fridge — tops the list of Australia’s most expensive mansions | FULL LIST
Ian Malouf could not help himself when he first set eyes on what would be a record-setting $60m purchase of a lavish penthouse apartment in Sydney’s CBD.
The man known as “Australia’s richest garbo” made the purchase – the most expensive in Australia this year – of the four-bedroom, three-level apartment atop the ANZ Tower in Castlereagh Street in a hurry in May.
“I had to have it. I just couldn’t get it out of my mind,” Mr Malouf tells The Australian when describing his first look at John and Marly Boyd’s opulent unit that boasts 360 degree views, five marble bathrooms and lavish Blainey North interiors.
“I saw it on a Friday, owned it on the Saturday. They handed it over as it was. The wine cellar, the Dom Perignon in the fridge. They certainly left it fully equipped.”
Mr Malouf’s $60m purchase, well down on the $66m price tag put on the apartment upon its 2018 listing, was a record for an Australian standalone apartment and part of a $141m spending spree that he undertook on a string of Sydney mansions in the past year, two of which feature in this year’s edition of The List – Top 100 Mansions published by The Australian in a special edition magazine today (click the photo below to see the full list).
Crown’s Barangaroo apartments in Sydney dominated the list of the most expensive sales this year, with buyers drawn to the tower’s opulence and the harbour and Opera House views.
Despite lockdown restrictions at various stages of the year, ultra luxury buys have been high on the list for the country’s wealthy elite.
This year there were 14 sales above the $30m mark – double the seven of last year.
Mr Malouf, who sold his Dial-a-Dump business to Bingo Industries in a $577m cash and shares deal in 2018, also spent $26m on a Double Bay mansion this year, bought another property nearby and spent about $20m on another large house at Palm Beach, all of which have ended his days of renting, or living aboard his $40m superyacht Mischief.
“The Double Bay place you can see from here, and I can also see my boat,” he said, looking out the window of the Castlereagh Street apartment that he bought after previously considering buying a Barangaroo unit.
“This is just so unique. You can’t replicate what you’ve got here. You’ve got the three storeys on top of a bank, so it should be pretty safe. You could not replicate it again. Johnny (Boyd) did all the hard work and they put some love into it. It had got all the beautiful things. The marble work, the 52-foot (15.8m) high ceiling. It is amazing.”
Mr Malouf said he and his family liked to “bounce between” their Sydney CBD apartment and Double Bay mansion during the week and over each week – “it’s nice to have a choice” – while Palm Beach is more a “special place where you’ve got absolutely waterfront just 50 minutes from the city. That magic just one hour from home is really achievable.”
The top 35 sales list includes Mr Malouf’s fellow waste magnate Tony Tartak, who paid $40m for two combined apartments across an entire level of Crown’s One Barangaroo, and Sam Gance of Chemist Warehouse who spent $43m on a Toorak mansion.
