AirTrunk billionaire Robin Khuda splashes $32m for apartment site overlooking Balmoral Beach in luxury play

The data centre billionaire behind AirTrunk is stepping up his high-end residential development on Sydney’s north shore. Khuda is expected to submit plans for a six-storey block with residences that will sport panoramic harbour views.

View over site: Robin Khuda’s Ondas development business has bought at 17 Moruben Road, Mosman.

Billionaire AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda has snapped up an apartment site overlooking Sydney’s famed Balmoral Beach with his private development company planning a luxury complex that will rival the area’s mansions with elevated views over Sydney Harbour.

His development company Ondas has forked out about $32m for an older block of flats on the site known as Azura, and Mr Khuda is expected to submit plans for a six-storey block with residences that will boast panoramic views.

The entrepreneur, who knows the area well as he is also building a three-level mansion on a consolidated site that also overlooks the famed beach, has built up a lucrative sideline in high-end property development.

Buying the ageing complex on Moruben Road will allow him to put his stamp on the area. He has already called it “the best development site” in Balmoral Beach and Mosman. A new luxury low-rise tower would be pitched at the area’s wealthy downsizers and buyers chasing a foothold in the desirable area.

AirTrunk founder and CEO Robin Khuda. Picture: Supplied

The site was sold by a group of unit owners via Chris Veitch of Stanton Hillier Parker and John Millane of Cousins and Co, but they declined to comment.

While Mr Khuda’s wealth is founded on his AirTrunk data centre empire, which he built up and sold to US private equity giant Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board last year in a blockbuster $24bn deal, he is an increasing presence in property developer circles.

His purchase puts him at the forefront of Sydney developers, many of whom are racing to buy sites near transport hubs or to assemble blocks of homes that can be demolished to make way for luxury towers.

Khuda’s new project on the slopes of Balmoral. Picture: Mark Merton Photography

Sydney’s billionaires have proven adept at investing in this market with James Packer backing projects including Times & Place’s planned development of the site of The Chimes Building in Potts Point and another scheme in Surry Hills.

Mr Khuda is better known in the area for his own under-construction dream home. He is building after buying a double block in 2021 for $19.5m and then picking up a neighbouring property for $11m. He has a $45m scheme to combine the two sites and construct a tri-level mansion on the consolidated Balmoral Avenue property.

Ondas has rapidly made a name for itself at the top end of residential real estate, which is proving the most active, and profitable, arena for developers in the face of rising construction costs and demand for high-end living among wealthy buyers.

Ondas’s sold-out building in North Steyne, Manly.

His development company said the project, to be known as Ondas Mosman, would embody the exclusivity and vision of luxury living it stood for. The apartments would feature the most iconic elevation on Balmoral’s slopes, with views of Sydney Head, North Harbour, and the CBD skyline.

It is also close to the cafes, restaurants and retail of Mosman Village.

Under the NSW government’s Low and Medium Rise Housing Policy, a six-storey luxury apartment scheme is allowed.

The planned Mosman complex comes after the developer sold out its Manly apartments and as it also prepares a project in Palm Beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It will have five luxury apartments and commercial space and will sit next door to local heritage landmark Barrenjoey House.

In Manly, Ondas broke records for the sale of completed stock by selling its penthouse for$18.05m. Rival projects in the area include one by developer Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital Group, which sold its penthouse for more than $22m in its Oceania development.

Ondas has also pushed into Melbourne and has a project in beachside St Kilda that overlooks the heritage-listed Catani Gardens.

That development will have 16 units above shopping space on a site on Fitzroy Street and The Esplanade.