Billionaire Chiu Chi Wen makes his mark in Perth
The family of Malaysian billionaire Chiu Chi Wen has clocked up Perth’s highest house sale since 2010.
The family of Malaysian billionaire Chiu Chi Wen has clocked up Perth’s highest house sale since 2010. They have spent $15 million on the Mosman Park home of a local estate agent. It was built in 2006 after the 1070sq m Chine Place holding had been bought for $4.05m in 2003 from geologist Douglas Dunnet. The home, sold off-market, sits near Chiu Chi’s wellness centre. The family sold their Peppermint Grove home for $7.75m late last year. Chiu Chi’s investment in Perth began more than two decades ago, when his family group Hawaiian acquired the Parmelia Hilton. He also owns Broome’s Cable Beach Club.
Not too dusty offering
High-profile sport and entertainment manager Ralph Carr is selling his Hawthorn home on the dress circle Shakespeare Grove. Abercromby’s agents Jock Langley and Simon Curtain have a $12m-$13.2m guide. Carr, who manages the likes of Richmond’s AFL star Dustin Martin, paid $7.55m for the Victorian home in the St James Park Estate subdivision in 2013. When Martin signed an $8m deal with the Tigers in 2017, the Nine Network’s Footy Show filmed him playing billiards there.
Carr has renovated the 1890s, five-bedroom home during his ownership. It once belonged to Clinton Casey, a former Richmond president. It has 12 rooms, including a formal dining space, media room with marble wet bar, library and a stately billiard room off the imposing arched reception hall entry. The home sits in 1320sq m of landscaped gardens that feature a pool and spa.
Jewel in their crown
Retired property developers Eli and Judith Bensimon are selling their Toorak home on the dress circle Hopetoun Avenue that dates back to 1910. It cost them $3.2m in 2006. They are asking $6.5m-$7m through Marshall White agents Richard Mackinnon and Marcus Chiminello. Set on 610sq m, the home has four bedrooms, a study and a family room that opens to the manicured private west-facing garden. The couple owned a successful wholesale and retail gem merchant for more than 30 years.
Architect Fender ‘no fool’
Architect Karl Fender is likely to emerge among the initial buyers in the Saint Moritz, St Kilda project. He is the lead architect on the $550m redevelopment of the Novotel hotel site on St Kilda’s Esplanade that officially goes on sale this weekend. It is a development venture between Tim Gurner and Greg Shand, the Sydney developer. “I would live here in a heartbeat,” Fender told a recent property industry lunch. “Watch this space,” he added, noting he was “really invested, as the office is, in the location”. “To have the Stokehouse as my canteen, the beach bumping against my front door, it’s an amazing project in an amazing location and you’d have to be a fool to not want to live here desperately, and I’m no fool.” He calls a 71st-floor apartment in Eureka Tower home.
jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
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