Fallah family goes full throttle for Hamptons-style living

It was a stroke of luck the Fallah family found a block of land in Brisbane’s inner-northern suburbs with the highly sought-after two-street access.

Alborz and Anna Fallah at their home in Wilston. Picture: Glenn Hunt

It was a stroke of luck the Fallah family found a block of land in Brisbane’s inner-northern suburbs with the highly sought-after two-street access.

After initially swearing they would never build a home, they spent three years looking for the perfect house in the Queensland capital’s most prestigious suburbs to no avail.

Anna was looking for a large family home for the couple’s three boys, Alex, 16, Ari, 9, and Lewis, 6, while Alborz was searching for a garage large enough to store his collection of high-end cars.

After buying the land at Wilston in December 2018, they spent a year designing and building the $6.5m Hamptons-style home, moving in through December.

The home is a testament to Mr Fallah’s journey from his humble beginnings in war-torn Iran to his achievements as a successful entrepreneur.

“My parents came to Australia with basically nothing. I don’t know, I mean, it’s a bit surreal,’’ he said standing in the master suite overlooking a vista of the city.

The garage downstairs was designed to best show off his prized collection, with enough space to house 12 cars. Picture: Glenn Hunt

In 2006 at the age of 22, Mr Fallah founded CarAdvice.com while studying full-time at the University of Queensland, with the site quickly gaining momentum as an independent publication for comprehensive car information and reviews.

It caught the attention of Nine Entertainment, which bought the business for $60m in 2016.

“I grew up dreaming of cars, not houses,” Mr Fallah said. So it's nice to have a really nice house but I get the most joy when I take people to the garage. That’s what I wanted to have in life.”

The garage downstairs was designed to best show off his prized collection, with enough space to house 12 cars. All black with a mirrored wall at the back, the customised lighting strips that wrap the room are controlled by German technology that allows for each bulb to be operated independently.

Rare and distinctive, none of the cars are turbo-powered as he enjoys hearing the grunt of the engine. Each is perfectly arranged inside, from the Jaguar F-Pace, the Aston Martin Vantage N400, the Ferrari 458 Speciale, the Lamborghini Huracan Performante, the Lotus Elise race car, the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG to the Mitsubishi 3000GT. Out of all of them, the Aston Martin Vantage is his favourite given it was the first he purchased after hitting success.

Anna Fallah was the mastermind behind the design, sketching our floorplans for the architects. Picture: Glenn Hunt

“My only regret is that we could’ve made the garage bigger and we didn’t. In retrospect, we could’ve dug behind the pool and made a 25-car garage but that might have been ridiculous,” he said.

Ms Fallah, who is studying a PHD in psychology, was the mastermind behind the home. She engaged HAL Architects with floor plans she had drawn out on pieces of paper which were very similar to the final design.

The Fallahs were living in a 100-year-old Queenslander in neighbouring Newmarket when they decided to build the Hamptons home.

A scheme of marble, gold and navy blue is carried throughout the home, with “extra” finishings included throughout like the gold subway tiles in the downstairs bathrooms and bi-fold windows in the ensuite bathroom so the city views and evening breezes can be indulged upon from the circle bathtub.

“If I could design a dream home, it would have coffered ceilings and herringbone floors.”

In a way, Ms Fallah said the design paid homage to her local roots.

“I grew up in Queensland and so that’s why when I knew we were building a house I said it must have the gabled roofs and the wooden floors and the window seats because to me that’s a classic home,” Ms Fallah said.

A scheme of marble, gold and navy blue is carried throughout the home. Picture: Glenn Hunt

“I know people say Hamptons are in fashion at the moment but a Hamptons is just a modern Queenslander.

“Queenslanders don’t date and I don’t think houses like this do either.”

The home was built by Trovato Constructions.

Mr Fallah launched his latest venture at the beginning of the pandemic, an independent digital publisher called Expert Media.

Through that, he published CarExpert.com.au so he could once again have a platform to talk about his passion.