Revealed: Inside the mansions of Sydney’s rich | Photos
From James Packer to the founder of Menulog and billionaire developers. Take a look inside the homes of Sydney’s most high profile property owners.
Sydney is the playground for the nation’s richest people, and where there is wealth a mansion is not far away.
Here is a look inside the homes of some of Sydney’s high profile property owners.
JOHN BOYD
Property developer John Boyd’s $66m three-level penthouse atop the ANZ office tower in Sydney’s Castlereagh Street is one of Australia’s most expensive residential properties. After failing to sell back in 2018, it remains on the market through Christie’s agent Ken Jacobs and LJ Hooker’s Double Bay.
Sometimes used for high class corporate functions, the apartment features a private garage and lift, as well as a resort-style rooftop pool with two terraces and a cabana lounge, plus bespoke art deco furniture. Boyd, who is developing in Sydney’s south, also owns a grand mansion in Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill. However it needs some work.
DR CHAU CHAK WING / JAMES PACKER
No Sydney property list is complete without a Packer reference. And it was the 2015 sale of the six-level mansion La Mer by casino tycoon James Packer and former wife Erica Baxter to Chinese property developer Dr Chau Chak Wing for more than $60 million that really set the city’s mansion market rolling.
A series of big ticket sales followed after the disposal of the property by the separated pair, who lived in the Wentworth Road property for about four months after it was finished in 2013. At the time of its sale, the mansion sported a glassed-in winter garden space, wellness room, gym, 20-seat cinema and a 20-car soundproof garage.
The six bedroom family area was matched with oversized entertaining areas. The Packers’ had picked up the home a decade ago at a reported cost of about $30m and then poured millions into the opulent home renovation and extension designed by Tzannes Associates in one of Packer’s last major personal property projects in Sydney.
Packer is now converting two levels of the One Barangaroo Crown Residences tower into a private sanctuary after outlaying a reported $60 million for levels 48 and 49, which is slated to become an opulent six-bedroom 1340sq m dwelling.
NICOLE KIDMAN AND KEITH URBAN
Actor Nicole Kidman and musician Keith Urban give harbourside Milsons Point a touch of glamour that is hard to match. While Kidman‘s filming activities in Byron Bay, which saw her shift, with Urban and their two daughters while she filmed her new TV series, Nine Perfect Strangers, into a rented Spanish-style eco-mansion called The Range, the Sydney pad is a more permanent home.
The Kidman/Urban family own two of the three penthouses in the up-market Latitude building at Milsons Point. But they have twice resisted buying the third apartment, which could have seen them create a luxury skyhome. The neighbouring apartment sold for $7.65 million earlier this year. When they want to get away from the city they can make a dash for Bunya Hill at Suttons Forest, a Georgian homes they picked up for $6.5 million in 2008.
LEON KAMENEV
Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev is half way through construction of his Coolong Road, Vaucluse mansion which sits across four Sydney Harbourfront blocks he amalgamated at a cost of $80m. Designed by South African architects, Kamenev’s ultra modern home, which replaces his initial vision of a French chateau type abode - will boast a whopping 2227 sqm of living space.
Kamenev, who has raised the ire of surrounding neighbours for blocking views with his original designs sold Menulog for $470m back in 2015. He is often seen around Coolong Road walking his beloved standard grey poodle.
KARL AND JASMINE STEFANOVIC
Morning TV host Karl Stefanovic and wife Jasmine are never far from the Sydney property spotlight and have quietly picked up a home in the northern suburb of Castlecrag. The pair have also rented in the area and their permanent abode will be spruced up with a renovation to best capitalise the property‘s outlook over Castlecrag’s north escarpment.
But the city is but one of the family’s home and they are spending a lot of time in Queensland where they bought a $3.6 million luxury beach house in Noosa last year.
HARRY TRIGUBOFF
The apartment king enjoys three swimming pools at his harbourfront Vaucluse compound where he swims 20 laps of breaststroke a day. A multi-billionaire, Triguboff develops around 3000 apartments annually in Sydney and the Gold Coast.
When the chance came up to buy the house next door to his compound he snapped it up. The second house also has a harbourfront pool but Triguboff opted to install a third covered swimming pool for his exercise regime.
The second house also serves as a function room for the family parties Triguboff enjoys. The self-made Triguboff has built a waterfront cabana and there’s a timber boat shed where he enjoys the odd glass of champagne overlooking Sydney Harbour. A tennis court was demolished to pave the way to expand his lush Mediterranean style garden, which includes a pond full of ten large carp as well as a resident water dragon.
RUSSELL CROWE
Actor Russell Crowe won global headlines for protecting his multimillion-dollar property at Nana Glen as it came under serious threat during the bush fires, missing the Golden Globes to pitch in. The battle to save the home came amid 75-foot flames that surrounded the property, he said. And he has been property seller in recent years, offloading his trophy Sydney mansion Te Puke to former wife Danielle Spencer, six years after they bought it for $10m.
The Gladiator and Master and Commander star, is still a big property owner including his much-loved waterfront apartment at the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo. Crowe is another star who has done well from the property market‘s surge after deciding to keep his opulent home on the Finger Wharf in 2017 despite fielding interest at around the $25 million mark.
JERRY SCHWARTZ
The cosmetic surgeon and hotel collector purchased Phoenix Acres, a harbourfront mansion in Vaucluse back in 2017 paying $67m plus stamp duty from Singaporean tycoon CK Ow. Since then Covid has struck and Schwartz, like other tourism identities, has suffered a collapse in hotel occupancies.
He has just sold one of his 13 or so hotels, Sydney’s Sheraton by Four Points Central Park, for just under $150m. But work continues apace at Phoenix Acres with a tunnel built from the street down to the harbourfront nearly completed. Schwartz, who says he will never move house again, has also installed a private lift and raised the property’s tennis court higher to pave the way for a car park. Schwartz owns a series of hotels including the Crowne Plaza, Hunter Valley.
JENNIFER HAWKINS AND JAKE WALL
Apart from her various businesses, model Jennifer Hawkins and her husband Jake Wall have eked a living out of developing prize luxury homes. They sold their Pittwater trophy home Casa Paloma for $24.5m in June last year to Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.
They built the house from scratch in 2017, commissioning architect Koichi Taka to design the west-facing, glass walled five-bedroom property on an no-expense-spared budget. Materials include sandstone, walnut and American oak as well as Turkish marble and a temperature controlled 600-bottle wine cellar.
The pair are now building a five bedroom property at Whale Beach which is said to be the northern beaches peninsula’s largest residential home. Hawkins and Wall are planning a half-sized basketball court, an infinity pool and four-car garage. The sprawling home will have an internal lift connecting all three floors, as well multiple living spaces and a large kitchen.
CAMILLA FRANKS
Kaftan designer queen Camilla Franks forked out $3.868 million buying into one of Sydney’s most expensive suburbs, Woollahra, purchasing an Edgecliff Road property back in 2017. Franks, who is currently appearing on Celebrity Apprentice, is a childhood resident of the eastern suburbs, buying the two-level Victorian-style house replete with marble fireplaces, lap pool and stone-topped trendy kitchen. The designer house has a lockup garage with internal access. Franks, who has made her fortune selling her heavily decorated kaftans around the world, snapped up the house, built in 1900, after it was on the market for just 18 days. The Edgecliff Road property also features a stunning upper-level terrace.
JOHN SYMOND
The mansion owned by ‘Aussie’ John Symond needs little introduction to devotees of Sydney Harbour’s best homes or attendees of the swank soirees held at the Point Piper pad. Once tipped to break the record to become Australia’s most expensive home, the savvy Symond pulled the Wingadal Place property off the market despite drawing interest at more than $100 million and prices have since soared. If it ever went back up for sale it would smash records as buyers chase its views of Sydney Opera House and its unparalleled harbour access.
The multi-level sandstone, cement and glass home is spread across a 2685sq m block and allows for entertaining on a grand scale with Symond, who has lived in it since 2007, also marrying Amber McDonald in the home. The well-appointed kitchens have been worked in by the city’s finest chefs with Matt Moran and Neil Perry pitching in for charity events.
The mansion’s upper quarters sport six bedrooms while the lower more public levels include two swimming pools and more than 75 metres of water frontage. The stunning home designed by Australian architect Alexander Tzannes is marked out by its copper-capped roof while the ten-car garage is tucked away, along with the unobtrusive 24 toilets. The harbour views may be the city’s best but don’t detract from a wide-ranging art collection that sports works by Brett Whiteley and Sidney Nolan.
ROXY JACENKO
PR maven Roxy Jacenko paid $6.515m for her Hopetoun Ave, Vaucluse mansion back in 2018 and has since spent millions on an upgrade of the house set on a largish 575sq m block. It was a dream brief for interior architect Blainey North: total freedom to create a new family home in the eastern suburbs.
The PR maven who has become a celebrity in her own right, asked Blainey North to create a sanctuary from a hectic life. North did the rest.
MIKE CANNON-BROOKES AND SCOTT FARQUHAR
If there was any doubt about the changing fortunes of the city’s business empires it was put to rest in three years ago when Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife, Annie, bought the late Lady (Mary) Fairfax’s Sydney Harbour trophy home, Fairwater for about $100 million.
Their purchase secured them a berth next to Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, who paid about $71 million for the Fairfax family’s other grand estate, Elaine, also in Point Piper. Mr Farquhar, with an eye to the future, last year lodged, then pulled, plans that would see the dated Fairfax mansion replaced with a new $37 million designer residence. The proposed three-storey mansion had an eye to enjoying the property and included a rooftop tennis court, 20-metre lap pool and a basement gym, designed by the architect Carl Pickering and Rome-based Lazzarini Pickering Arhitetti. Any new plans may be discussed when the neighbouring co-founders have some time away from growing their software juggernaut.
ROBERT MAGID
Hotelier, property developer and investor Robert Magid, who owns Sydney’s luxury Pier One Hotel as well as The Lindrum in Melbourne, has lived on the Point Piper waterfront for many years. Magid recently took up swimming in his seafront pool and has just bought a wetsuit to cope with the cooler months.
Born in China, Magid has lived at Point Piper for 25 years and complains that he is alway fielding calls from real estate agents wanting to sell his harbourfront spread. He says the view from his garden is almost a rural view, if one looks out across the harbour you can see trees all over Mosman and Neutral Bay as well as the Harbour Bridge and the city.
NEVILLE CRICHTON
Luxury car importer and champion yachtsman Neville Crichton’s Point Piper house sits next door to Malcolm Turnbull’s. Crichton, whose wife Nadi is 34 years his junior, purchased the house, at that stage a concrete shell, for $39m.
Replete with an almost private beach, the house sports a huge patio for 12 people overlooking the Harbour. Crichton won line honours in the gruelling Sydney to Hobart yacht race in 2002 and 2009. He hit national headlines back in 2017 when he sold another Point Piper house back for $60.8m.
Betty Klimenko
An heiress to the billion-dollar Westfield fortune, Betty Klimenko hit the national headlines in February following revelations she had added to her Vaucluse compound in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs where she now controls six housing lots covering 3500 sqm. Klimenko, who owns the Erebus Motorsport SuperCars racing team, says she has amassed nearly an ‘acre of land’ after snapping up the prime real estate for a family compound having forked out more than $23m in the process. The adopted daughter of John Saunders, a co-founder of Westfield, Klimenko plans to create a guesthouse and retreat for her family on the estate.
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