Sydney mansion of failed Ralan boss sells for $9.3m
The Sydney mansion of William O’Dwyer has sold at auction for more than $9m after hitting the market a year after his Ralan property empire collapsed.
The Bellevue Hill mansion of failed property developer William O’Dwyer has sold at auction for more than $9m after hitting the market a year after his property group collapsed owing investors in Sydney and the Gold Coast more than half a billion dollars.
Built in 2007, the Fairweather Street, Bellevue Hill mansion in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, which is listed on ASIC documents as Ralan’s headquarters, was on the market through Sydney Sotheby’s International agent, Michael Pallier.
The property sold at auction for $9.26m, Mr Pallier confirmed.
Mr O’Dwyer forked out $5.7m for the four bedroom and four bathroom family home 14 year’s ago and has previously told The Australian he would be reluctant to sell it. ASIC documents reveal it has mortgages to the National Australia Bank and non-bank lender Wingate over it.
Given the Sydney property boom at the upper end of the market, prices of luxury mansions are more than doubling each decade.
Ralan’s empire was partly funded by investors handing over their deposits to the group to spend on its rapid expansion but it came unstuck taking on too much debt and trying to do larger projects that did not get off the ground.
Ralan collapsed into administration in 2019.
Ralan had been a prolific developer in Sydney’s suburbs from Arncliffe near the airport to the leafy Sydney suburb of Gordon but its move into the Gold Coast, specifically the purchase of the Ruby towers site at Surfers Paradise as well as its promises of offering apartment buyers 20 per cent interest on their deposits led to its demise.
The developer, which had high-rise projects in Sydney and the Gold Coast, entered voluntary administration in August, 2019, owing creditors more than $560 million.
Wingate had a signficant exposure to Ralan and was one of the lenders to call in the loan.
The Ruby site on the Gold Coast were subsequently sold to property developer, Dr Jerry Schwartz while Ralan’s Budds Beach site was picked up by Wingate and Melbourne developer Tim Gurner.
CoreLogic data shows the Fairwater house was owned by tenants in common, Mr O’Dwyer and Joanne Lesley O’Dwyer.
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