What cashed up buyers are paying for apartments in Packer’s Barangaroo tower

A hand sanitiser entrepreneur. A retired bookie. Details emerge of who’s paid what for an apartment in Sydney’s Barangaroo showpiece.

The Barangaroo tower, left, dominates the western side of Sydney’s CBD. Picture: Nikki Short

Entrepreneur Luke Hepworth, who heads a family dynasty supplying personal protective wear and hand sanitisers, has just paid $9.4m for an off-the-plan plan apartment in James Packer’s soaring Barangaroo complex.

Mr Hepworth has purchased a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment in the striking, 82-unit Sydney tower overlooking Sydney Harbour, according to publicly available information obtained by The Australian.

Hepworth Industrial, based at Ingleburn in Sydney’s south west, manufactures and imports personal protective equipment, apparel and hand hygiene products supplying companies including Honeywell, Ansell and King Gee, according to its website. Hepworth declined to comment.

It comes as figures start to emerge showing what cashed-up buyers are actually paying to snare a luxury apartment in the $2.2bn One Barangaroo Crown Residences tower.

Asian buyers figure heavily in the latest public documents.

The Barangaroo complex towers over Sydney Harbour.

Tony and Evelyn Lin have forked out $28.8m for a 500sq m plus apartment at Barangaroo, while Zening He and Mi Yi Li have spent $14.48m with a mortgage to NAB. Yang Li and Ning Wang bought a $12.85m apartment in the complex with a mortgage to Commonwealth Bank.

Apartment prices in the One Barangaroo tower – which features 50 different types of marble sourced from all over the world – start at $9.4m for a two bedroom, two bathroom unit through sales agent Knight Frank partner, Erin van Tuil.

Queensland businessman and former Rothschild & Co investment bank chairman, Trevor Rowe, who paid $13.5m for a three-bedroom apartment on level 43 of the 77-level Crown Residences.

All up, $870m worth of apartments in the One Barangaroo tower had sold when the latest Crown figures were released in February, substantially up from the $650m in sales the casino operator reported a year ago.

The new sales data reveals retired bookie Bob Blann paid $41m for his unit in the Barangaroo tower, settling the sale on March 21 and relocating from an apartment in Rose Bay in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Inside one of the Crown Residences apartments.

Entrepreneur Andrew Raso paid $11.1m for an upper floor apartment, settling on April 1, while the Upton family forked out $12.5m on March 26.

Settlement of the apartment sales has been occurring progressively since March and will run through the balance of the calendar year, which will help to substantially de-lever Crown’s balance sheet, the casino operator said in a statement in February.

One of the larger apartment acquisitions, apart from the $60m James Packer paid for a two-level apartment in the tower, was by little-known western Sydney developer, Arnold Vitocco.

He paid $22m for an apartment on one of the upper floors, settling the acquisition this week.

Mr Vitocco, whose wealth was estimated at $767m last year, invests in property development with billionaire Tony Perich and together the parties own the Narellan Town Centre in Sydney’s west. A retailer in his own right, he rescued the Max Brenner chocolate franchise from its high-profile receivership in 2018.

An interior of one of the Barangaroo apartments.