Former Murdoch exec and Nine chair lists award-winning $23m Vaucluse home

Former Nine chairman David Haslingden and his wife Alexa, a director of Sydney Dance Company, have listed their long-time family home in Vaucluse with a price guide of $23 million.

The couple have rebuilt the house from the ground up since they purchased the dual-access block with harbour views in 1997 for $2,515,000.

The Haslingdens bought the 1176-square-metre block in Vaucluse and transformed the property by building a trophy home. Credit:

They commissioned a beautiful design by Argentinian Diego Balagna, building an impressive six-bedroom, four-bathroom home that won the Master Builders Excellence Award at the time.

David, son of late grazier and Olympian Bruce Haslingden, was based in the US for years where he was Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Networks president before he resigned in 2012 and took up the job of overseeing Nine (publisher of this masthead) the following year until 2016.

The Cooma-born 64-year-old now heads up RACAT Group, a publishing, production and digital company that runs Junkee, Australian Geographic, game developer and publisher Runaway Play and Northern Pictures, behind TV shows such as Love on the Spectrum, Hardball and Lukewarm Sex.

Alexa was notable in her own right before marrying David as the daughter of Hugh Cullman, who was the president of American multinational tobacco company Philip Morris. The long-running tobacco executive, who spent decades selling Marlboros to the world, died at 100 years of age in 2023.

Alexa’s family background no doubt warranted her wedding to David announced in the pages of The New York Times in 1991.

The New York City-born 66-year-old was until last year the chairwoman of Lou’s Place at the Marmalade Foundation, a drop in refuge serving women across Greater Sydney. She is still a director at the foundation as well as a director at RACAT Group.

While the pair are downsizing from one of the largest land holdings in the blue-chip neighbourhood, they still own a waterfront house across the road, which they purchased from Carlene Blumberg, former Woollahra councillor, and her husband Michael, for $10.5 million in 2019.

Born in New York City, Alexa Haslingden went to Stanford University and has decades of experience in the advertising industry,Credit:

This is the Haslingdens’ second crack at selling the home, after it was first listed last year with hopes of $25 million.

It is being sold through Alison Coopes in an expression of interest campaign.

Compound no more

Further down the road, in Vaucluse, specialist plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Bish Soliman and his wife Toni are offloading their four-bedroom, four-bathroom house with uninterrupted views of Sydney Harbour after just four months of owning it.

The pair purchased the home sold by Peter Ludwig and Debbie Ludwig, fashion designer of Knitting de Paris, for $16.5 million in August last year.

The Solimans had plans to build a compound but have decided to sell one of the two adjacent properties.Credit:

The Solimans had plans to build a family compound after snapping up the neighbouring home three months later for circa $22 million, local sources say.

Dr Bish SolimanCredit:

But Soliman, who was part of a team of top doctors at Westmead who helped a shark attack victim regain the use of their right hand, and Toni seem to have had a change of heart and are keen to call the neighbouring property, which is yet to settle, home.

The home has a price guide of $16.5 million and is being sold through David Malouf of Highland, who declined to comment. It is scheduled to go under the hammer on March 27.

Change of scenery

In Balgowlah Heights, Stephen Dunne, former chief executive of AMP Capital, and his wife Sally Treeby, former chairperson of humanitarian organisation for girls Plan International Australia, have listed their beautiful Balgowlah Heights home with a guide of $7.9 million.

The redesigned Balgowlah Heights home of Stephen Dunne and Sally Treeby.Credit:

The couple, who also run family-owned cattle stud Myanga Angus, have called the northern beaches property home since 1999, when they paid $1,315,000.

In that time they have rebuilt a five-bedroom, three-bathroom modern sanctuary on the 879-square-metre block, which has been redesigned by Caroline Pidcock with stunning views from North Harbour to Manly Cove and over Manly Village out to the ocean. The home is within minutes of Forty Baskets Beach and Tania Park.

Stephen Dunne holds numerous board positions and directorships.Credit:

The pair have a keen interest in philanthropy and environmentalism, with Dunne holding numerous board and chair positions, including director of Greening Australia as well as a director and chair of the Investor Group on Climate Change, the leading network for institutional investors’ response to climate risk.

He is also a board director and chair of the Investment Committee at CBUS. Treeby was also a former director of Sydney Community Foundation.

The home is being sold through Kingsley Looker of Clarke & Humel Property. It is going to auction on March 1.