Soccer titan set to make $647,000 a month profit on stunning Sydney home

The home of Sydney Football Club chairman Scott Barlow and his wife Alina, a foundation director of the club, is set to change hands for a second time in almost as many years with a price guide of $50 million.

This time the stunning five-bedroom, four-bathroom home comes with DA-approved plans designed by Brian Meyerson of MHNDU to expand on the home from the living, dining and master suite.

The Barlows purchased the Vaucluse trophy home in 2023. Credit:

Alina is the director and founder of jewellery brand Alinka and is also the daughter of Russian billionaire David Traktovenko who used to own Sydney FC.

Set on 885 square metres with 30 metres of elegant frontage and iconic Sydney views, the home features a massage room, bar kitchen and a luxury swimming pool.

They say the third time’s a charm, but perhaps not for the couple who have changed their mind yet again. The Barlows trialled two other trophy homes in Point Piper before purchasing the Vaucluse home for $39 million in 2023 from telco tycoon Canning Fok, director and chairman of TPG, and his wife Eliza.

Scott and Alina Barlow.

But they don’t seem to be faring too badly. They purchased Akuna for $45 million and sold it a year later for $60 million. They’ll make a paper profit of $11 million on their latest ownership if their price expectations are achieved. That’s about $647,000 a month since they’ve owned it.

The three-level residence in Vaucluse, which has uninterrupted views of Sydney harbour, was one of two built in 2005 by freight and transport industry boss Terry Tzaneros, one of which was sold to the Foks in 2010 for $23.5 million.

It is being sold through Monika Tu of Black Diamondz and Brad Pillinger of Pillinger.

An artist’s impression of the expansion of the Vaucluse property.Credit:

Bellevue Hill downsizers

Consultant veteran Chris Manning and his wife Mary are also calling time on their Bellevue Hill trophy home, which has hit the market with a price guide of $19 million.

The exquisite Weir Phillips-designed house has five bedrooms, seven bathrooms and four car spaces, set on 767 square metres.

The Mannings are splitting their time between Sydney and New York.Credit:

The property was purchased in 2007 for $5.875 million soon after it was built, and the Mannings expanded some years later, adding an extra bedroom, bathrooms and a cellar.

Chris recently retired from his position as managing partner for Strategy& in Australia, which was acquired by PwC. His career spanned more than 25 years of consulting experience across the world and practice as a lawyer prior to that, focusing on mergers, acquisitions and corporate structures.

While the couple will split their time between Sydney and New York, Chris will be devoting most of his time in retirement on his first novel, The Consultant.

While the protagonist is a fictional character rather than an autobiographical one, Chris is no doubt well-placed to tell the trials and tribulations of the consulting world.

The home is scheduled to go under the hammer on April 5 and is being sold through Max Spartalis of Krulis Residential.

Proceeds of crime

In The Rocks, a penthouse apartment is for sale as part of proceeds of crime forfeiture, returning millions of dollars to the Australian community.

The property was seized under Operation Cabestro – a joint operation led by the Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police which is tackling a large-scale excise fraud matter concerning unlawful importation of alcohol.

The penthouse was purchased for $17.5 million.Credit:

Almost $1 billion worth of assets were seized as part of the operation in 2023, with real estate accounting for $588 million – or 62 per cent of the total. More than $300 million of the national total was seized in NSW, making it by far the most popular state for criminal wealth seizures.

The penthouse is part of this large and high-value pool of assets, which will be sold at auctions throughout 2025 by the Official Trustee in Bankruptcy, a statutory body in the Australian Financial Security Authority.

As with all criminal assets forfeited and managed by the authority, the net sale proceeds will go into the Confiscated Assets Account, managed by the authority on behalf of the Australian government.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom residence atop The Harrington has commanding world-class views of Sydney Harbour, and comes with a price guide of $17.5 million, which is what it last traded for.

It is scheduled to go under the hammer on April 16 and is being sold through Daniel Baran of Highland Double Bay.

Ex-Packer advisor trades

The Bondi Beach bolthole of former James Packer adviser Glenn Poswell and his wife Melanie is on the market with a price guide of $1.9 million.

Poswell headed Packer’s boutique hedge fund business Ellerston Capital, which managed more than $4 billion in assets, for almost five years before resigning in 2009. He went on to become the founder of Gannet Capital.

The Rose Bay-based couple purchased the one-bedder for $1.975 million in 2022.

It is scheduled to go under the hammer on April 5 and is being sold through James Ledgerwood of McGrath Double Bay.