Afterpay boss David Hancock upgrades to Paddington for $7.6 million

Afterpay Touch head David Hancock has made good on his recent $12.7 million pay day by taking the keys to a Paddington house on Friday for $7.65 million.

The Espie Dods-designed residence is set to be a return to Sydney for Hancock and his wife Fee, who sold their Centennial Park home in 2015 for $7 million to move to the Southern Highlands.

Hancock bought the Bowral property Kurkulla in 2015 for $3.775 million.

The buy now, pay later phone app aimed at millennials who shun credit cards has been one of the fintech success stories of 2018, recording more than 2.3 million Australian customers.

Its share price  soared to a high of $21 in late August before it settled at $13 this week, which was up 120 per cent from the start of the year.

Hancock joined the Afterpay board less than two years ago, with his $12.67 million pay revealed in the annual report, of which almost $12 million was thanks to loan shares.

The Paddington residence was built in the late 1980s for the late stockbroker Robert Ashton and sold by Ben Collier, of The Agency, on behalf of John and Maria Anderson, owners of telemarketing outfit Direct It.

Hancock also owns a 40-hectare oceanfront property in Kiama Heights which he bought in 2008 and expanded in 2010 for $2.8 million by buying next door.

Afterpay’s co-founder and chairman Anthony Eisen is also cashing in on the company’s bull run, recently buying the White House at Byron Bay’s Wategos Beach as a holiday house for about $7.6 million from Charlie Arnott, of the Arnott’s Biscuit family.

Co-founder Nick Molnar, 28, is based in San Francisco where he is spearheading the group’s expansion into the US. He was ranked 15th on this year’s Financial Review Young Rich List with a $341 million fortune.