Afterpay's Nick Molnar makes like a billionaire, buys block next door for $18.5m

Australia’s youngest billionaire Nick Molnar and his wife Gabrielle, both 31, had not long settled into their $27 million home on the clifftop at North Bondi’s Ben Buckler when word spread on the street that the 1970s block of six apartments next door was to be redeveloped.

No doubt most of the neighbours reconciled themselves to a few years of early morning construction work, but not the co-founder of buy-now-pay-after juggernaut Afterpay. Instead, the couple bought up the entire block for their personal use.

Such are the options to someone ranked on last year’s Young Rich List with an estimated wealth of $2.22 billion.

As it turns out, the developer who had placed an option on a few of those apartments last October was Rafi Assouline, of HSN Property Group, from whom the Molnars purchased their home: initially paying $10 million for the top floor of what was then a triplex and later buying the two apartments below for what sources say was about $8.5 million each.

A few days before last Christmas Waverley Council approved an application by the Molnars to make the triplex a single residence, and this week updated property records finalised the settlement of the last of the apartments next door in Gabrielle’s name.

The Molnars declined to comment for this story and records do not reveal the sale prices, but well-placed sources say they coughed up about $18.5 million for the block.

It’s likely good news for the neighbours, but even better for the block’s former owners whose apartments sold for above market value of about $3 million each, especially the couple who only a year ago bought into the block for $1.8 million.

Expect to see the block eventually demolished and the site used to extend the Molnars’ home with extra play room for their two young kids.

Rove McManus trades down

Rove McManus and his wife Tasma Walton have sold their Bronte home on the quiet for more than $14.5 million.

The triple Gold Logie award-winning comedian and his wife are reportedly spending more time in their Perth hometown where they bought a $2 million house by the beach last year.

Bethwyn Richards, of The Agency, was tipped as the agent who sold their Bronte home, but declined to comment when approached.

A caveat was lodged on title of the McManus and Walton home last December claiming the purchase to a corporate trust.

A major renovation of the residence was recently completed following the couple’s purchase of it for $6.4 million five years ago.

Word of the couple’s sale follows McManus and Walton’s purchase of a deceased estate in Coogee at auction last Saturday for $3.76 million, again with Richards bidding on behalf of the high-profile couple.

Sue Gibson’s high-end route to Sydney

Multimillionaire Sue Gibson, who sold the Perth mansion built for the late Alan Bond last September for $27.5 million, has bought into one of Sydney’s most exclusive harbourside buildings, The Bradfield, at McMahons Point.

Records show Gibson, the former partner of mining magnate Steve Wyatt, paid $7.8 million for the second-storey spread through Atlas’ Adrian Bridge, joining the likes of tech entrepreneur Robin Khuda and private equity veteran Peter Wiggs in the exclusive block of five.

The three-bedder sold by Atlas’s Adrian Bridges is expected to be a Sydney bolthole for Gibson, who swapped Perth for the NSW Southern Highlands in early 2018 when she bought the Crossways Farm at Robertson for $5.5 million.

Nine director trades up in property

Michael Healy, the long-time director of television at Nine (majority owner of Domain) has traded up his home real estate buying a recently renovated Bronte house on dress-circle Yanko Avenue for more than $10 million.

The off-market purchase comes four months after Healy sold his former South Coogee home for $5 million.

Healy had undertaken an impressive renovation of the South Coogee home since he purchased it in 2005 for $2.92 million, before he listed it last year with Ballard’s James Ball for $4.85 million.

Origin chief gets energised

Origin Energy chief Frank Calabria has had more on his plate than the collapse in power prices amid the surge of renewable energy into the grid. Behind the scenes there has also been a recent weekender purchase by Calabria and his wife Lucy.

The Mosman locals – they bought their Federation home for $5 million in 2010 – have purchased a 10-hectare retreat in Foxground on the South Coast for $3.6 million complete with a separate guest house and equestrian facilities.

Competitive auction action

The Point Piper home of race-car driver and developer Ash Samadi sold this week for $15.01 million – four years after it was passed in at auction on a vendor bid of $15.6 million.

There were four registered buyers at the auction, with active bidding from two, and a bit of assertive jostling for prime position by the successful buyer.

The result by Laing + Simmons Double Bay’s D’Leanne Lewis offers a decent windfall on its last traded figure of $2.7 million to Samadi’s mother Fatemeh Doust when sold by the estate of Kings Cross developer Frank Theeman.

The house was built in the 1950s and designed by the late architect Anatol Kagan for the late property developer Walter Rivkin.