The intriguing ownership behind Vaucluse's latest $40 million house sale

The Vaucluse waterfront mansion best known as the Sydney base of Chinese e-commerce billionaire Richard Qiangdong Liu has sold for almost $40 million.

The Luigi Rosselli-designed residence has a history of luring high-profile tenants, having also been rented for $30,000 a week by Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio in 2011, when he was in Sydney filming The Great Gatsby.

The property – on exclusive Coolong Road, two doors from the $80 million site amalgamation of Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev – was expected to hit the market in the new year, but sources say it sold on the quiet this week to a local family through The Agency’s Ben Collier and LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf. Neither agent would comment to Domain yesterday.

Liu, ranked by Forbes magazine as one of China’s richest people with a net worth of $10 billion, was embroiled in a rape trial earlier this year after a guest at an exclusive get-together at his penthouse in Sydney’s CBD was accused of sexually assaulting a model after he left. Liu was not accused of any wrongdoing in the trial.

Two months ago, the co-founder and chairman of JD.com also came under investigation and was later arrested on rape charges in the US before he was released without bail. Minneapolis authorities are still deliberating on whether  to file charges.

After Mr Liu rented the property in early 2015 he made headlines thanks to reports from his neighbours of the seemingly endless shipments of Grange being delivered to the property.

At the time, the three-level residence with private jetty, slipway, tennis court, pool, home theatre, 10-car garage and separate guest apartments was owned by Australia’s Consul-General in New York, Alastair Walton, and his former wife Gilly.

The Waltons sold it in the last days of 2015 for $36 million and Liu was expected to emerge the buyer, but in a surprising twist, records revealed it was bought by his associate Huang Qiaorong.

Ms Huang is the wife of Chinese supermarket billionaire Zhang Xuansong, co-founder and chairman of the Yonghui Superstores chain.

Ms Huang’s purchase came four months after Mr Liu’s JD.com bought a 10 per cent stake in the Yongui Superstore chain for $840 million.

Ms Huang never moved to the Vaucluse residence, remaining instead registered to a house in the Canberra suburb of Bruce.

Richard Liu and his wife Zhang Zetian, known as the internet sensation Sister Milk Tea, instead bought the notorious Sydney penthouse atop the Stamford Residences for $16.2 million in 2015.

Liu and Zhang are also cutting their property ties with Sydney, listing the Sydney penthouse, even if its latest $15 million price guide through Sotheby’s Richard Shalhoub is set to prove a loss.