Sydney's prestige property market soaks up the boom from top tech echelons

It isn’t just the rich lists that are increasingly dominated by the tech entrepreneurs. Sydney’s high-end housing market is also being reshaped by the demands of the top echelons of the technology industry.

From the $100 million historic estates in Point Piper to site amalgamations in Cronulla, Sydney’s property records are a barometer of the industry’s property gains.

Take the beachfront in Clontarf, which despite long struggling to score double-digit sales has managed three this year – two of which are to tech industry operatives.

The latest is Daniel Brooks, founder of the software development company Linchpin Labs, who has paid $10.5 million for a beachfront house next door to the home of his brother, Anthony Brooks.

The purchase comes just two months after Linchpin Labs and another cyber security firm Azimuth Security were acquired by US defence contractor L3 Technologies for a reported $330 million.

Brooks’ new home is along the beachfront from the local trophy home Rock Lee bought earlier this year for $10.56 million by Jacqui Foord and her husband Lionel Waker, who heads up the Australian arm of software provider Infovest.

A co-founder of email marketing firm Campaign Monitors, Dave Greiner, splashed more than $24.6 million in September on three apartments and a duplex on oceanfront reserve at Cronulla amid expectations the young rich lister plans to eventually amalgamate the 1100-square-metre site to build his forever home.

His Campaign Monitors co-founder Ben Richardson and his wife Inger are also undertaking their own site amalgamation of four blocks overlooking the beach at nearby Greenhills Beach with a DA lodged for a $6 million house with a pool and tennis court.

“The successes in the tech industry have fuelled a resurgence of  local buyers who are moving into that top-end market, and filling the space that until recently was dominated by buyers from China and elsewhere overseas,” said Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay.

Australia’s two priciest house sales are set by neighbouring homes on the beachfront in Point Piper by the co-founders and co-chief executives of software giant Atlassian.

Both estates were sold by the Fairfax publishing family through Christie’s Ken Jacobs, first in 2016 for $71 million to Scott Farquhar, and in September when Mike Cannon-Brookes bought Fairwater for $100 million.

The only other sale to come close was the $79.7 million in 2016 paid by Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev for four houses in Vaucluse on which he plans to build his forever home.

Internet boss Patrick Grove bought a $28 million knock-down-rebuild on the waterfront in Darling Point last year with plans lodged to council in August for a $2.4 million house by Polly Harbison Design. 

In May Dural’s property records were smashed by China’s senior executive at touchscreen glass supplier Lens Technology Junlong Zheng, husband of the company founder Zhou Qunfei, when he bought a French provincial-style mansion for $10.85 million.

In May, a waterfront house in Longueville sold for  $4.13 million to Belinda Young, wife of InfoTrack founder Christian Beck, to go with their $8.6 million waterfront home next door.