Changing of the guard: how two mates in tech conquered Australia's property market

For more than a century, the Fairfax family made much of their fortune thanks to the success of its many newspapers, raising successive generations of newspaper proprietors from the confines of Australia’s most expensive real estate.

But that changed on Wednesday night when the last of those monuments to the world’s longest-running publishing dynasty was sold to new owners, who represent a far more modern corporate landscape.

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes is only 38 but is already ranked in the Financial Review Rich List 2018 as one of the 10 richest people in Australia, alongside his mate from university Scott Farquhar.

Together they founded the software giant Atlassian in 2002 using a $10,000 credit card debt, propelling them onto the BRW Young Rich List in 2007.

Last year Farquhar bought Elaine, the Fairfax family estate from John Brehmer Fairfax for $71 million.

On Wednesday night Cannon-Brookes bought the Fairwater estate from the other branch of the Fairfax family for about $100 million.

Such is the price when money is no object and there is a strong desire for space, privacy and proximity to the local schools and Double Bay village shops.

Within 18 months of each other, the two deals effectively transfer the prized 1.8-hectare estate from the publishing dynasty behind The Sydney Morning Herald to the founders of one of Australia’s most successful and largest software companies.

Both deals were negotiated by Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International, and both claim top spots on the national house price records.

“We are delighted with the purchase of Fairwater for our young family and look forward to continuing the legacy of this beautiful Sydney home,” Cannon-Brookes said in a statement to Domain on Thursday.

“We love the idea of raising our four young children in this historic property, filling the house and gardens with love and laughter through the years.”

Sydney’s trophy homes have long acted as a beacon for the most successful corporate success stories, and the Atlassian co-founders are not the only tech heads buying into Sydney’s best homes.

Internet boss Patrick Grove bought a $28 million knockdown-rebuild in Darling Point last year that is expected to be a permanent residence for the Asian-based expat when a new contemporary residence is completed.

Grove, who debuted on the BRW Young Rich List in 2011 aged 36 with a worth of $55 million, sold his Malaysia-based real estate website iProperty to News Corp’s subsidiary REA Group in 2016 for $751 million.

Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev paid $79.7 million for four properties in Vaucluse in 2016 with plans before council to amalgamate the site and build one mansion on the waterfront.

Fellow Menulog co-founder Dan Katz spent $20.3 million in early 2016 on a waterfront home in Vaucluse.

Rich List techie Christian Beck, who founded the corporate success story InfoTrack, spent $8.5 million on a Longueville waterfront home last year and he added a $4.05 million house next door this year.