From Mike Cannon-Brookes to Sam Dastyari: the prestige property deal makers of Title Deeds 2018

If 2018 is known as the year the property boom finally ended, that memo was lost on our trophy-home brigade.

As the punters copped the biggest house price falls in a decade, home owners in the rarefied enclaves of Point Piper and Vaucluse marked a different milestone, toasting the $100 million sale of Fairwater. May all our mansions sell for just as much.

The timing couldn’t be more momentous. As the Fairfax name is wiped from the corporate landscape, so too is more than a century of ownership of Australia’s most expensive residence.

Vale Lady (Mary) Fairfax and welcome to Point Piper Mike Cannon-Brookes.

The 39-year-old tech head wasn’t the only member of our billionaire class to make a good impression on title records this year.

All the right moves

Brett Blundy pulled off the ultimate property flip on the Rose Bay mansion he bought on a three-year settlement for $33 million when he sold in April for about $45 million.

Kerr Neilson likely took inspiration from The Block when he paid $5 million to renovate one of the oldest surviving residential buildings in Millers Point.

China’s richest self-made woman Zhou Qunfei discovered the joys of Dural, smashing all local records in her husband Junlong Zheng’s name with a $10.85 million buy.

Aussie John Symond offloaded two Potts Point apartments for $12.5 million and one daughter when Deborah married Ned O’Neil.

John Kinghorn showed he has no intention of leaving Mosman in the near future, swapping his $12.5 million house for a $10.22 million apartment.

Bondi Beach proved one of the few sources of good news in James Packer’s life when father and son property developers Roy and Anthony Medich bought his bachelor pad for $29 million.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest didn’t get to buy Russell Crowe’s Woolloomooloo pad when it was briefly listed in late 2016, but did secure a foothold in the Point Piper rich list heartland for $16.3 million.

Sam Barnett, son of former Western Australia premier Colin Barnett, didn’t buy Crowe’s pad either, despite telling the press the contrary.

Keeping it all in the neighbourhood

The nextdoor neighbours proved one of the strongest class of buyers as friendly visits started over a cup of sugar and quickly progressed to the cost of the title deeds.

Pokie scion Geoff Ainsworth waited a month after he bought an $8.6 million Palm Beach weekender before he introduced himself to the neighbours and left $7.4 million poorer with the keys.

Self-confessed “software nerd” Richard White took a similar approach to his Berry Tops retreat, paying $2.65 million for the farm next door.

Fellow billionaire Christian Beck expanded his Longueville waterfront property by $4.13 million, and mining mogul Travers Duncan made it four houses in a row at Chinamans Beach for $6.35 million.

When Trump adviser Andrew Liveris couldn’t find a buyer for his Whale Beach house, he knew dentist David Penn would swap it for $3.36 million.

Techie Dominic O’Hanlon didn’t so much buy out his neighbour, but when he sold his Wahroonga house for $13 million he just walked across the road to new $9.5 million digs.

Russell Staley at least wandered five doors up the Collaroy oceanfront to buy adjoining houses for $15.5 million as a knock-down rebuild.

Hoteliers raise a toast

Sydney’s lockout laws did little to dim the real estate plans of our publicans.

Hotelier Marcus Levy swapped contemporary digs on the Vaucluse hillside for about $21 million to buy on the waterfront for close to $30 million.

Former Wallabies player-turned-publican Bill Young sold on the Northwood waterfront for $6.2 million and has already moved into an $11.2 million mansion up the hill.

Pub baron Bruce Solomon took time out from his executor duties with the Fairfax estate to buy a Whale Beach weekender for $5.8 million, and Vaucluse proved too long a commute for Natasha Stanley, who sold for $8.4 million to buy in Woollahra for $6.5 million.

But they were all left in the shade of the property upgrade by hotel mogul Jerry Schwartz.

He kicked off the year with the revelation he paid $65.25 million for tycoon CK Ow’s Vaucluse house and 12 months later sold his redundant digs nearby for almost $30 million to private equity boss Clark Perkins.

Funds managers on the move

The banking executives took their cue from the royal commission and kept a low profile, but not so those in the funds management game.

Former young rich lister Angus Grinham and his wife Catherine traded their $9.75 million Cammeray home for a Mosman waterfront for $18.5 million.

Paul Henry gave up on the Mosman-to-Palm Beach weekend commute and instead pocketed $15 million for his retreat from investment manager Frank Elsworth.

Rob Luciano took a different approach and sold the Mosman mansion he bought a year ago to buy for $18 million at Palmy’s Kiddies Corner.

Former Goldman Sachs director Karl Mayer off-loaded his Palm Springs-style home in Vaucluse for $19.5 million to cannabis aficionado Matt Cantelo.

Ari Droga cut short John Schaeffer’s six-month ownership of the Bellevue Hill trophy Bonnington when he outbid Clark Perkins to buy for $20.4 million under the hammer.

A political masterclass

Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to remain at his Point Piper home despite being handed the keys to Kirribilli House along with the prime ministership just three years ago proved prescient given turnover in the top job.

Joe Hockey made good use of his time in Washington by upgrading his Hunters Hill real estate, selling one historic mansion for $7.7 million to buy another up the road for $7.8 million.

Liberal aspirant Dave Sharma bought into the Wentworth fiasco with a $2.6 million Paddington terrace just as former Labor rockstar Peter Garrett sold out of the neighbourhood for $5.25 million.

Former trade minister Andrew Robb made good his new job as a consultant to a Chinese billionaire with a $4 million house in Cremorne.

Speaking of Chinese influence, former senator Sam Dastyari traded in his $1.9 million Russell Lea house for a $1.61 million townhouse in Five Dock.

Waiting game pays off

It was even a good year for the slow-movers. Take the Mosman trophy home Hopetoun listed in 2014 with $40 million hopes. Swans chairman Andrew Pridham paid a suburb record of $25 million only to see his son move in with his uni mates.

Rona was another. Listed two years ago with a secret guide widely reported at $70 million by Terry and Kyril Agnew, it sold in August for $58 million to property developer Richard Scheinberg, but only after Terry had already decamped to his $10.35 million Woollahra digs.

That was good news for food blogger Stephanie Conley who had also missed out on Bonnington only to buy Scheinberg’s redundant digs down the hill for more than $17 million. It replaces her $15 million Darling Point home.

Even the Hordern family found a $21 million buyer for their family heirloom after two years all thanks to the Baillieu branch of the family, forcing the youngest member of the family to finally move out of home.

Congratulations to brothers Samuel and Anthony Hordern who have gone halves in a Darling Point pad for $3.2 million.