Fund manager Rob Luciano cashes in on Mosman's 'perfect market conditions'

Mosman was expected to record one of its worst-performing markets in decades as the COVID-19 lockdowns took effect early this year but the stars have aligned to deliver what could prove to be its best yet.

Hedge fund manager Rob Luciano and artificial intelligence entrepreneur Richard Kimber are only the most recent vendors to cash in on a bull run of at least 16 house sales of more than $10 million this year, of which more than half have transacted in the past six weeks.

Despite a median house price rise of 8.4 per cent to September, Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell says Mosman’s most expensive neighbourhoods of Balmoral Beach, Clifton Gardens and Georges Heights fared far better than the broader Mosman, Cremorne and Neutral Bay markets.

Dr Powell points to data from the 2020 School Zones Report which shows the median house price in the Mosman Public School catchment zone that includes the blue-ribbon addresses around Balmoral soared 20.5 per cent in the year to October. In contrast, median house values in the catchment zone for Mosman High School, which extends beyond Mosman to Kirribilli and Neutral Bay, fell 11 per cent.

“No one would have predicted the market would end up in this sort of rush given where we were at in February and March,” said Geoff Smith, of Ray White Lower North Shore.

“But what we’re working out is people will be spending a lot more time at home going forward, and as long as you have job security and interest rates remain low, then it makes more sense to put that extra holiday money into the family home.”

Kingsley Yates, of The Agency North, said the high number of returning ex-pats and a turbulent stock market were creating “perfect market conditions” for Mosman’s high-end.

“In my real estate career, this has been one of the best years ever. Every new sale seems to be recalibrating prices in Mosman,” said Mr Yates.

The only year that eclipses 2020 for ultra-prestige sales was 2018 when 20 houses transacted above that level.

The influential head of VGI Partners Rob Luciano, and his wife Samantha, are the most recent big-ticket sellers, scoring about $11 million for their home on Pretoria Avenue overlooking Balmoral Beach.

The sale price remains undisclosed by Mr Smith, but he had raised the guide from $10 million last month to $10.5 million before it sold. Mr Luciano bought the $18 million home on nearby Hopetoun Avenue in the golden triangle in February.

Meanwhile, the Balmoral home of Richard Kimber, founder and chief of artificial intelligence software company Daisee, and his wife Ann Marie, sold for about $12.5 million earlier this month,  more than doubling the $6 million they paid for it in 2013.

It is one of three houses on prized Plunkett Road to sell this year, of which one sold for $20 million to shopping centre uber-agent Simon Rooney and another sold for about $10.25 million to tech entrepreneur Robin Khuda.

Last weekend, the designer house of international fugitive Michael Menghong Gu, of collapsed property group iProsperity, was sold on behalf of mortgagee Credit Suisse for $12 million – well above the $9 million guide of Belle Property’s Tim Foote.

Independent sources say it was bought by Rose Stevens, who with her new partner Robert Mead, head of portfolio management in Australia of global bond giant PIMCO, backed up the next day to buy the Beach House Cafe opposite Balmoral Beach for $5.625 million. The couple already owns the investment apartment above it, purchased in March for $5.65 million.