Garbo Ian Malouf's month-long $110m property spree includes $30m Double Bay digs

Garbo Ian Malouf has long stood out among his Rich List contemporaries for preferring to rent rather than buy his own home, but that has changed dramatically in recent weeks with a hat-trick of trophy-home purchases to the tune of more than $110 million, most recently in the $30 million-plus range for a beachfront house in Double Bay.

Malouf’s latest purchase comes just weeks after his purchase of developer John Boyd’s $60 million penthouse in the ANZ Tower and a Palm Beach getaway for about $20 million.

Sources say the Dial-a-Dump founder and his wife Larissa bought one of the eight beachfront houses on prized Castra Place, among the homes owned by the likes of Janine Lowy, former wife of Westfield heir Peter Lowy, and corporate heavy-hitter Vickki McFadden.

There is more than one house being quietly offered to buyers on the cul-de-sac, but only one with more than $30 million hopes known to Title Deeds, that of Leigh and Nick Pongrass, of Pongrass Properties, which has been offered around by Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger.

The Pongrass home was previously owned by billionaires Bill and Imelda Roche, who had purchased it in early 1997 from fellow Rich Lister Andrew Roberts, who bought it in 1994 for $2.75 million from rag trader Philip Smouha, former husband of fashion designer Lisa Ho.

Malouf was unavailable to respond to a request for comment, but his high-profile corporate successes indicate his recent acquisitions are likely funded by the sale of Dial-a-Dump in 2018 for $578 million to Bingo Industries, of which he is now one of the largest shareholders.

Malouf was ranked on this year’s Australian Financial Review Rich List 200 as the 148th richest person in the country with an estimated net worth of $729 million.

Little River Band frontman upgrades in Elan

Little River Band frontman Glenn Shorrock and his partner Irene Rose have sold their apartment in Darlinghurst’s Elan building just a year after they bought it for $2.175 million.

The sale of their level 36 apartment for about $2.5 million comes amid rumours they have upgraded to another apartment in the same building.

Ballard Property’s new recruit Maxwell Munro declined to reveal the exact sale price, confirming only that the couple had sold.

Shorrock and his former wife Jo sold their Double Bay apartment in historic Gladswood House for $8.45 million.

Turnover runs hot on Dunara Gardens

There are only half a dozen houses on Point Piper’s cul-de-sac Dunara Gardens, and two of them have traded quietly in recent weeks, including the home of Lucy May, former wife of hotelier Ben May.

May’s sale price for about $10 million is a serious jump in value during her brief ownership since she bought it for $6.2 million, and even from the $7.5 million hopes of last October when it was listed with another agent.

At the time May purchased it in late 2018, she had sold her waterfront house up the road for $16.3 million to billionaire miner Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.

The exact sale price or buyer was not on offer from Laing+Simmons Double Bay’s D’Leanne Lewis, but local sources say it coincides with Lewis’ sale of the house two doors down from May for about $9.8 million on behalf of Gu Yan Ping.

Trading Potts Point high-life for parkside house

Print baron Michael Hannan has swapped high-rise apartment living in Potts Point for a parkside residence in Centennial Park he bought for $13 million (no finance required).

The 1906-built sandstone residence was an off-market sale by The Agency’s Ben Collier on behalf of Lucille Marsden, wife of BSV Lawyers Frank Back, who has owned it since 2005 when it was sold for $4.67 million by the Bergman family.

Hannan sold his penthouse in the Ikon building in February for $11 million to businessman Girish Bhojwani, having purchased it four years earlier for $8.32 million from Len Harlan, New York-based co-founder of private equity giant Castle Harlan, and his wife Fleur, former wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The chairman of Australia’s largest printing group Ovato has long shown a penchant for fine real estate. He previously owned Darling Point’s historic Trevenna-Roskear until 2010 when he sold it for $8.3 million to buy a Woollahra residence from Kerry Packer for $8.5 million, which was in turn sold four years ago for $13 million when he downsized to Potts Point.

Coal is king in Byron Bay hinterland market

Coal tycoon David Knappick and his wife Ann have downsized their Byron Bay hinterland home – if only in land size but not house or price – when they settled on a Coopers Shoot house for $12.7 million.

The four-bedroom house was designed by Zaher Architects and completed three years ago at a cost that selling agent McGrath’s Nick Dunn estimates at about $7.5 million.

The property is on 2000 square metres, just a fraction of the 24 hectares that comprised Knappick’s former hinterland property he sold in March for $14 million to Byron Bay-based entrepreneur Ross Hill.

Mining boss wants $15 million-plus

Mining boss Zhian Zhang and his wife Mei Peng have listed their Bruce Stafford-designed Bellevue Hill mansion for more than $15 million, given plans to trade up to Vaucluse.

The couple bought the Federation mansion in Vaucluse of the late nightclub founders Helen and Andrew Andrews in 2018 for $19.6 million, and the following year lodged a DA to demolish it and rebuild a three-storey residence with home cinema, gym, bar, and meditation room at a cost of $8.5 million.

Zhang owns Tasmania-based mineral exploration company Australia Hualong, which was granted a licence to mine in the state’s Comstock district on the west coast in 2019.

The couple have owned their Bellevue Hill residence since 2013, paying $8.338 million for the five-bedroom residence with tennis court, swimming pool and gymnasium on 1150 square metres. Sotheby’s Michael Pallier and Spencer Liang Sun are asking more than $15 million.

Xu strikes gold in Killara

Gold mining magnate Hanjing Xu and his wife Yao Xu secured a bullish pre-auction offer on their Killara mansion this week of a little more than $8.5 million.

The sale result is well above the initial $7 million-plus guide of Sotheby’s Ben Cohen, who credits it to the strong interest of three parties who submitted early offers on the property.

Hanjing is one of the most influential business people in the China-Australia mining industry and was an executive with Chinese state-owned China National Non-Ferrous Metals in the 1990s when he co-founded China Sino Gold.

Hanjing purchased the 1910 residence, Illaroo in 2009 for $4.3 million, and Yao oversaw a renovation since.

The couple’s daughter Cathy Xiao Xu set a Balmain house price record last year when she bought a heritage waterfront house for $11 million.