Holiday homes outside Sydney snapped up as the who's who get out of town

Tim Minchin is headed to Kangaroo Valley, online publisher Oscar Martin has taken to a winery in the Hunter Valley and fintech pioneer Daniel Foggo has joined the jetsetters of Byron Bay – it seems the who’s who of Sydney are leaving town in droves.

Selling agents in coastal and rural markets within coo-ee of Sydney say the lockdowns of six months ago and border closures since have prompted a bonanza of holiday home and hobby farm sales.

And the surge in demand for luxury getaways has left agents like the Hunter Valley’s Alan Jurd scrounging for luxury property to offer buyers.

“Buyers who have been looking for years ask, what’s the COVID-19 price? And they are disappointed to hear it’s not a discount. It’s plus 10 per cent in many cases,” said Jurd, of Jurd’s Real Estate.

Title records across the state reveal an intriguing line-up of buyers who are either swapping Sydney for the great outdoors or ensuring that if there’s another lockdown in future they have somewhere to go.

No sooner was Miranda Kerr rumoured to be the mystery buyer behind the recent $6.9 million sale of the Loggerheads Homestead in Pokolbin in June than Pedestrian TV co-founder Oscar Martin bought the French-inspired boutique winery Krinklewood Vineyard for about $5.5 million.

In Byron Bay, Wategos Beach continues to lure the sort of money usually seen in Sydney’s high-end suburbs. Match Media founder John Preston and his wife Dee have paid $7 million for a two-storey house  on Brownell Drive and the house next door has been quietly picked up for $5.25 million by Daniel Foggo, chief of non-bank lender Plenti.

Troy Daniel, founder of boutique Hong Kong creative agency Bespoke Company, has bought on the same street for $5.25 million.

The epicentre of discretionary buying is the Southern Highlands where this week multimillionaire property developer Andrew Richardson bought the Peter Stronach-designed property Greyladyes in Mittagong on the quiet for $6.3 million through Karl Zabel.

And just weeks after the Crossroads Hotel at Casula was at the centre of a COVID-19 cluster, the hotel’s owner Jason Marlow and his wife Peta have banded with David Marlow, former Liquorstax chairman, and his wife Vivienne to buy the Berrima home of David and Kristina Arnott for $5.3 million.

In Bowral, Sarina Zaja, wife of Ausin Group Australia’s chief Joe Zaja, has paid $5.05 million for the property previously known as Manderley from ornithologist Ron Wooller and his wife Sue.

The Burradoo property Catalina has sold for $4.9 million to James and Susan Tonkin, the former a co-director of Nick Kelly’s Industrie Clothing, just weeks after the Tonkins sold their Vaucluse house for $4.2 million.

South of Sydney sources say a beachfront house in Bundeena that was for sale through PPD’s Deb Donnelley has been snapped up for $2.5 million by Lisa Rothner, former wife of AsheMorgan boss Michael Rothner.

No sooner did film director George Miller buy t

he Kangaroo Valley property Willabrook for $4.35 million from INXS guitarist Tim Farriss and his wife Beth than Tim Minchin and his wife Sarah have taken possession of a two-storey house on five hectares of bushland with a creek for $1.08 million.

Yachtie Jim Cooney, who skippered Comanche to line honours at last year’s Sydney to Hobart yacht race, and his wife Samantha Grant have bought a $4 million beachfront house at Hyams Beach.

A cottage on oceanfront reserve at Gerroa sold after less than two weeks on the market for $2.45 million to entrepreneur Hana-Lia Krawchuk, founder of the baby sleepwear company Love to Dream.

Despite the economic recession, house price records are being set on the Central Coast. In Macmasters Beach, Paul and Naomi Whitfeld, founders of the Ikou skin care range, have set a $4.5 million high for the Matt Thitchener-designed residence Courtyard House, and there’s a $5.2 million record in Forresters Beach thanks to Fook Thompson, wife of Vision Eye Institute chief Geoff Thompson.

North of Sydney on the Hawkebury River, a waterfront parcel of 10 hectares of private bushland with dams and a clifftop house sold for $1.66 million to a Li Xiaohong, wife of Owen Chen, founder of Chinese lender Aoyin and the Chinese-backed investment fund  ACapital.