The home builder boss who bought Bob Hawke's $14.5m Northbridge home

As Northbridge locals mull this week’s sale for about $14.5 million of the home of their most high-profile resident, former prime minister Bob Hawke, the mystery buyer can be revealed as Peter Rawson, co-founder of the land-subdivision and home-building giant Rawson Group.

Rawson is no stranger to Northbridge, having bought and sold a handful of houses in the suburb over the past two decades, including his current property on the high side of the same street.

Rawson is financially well placed to secure the local trophy home given he sold the home building company he and his brothers Mark and Lawrie founded, Rawson Group, to Japan’s largest home-building company Daiwa House less than 18 months ago.

The purchase price of the four-level mansion from Hawke and his wife Blanche d’Alpuget remains undisclosed, but sources say it exchanged for about $14.5 million on Tuesday. It was hoped to sell for $15 million.

It’s an impressive windfall for Hawke, who bought the waterfront property in 1991 for $1.23 million six months before he lost the country’s top job in a leadership ballot to Paul Keating.

The residence – with a rooftop putting green and impressive waterfront facilities – was completed two years later as the forever home of Hawke and his then-wife, the late Hazel Hawke.

Northbridge’s fortunes have also risen substantially since work was completed on Hawke’s waterfront home in 1993.

Domain data shows the median house price at the time was $445,000, well above the 1993 Sydney median of $188,000.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes in Northbridge since I started selling locally in 1991,” said Chris Downie, of Richardson & Wrench Northbridge.

“It’s a lot better known now than it was 30 years ago, and in the last 15 years in particular there’s been a lot of generational change whereby the downsizers are moving on and younger families are buying into the suburb.”

While always well-heeled, Northbridge has lured more buyers from Mosman looking for waterfront homes with an easier commute to the city thanks to the Warringah Freeway, Downie said.

And the suburb can still claim one political leader as its own. Premier Gladys Berejiklian bought into Northbridge in 2016, paying $1.675 million for a townhouse.

Northbridge’s median house price is still well above that of Greater Sydney, set at $3.26 million last year – a fall from its all-time median high of $3.585 million the year prior when the suburb record was set at $21 million when Robert and Kelly Salteri, of the Transfield infrastructure giant, sold.

Rawson is already a near neighbour of Hawke, having bought a contemporary five-bedroom residence on the high side of the street in late 2012 for $3.075 million.

Hawke and d’Alpuget are expected to remain at the property until later this year, months after they take possession of their new apartment in the soon-to-be-completed One30 development in the city.

When approached for comment earlier this week, d’Alpuget declined to comment and Rawson was yet to respond to calls.

Rawson’s Avalon-based brother Lawrie has also upgraded his real estate holdings since the family company was sold off in late 2017. He bought a penthouse in the Highgate at Millers Point for $11 million last year from chief of sustainable development outfit Diversified Property Group, Darren Pearson.