Homes worth $100 million: the depth of wealth in Melbourne real estate

At the luxury level of Melbourne’s property market, mansions worth around nine figures loom large on blue-ribbon boulevards.

A recently listed Sydney house, owned by businessman “Aussie John” Symonds, is likely to be the first in Australia to sell for $100 million.

But it’s only a matter of time before a transaction of that magnitude happens in Melbourne, according to industry insiders.

The campaign has started to sell a $30 million-plus Toorak house, offered up by entrepreneur and arts patron Daniel Besen and his wife, Danielle, hinting at the scale of riches in Melbourne bricks and mortar.

If the Besens sell 9 Towers Road for price expectations, it will easily smash the $26 million Victorian price record.

But that sort of money is only the tip of the crystal chandelier. It’s far from the most expensive house in Melbourne.

In this stratosphere of real estate, chauffeured Bentley rides to discreet negotiations, private inspection parties with top chefs and champagne, and invite-only auctions are de rigueur.

The understated nature of privilege and position in Melbourne means the true depth of wealth is rarely on display, whereas members of Sydney high society, by virtue of their highly visible harbourside addresses and the city’s glitz, are more obvious.

Disneyland-sized estates behind high gates in an elite axis of Toorak, owned by a who’s who of Melbourne’s business elite, could command “circa $100 million”, property sources said.

These include Chadstone Shopping Centre tsar John Gandel’s Albany Road bolthole, the Irving Road digs belonging to trucking boss Linsday Fox, property developer Harry Stamoulis’ behemoth new build on St Georges Road, and Clendon Road’s Coonac manor, which is Toorak’s largest privately owned landholding and home to former Essendon Football Club chairman Paul Little.

The Pratt family’s Italianate mansion, Raheen, on a sweeping parcel of Studley Park Road in Kew, is more difficult to price. Sources said it could be worth more than $100 million.

If any were to trade, they would be quietly handled off-market – unknown to the public – by agents whose address books read like a BRW Rich List.

Abercromby’s director Jock Langley said some Melbourne properties could achieve Sydney’s highest-end prices.

“A Sydney home recently that sold in excess of $70 million, there is similar real estate that we think exists in Melbourne that could be worth that or more,” Mr Langley said.

“There is a house in Sydney being touted at $100 million and some Melbourne houses should be worth in that vicinity if they were offered.”

Kay & Burton has listed two mansions at 17 and 32 Albany Road, a street occupied by the influential, from businessman and former lord mayor Ron Walker, to members of the Lew dynasty, and the Valmorbida family of Lavazza coffee fame.

The agency’s joint managing director Michael Gibson described Albany Road as the “most valuable real estate in Victoria”.

Mr Gibson recently oversaw the private auction of a Stonnington Place mansion in Toorak, where four bidders, gathered in the foyer around a baby grand piano, battled aggressively in sums upwards of $8 million.

“We would do this three or four times a month; this is a slightly more sophisticated way of getting to the end game, than just expecting everyone to turn up and bid,” he said.

Kay & Burton joint managing director Ross Savas, who refused to comment on specific properties, said the status of Toorak’s powerbroker streets was recognised by prospective buyers around the world.

Some are willing to wait many years for a trophy estate to become available.

“There is no doubt they have cachet globally,” Mr Savas said.

“They will always be prominent properties and they will always exceed market expectations, and they will only grow in terms of capital appreciation, because they are so scarce and, in a lot of instances they are trophy homes that people will only sell if they get the right result — and the right result is what they are happy to sell for, if ever at all.”

Developer Mirvac has released a $15 million-plus penthouse, with an glass-sided pool and 50-metre balcony overlooking the Fitzroy Gardens and Treasury on Spring Street, crowing its Eastbourne apartments in East Melbourne.

Buyers will be ferried by Bentley to negotiate in a suite at the five-star Sofitel hotel – a  far cry from the hoi polloi haggling around a kitchen table after a public auction.