Insta-glam: Millennial rag trader buys $22.7m Bellevue Hill home

Shadi Kord and her business partner Natalie Khoei founded their online rag trading business while they were studying architecture at the University of New South Wales, chipping in $200 each to start a business that listed accessories for sale on Instagram.

In the decade since that business has grown somewhat. Meshki, as it’s called, reported an annual turnover of $69 million in last year’s financial report, and a net profit of $11.7 million, almost double the $5.9 million profit of the year prior.

And while Meshki is a familiar name among its three million followers on Instagram, Australia only accounts for about a third of its revenue, with the bulk of it coming from overseas markets.

Given that, it is perhaps little surprise to see Kord and her husband, Bayan Fanaeyan, of Le Baus men’s fashion label, lodge their names on title records this week to a designer Bellevue Hill residence for $22.75 million.

The house was previously a 1920s-built bungalow owned by Investors Mutual chief executive Damon Hambly and his wife, homewares businesswoman Philippa Haydon, who bought it in 2010 for $3.7 million and commissioned a rebuild by celebrated architect Luigi Rosselli.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom residence set across three levels was completed in 2017, and includes formal and informal living areas, a swimming pool and home gym. Ray White Double Bay’s Elliott Placks had listed it for $23 million before it sold.

It’s not a bad step up from the Double Bay pad Kord, 31, and Fanaeyan, 34, purchased in 2021 for $2.55 million. Renovated throughout since, the Ocean Avenue apartment is set to go to auction on September 12 with a $3.9 million guide through Ray White’s Warren Ginsberg.

Meshki’s success follows a similar trajectory as another local online rag trader that makes the most of online influencers for its marketing, White Fox, owned by millennial husband and wife Daniel and Georgia Contos, who share an appreciation for high-end property.

In recent years the Contoses have forked out $120 million on four Vaucluse trophy homes, of which three are currently before council seeking permission to be demolished to make way for a single Bruce Stafford-designed mansion.

Lining the pockets of online traders like White Fox and Meshki is Australia’s fondness for buying new clothes. According to the Australia Institute think tank, Australians buy an average of 56 new clothing items a year, more than any other country.

Judge to sell doctor’s house

One of Glebe’s landmark “doctor’s houses”, long owned by corporate interests linked to former High Court Judge Mary Gaudron and her family, is for sale for the first time since about 1970.

The 1886-built Victorian Italianate residence was for decades run as the Verona Boarding House, complete with nine bedrooms, but more recently converted into a single residence.

The property is owned by a family trust, founded by Gaudron’s former husband Ben Nurse, and of which the director is Gaudron and her daughter Julienne.

Gaudron’s daughters Julienne and Danielle have listed it with Sotheby’s Harriet France, who has set a guide of $5.5 million ahead of the September 3 auction.

Discounting pays off

Still in legal circles, criminal lawyer Brett Galloway has sold his Watsons Bay home well ahead of the scheduled August 20 auction after it was discounted from its initial $5 million guide.

Belle Property’s Daniel Gillespie had revised the guide to $4.5 million after a week on the market, adding “Must be sold – Don’t miss out” to leave buyers in no doubt he was a seller. Gillespie refused to reveal the result, but an independent source suggested it was closer to $4.7 million.

Galloway’s decision to sell comes amid his own cost-of-living pressures. In May, he was served an eviction notice by the Sheriff, but secured an 11th hour stay in the Supreme Court, and it has a mortgage of more than $4 million on title.

Going for gold

Mark Ryan, a former adviser to Paul Keating and long-time adviser to the Lowy family, and his wife Deborah are shooting for a Paddington suburb high on their Paddington terrace.

Ryan purchased the four-level terrace for $2.52 million in 2003, a year after he played a key role establishing the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

In 2018, he became inaugural executive director of the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, but left four years later at billionaire Neilson’s request.

Ray White Double Bay’s Elliott Placks has listed it with a $16.5 million guide.

Paddington’s house price record is under review after Brompton House exchanged for $14 million last year to art adviser Richard Thompson, but it never settled, forcing the house back to the market. ASC chairman Damian Roche set the $13.5 million benchmark last year.