Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch surreptitiously bought their neighbours' Bellevue Hill home for $4.4 million

When most people are faced with an unwelcome DA plan from the neighbours their only recourse is a firmly worded objection to council.

But not for media mogul Lachlan Murdoch and his wife Sarah.

When faced with the prospect of their neighbours adding a third storey and rooftop terrace to a home, which is set directly in front of their Bellevue Hill Georgian mansion, it appears the Murdochs took another course of action and bought the house – and the DA-approved plans with it – for $4.4 million.

The Murdochs had reportedly objected to the DA-approved plans of their neighbours, architect Leon Norman and his partner Roy Jones. And Norman and Jones had also been two of the most vocal opponents against the Murdochs’ own extensive renovation plans. 

Another $4.4 million to protect their view was probably a no-brainer for the billionaire family, who outlaid $23 million in 2009 to buy their Bellevue Hill home – the former French trade commissioner’s estate – and undertook an $11.67 million renovation of the 4097-square-metre property.

The purchase has not only expanded the News Corp executive co-chairman’s Le Manoir estate by 588 square metres, but will also remove any risk the DA plans will ever be built, if that’s the intention.

Norman and Jones, a former telco technical officer, listed their home in 2016 – complete with approved DA – with an asking price of more than $4 million ahead of a September auction.

Two weeks into the campaign, recalls Patrick Cosgrove, of Raine & Horne Double Bay, “a woman just appeared out of nowhere and asked how much it would cost to buy the property and she exchanged the next day.

“We had our suspicions who she might be acting for, but we didn’t know for certain,” said Cosgrove, who sold it with Paul Langsam.

Records show the $4.4 million sale settled in the name of Gisele Karame-Kemp at the time, and might never have been revealed as a Murdoch purchase except that ownership was officially transferred into the name of its true owners, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch, last year. 

Meanwhile, Norman and Jones have since moved up the North Coast to Suffolk Park, where those same property records show they paid $2.25 million early last year for the beachside home of celebrity hairdresser Paul Guttenbeil.

• Related: Murdoch forks out $23m to head for the hills
• Related: Murdochs hit a wall of opposition from neighbours
• Related: Doing a reno – Murdochs plan $11.6m facelift