Mining magnate Gina Rinehart sells Mosman home

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has cashed in on Sydney’s property boom to sell the former Mosman home of her daughter Hope Welker for more than $5 million.

Australia’s richest woman was scheduled to sell the battle-axe property at auction next Thursday but made the sale late on Friday night.

Agents Megan Thomas and Dino Gatti, of Ray White Lower North Shore, declined to comment on the sale price due to strict non-disclosure terms. However, with a guide of more than $5 million it is expected to have sold for more than that, given the pre-auction exchange.

The Bradleys Head Road property is in the name of Ms Rinehart’s family investment company, 150 Investments, of which co-directors are her youngest daughter Ginia Rinehart and Hancock director Tadeusz Watroba.

It last traded in 2007 for $5.4 million. Settlement records will reveal if Ms Rinehart has managed to recoup that amount.

It was home to Ms Welker and her estranged husband Ryan until 2011, when they moved to New York and the family dispute erupted over control of the family dynasty’s mining interests.

Ms Welker was removed from the property’s ownership board in early 2012.

The Corben Architects-designed property  has a north-facing aspect and city views from the upper level. It has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, separate living areas set behind a double lock-up garage and a wet-edged swimming pool.

It was built by the previous owners, the Hamer family, who had bought it with the DA-plans approved for the site in 2003 for $1.95 million from Paulette Mirzikinian.

Records show Ms Rinehart isn’t the first miner to own the property. In 1998 founder of rare earth miner Lynas Corporation, Nick Curtis, and his wife Angela bought the property for $1 million, and sold it and the adjoining 765 square metre-block eight months later for $2.8 million.

Before the property was listed earlier this month, it went to auction in late 2013 with hopes of more than $5 million but failed to illicit a bid of more than $4.3 million.

Until recently Ms Rinehart’s iron ore company Hancock Prospecting was the largest shareholder in Fairfax Media, but she sold her 14.99 per cent stake last month.