Russell Staley sets Collaroy house record of $15m-plus as work starts on $21m home project

Oil and gas multimillionaire Russell Staley and his wife, Jennifer, have sold their landmark designer home on Collaroy Beach for more than $15 million, setting a new suburb high for a single residence.

It took three years for the distinctive residence, known as The Point House, on the northern-most point of the Collaroy Basin to exchange and for close to the original $15.5 million asking price.

Staley is a former rich lister thanks to his time as a senior executive at the engineering group Worley Parsons (now known as Worley) and as chairman of Benthic, before it was acquired by subsea services group Acteon two years ago.

The Staleys commissioned the designer four-bedroom residence in 2011 – built by Bellevarde Constructions and with Pape Landscape gardens – following their purchase of the prime north-facing property in 2006 for $5.2 million from the family of the late Olympic rower Spencer Grace.

Belle Property’s Brendan Pomponio did not disclose the sale price, but his team confirmed it sold for more than the $15 million guide.

It remains unknown if it topped Staley’s other local high set at $15.5 million in 2018 for a residential consolidation of two houses up the street and also on oceanfront reserve. That double deal included neighbouring houses sold in a package deal for $7.25 million and $8.25 million – the latter of which set a new high for the suburb for a single residence at the time.

Within weeks of the purchase, the Staleys listed their home four doors away. Their sold sticker comes as a DA is approved to consolidate Staley’s 1500-square-metre site and demolish the two houses to make way for a two-storey residence designed by architect Virginia Kerridge.

The DA estimates the consolidation and rebuild will cost $5.8 million, making it a more than $21 million property investment in what will arguably be the suburb’s most expensive home when completed.

Staley’s weekender is a nine-hectare beachfront property at Broken Head on the north coast, which he bought in 2011 for $6.3 million from the rich-list Smorgon family, who in turn had bought it in 2005 from Paul Hogan and John Cornell for $5.02 million. The property next door smashed his Broken Head high in 2014 when it sold for $7 million to Chris Hemsworth and his wife, Elsa Pataky.