Saved from redevelopment: Belgiorno-Zegna family buy one of Forest Lodge's oldest homes

One of the oldest remaining houses in Forest Lodge has been saved from the risk of redevelopment after it was bought by software developer Vito Belgiorno-Zegna, of the wealthy Transfield family, and his interior-architect wife Kate Belgiorno-Zegna for $4.62 million.

The couple’s purchase of the Victorian Regency sandstone villa has been welcomed by locals given it has come amid talk it is now to be restored for use as a private home, ending attempts in recent years to subdivide and redevelop the site.

Early last year Sydney City Council rejected a DA by a company owned by Hunters Hill-based telco entrepreneur Tony Hakim which included plans to build two three-storey contemporary townhouses at the rear of the 843-square-metre block behind the heritage-listed house at a cost of more than $1.1 million.

It wasn’t the first time council had rejected similar plans for the block. In 2018 plans for three terraces with basement garaging and the removal of seven trees were also knocked back in part because it did not “preserve the setting of the heritage item”.

The Glebe Society records date the house back to 1858. According to the recent marketing by Cobden & Hayson’s Ben Southwell, the house remains in “near original” condition.

“We took it to the market with a view that it would appeal to someone who had a passion and desire to restore it,” Mr Southwell said. “It’s one of the only houses that emerge from that colonial era to the more flamboyant Victorian period.”

Near-neighbour Flavia Morello said it was “awesome” the house was no longer going to be carved up for redevelopment. “What made it so important to me that this house be saved is there are so few houses of that era left,” Ms Morello said.

It was enough to prompt her to undertake her own research into the history of the now dilapidated house.

Known as “the old farmhouse” locally, it is set on land once owned by mayor and magistrate Michael Chapman, who later built Cloyne Lodge that once stood next door.

When it was built and owned by Postal Inspector William Buchanan it was called Camber Cottage. It was renamed Midhurst in the 1870s when owned by retailer James Giles, and Yelvertoft in the 1890s under the ownership of photographer Wykes Norton.

Built on Crown Land, for much of last century it was held by the Lands Department until 1995 when it was bought by a Hakim family company for $1 million.

Mr Belgiorno-Zegna – a former software developer at Atlassian and co-founder of app and web software development studio Picket – and his wife Kate recently sold their one-bedroom garden apartment in Elizabeth Bay for about $1.7 million through BresicWhitney’s Melinda Antella.