Singapore tycoon C.K. Ow lines up for a shot at Sydney's $70 million house price record

Singaporean tycoon Chio Kiat Ow is set to sell his Vaucluse waterfront mansion, known as Phoenix Acres, amid hopes it will be the next Australian trophy home to score a place in the $70 million record books.

It joins an impressive line-up of Sydney trophy homes on the market with a chance of topping all national records since top-end values were recalibrated by James Packer’s sale of his Vaucluse mansion in 2015 for $70 million and the $71 million sale of the Fairfax family’s Point Piper estate Elaine in April.

Mr Ow’s 3731-square-metre waterfront property hits the market alongside the Rose Bay beachfront holding of the Dan family, the Elizabeth Bay waterfront property Boomerang owned by trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, and the Bellevue Hill estate Rona owned by property developer Terry Agnew and his wife Kyril.

Craig Pontey, director of Ray White Double Bay, is set to roll out the marketing campaign in the coming week.

Mr Ow, chairman of luxury hotel, commercial and retail property developer Stamford Land Corporation, is expected to buy another, smaller Sydney residence once he sells.

“My Vaucluse home is magical and irreplaceable. It is more than just a waterside home. It’s a sea-side resort, self-sufficient with all country club amenities,” Mr Ow said in a statement.

“Sadly, I do not spend sufficient time [in Sydney] to enjoy this jewel of a property as my travels take me to many other, far reaches of the world.”

Set on The Crescent, next door to the waterfront estate of Johnny Kahlbetzer, the site was a public park with a wharf and ferry service to Circular Quay before publisher Ezra Norton built his waterfront mansion, Albemere, on site in 1966.

The deepwater jetty remains and comes with a boathouse, swimming pool and tennis court, although the residence was substantially refurbished about eight years ago with lavish marble and parquetry finishes throughout.

Like Mr Ow’s Singapore home, there is a traditional old English-style pub in the residence, as well as much of his well-documented art and antiques collection.

​It last traded under instruction from the mortgagee in 1995 for $7,001,000 through Mr Pontey, which was considered a bullish sale price at the time given the sluggish state of the Sydney trophy market.