Stockbroker Angus Aitken lists $10 million Woollahra house amid upscale plans

High-profile stockbroker Angus Aitken and his wife Sarah are selling their Nick Tobias-designed residence in Woollahra for $10 million amid plans to upscale their home real estate within the Bellevue Hill-Vaucluse belt.

The parkside property, once owned by the late former Woollahra Mayor Anthony Perry, was bought in 2009 for $3.3 million before Tobias kicked off a meticulous two-year design effort that was eventually approved by council only to then take another two years to build.

The result is Cooper Park House, a vast split-level house featuring soaring six-metre ceilings in the central living area and expansive, north-facing glass walls overlooking the leafy park behind.

Spread over three levels and privately set behind a double garage, the interiors were a labour of love by Sarah Aitken and Sarah Davison interiors and with a Myles Baldwin-designed rear garden.

Aitken set up boutique advisory Aitken Murray Capital with veteran stockpicker John Murray in 2017 a few years after a Twitter scandal that featured ANZ Bank’s chief financial officer Michelle Jablko that was eventually settled out of court.

The plum listing has been handed to The Agency’s Ben Collier.

Incidentally, John Murray and his wife Catherine have followed up their recent $6.5 million purchase of the nearby Woollahra home of Dom Ogilve buying a Palm Beach getaway for $3.2 million.

Tech entrepreneur buys Sir John Key pad

Tech entrepreneur Robin Khuda has been undertaking an exhaustive search for his forever home among the $20 million to $30 million trophy homes of Mosman for much of this year, so it will surprise prestige agents to hear he has abandoned them for now and instead bought the McMahons Point apartment of former New Zealand prime minister Sir John Key.

Khuda’s personal stocks have soared this year thanks to his hyperscale data centre operator AirTrunk. First there was the surge in demand for cloud computing in recent months (think of all those Zoom meetings) and then Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets valued the company at $3 billion and promptly bought an 88 per cent stake in it.

It’s enough to put the 40-year-old well on his way to a debut on this year’s Financial Review Rich List when it is published later this year with an estimated net worth of $400 million.

A little more than $6 million of that extra cash wealth is expected to show on settlement for the recently built apartment of Sir John’s wife Lady Bronagh, who bought it off the plan three years ago for $5.7 million.

Ray White’s Tim Abbott has declined to reveal the exact sale price, but a caveat on title reveals it was bought by an investment company owned by Khuda and his wife Melea.

While the couple are expected to continue the arduous task of picking through Mosman’s finest homes, the McMahons Point pad is still a decent step-up from the only property Khuda has previously owned in his name in Sydney: a one-bedder in Cremorne he sold in 2009 for $465,000.

Pagents score $14.6m off-market deal

Prestige car dealer and trophy home collector Ian Pagent and his wife Maryanne have quietly sold their Mosman house across the road from Balmoral Beach for $14.6 million.

The sale offers a decent gain on the house that was slated for demolition when the couple bought it in 2017 for $12 million from Louise Fussell, wife of Fast Search founder Thomas Fussell, but which has scored a new façade in the years since.

Records show the buyer is FDC Construction director Blake Cottle, brother of FDC’s founder Ben and grandson of property tycoon “Mr Big of Bankstown” Ray Fitzpatrick.

No agent is taking credit for the off-market sale, but indications are it was negotiated by Ray White Mosman’s Geoff Smith and Richard Harding, both of whom sold it to the Pagents.

Treechange for Mac boss

Food magnate Roy Manassen and his wife Cindy have sold their Southern Highlands vineyard, 5^th Chapter, for $8.4 million to Macquarie bank’s financial services chief Greg Ward.

The 40 hectare property complete with an eight-bedroom residence was listed in October last year for $10 million by Ray White Bowral’s Michael Maloney, who sold it.

But in an intriguing twist, title records show Ward bought the property in a quick settlement with to a $5.5 million mortgage to Manassen’s investment vehicle Manassen Holdings.

Ward’s property portfolio reveals a taste for fine real estate. His home is the historic Stables and Coachworks converted building in Surry Hills he bought three years ago for $6.5 million from Bill and Toni’s eatery owner Rob Domabyl, and he owned a Peter Stutchbury-designed weekender in Newport until he sold it last September for $8.5 million.

Ward’s latest purchase is no exception.

The renowned Avoca property boasts one of the districts most notable gardens, with Japanese, French and parterre gardens, a silver birch grove, ornamental pond and 500-metre camellia hedge that was established following their purchase in 1998 for $2.5 million.

Paul Cochineas strikes gold

Paul Cochineas, chief operating officer of previous metal refiner Pallion, looks to be upgrading to Vaucluse after sources revealed he has bought the Carrara Road home of businessman John Shaw.

Word of Cochineas’s purchase leaked soon after a sold sticker was spied on his Woollahra townhouse, bought four years ago for $2.25 million and resold on Thursday for $4.7 million.

Shaw, boss of Magic Door Industries, was a patient vendor of his Carrara Road home, having initially listed it with $15 million hopes in late 2018, but revised that to $9.5 million earlier this year when LJ Hooker Double Bay’s father and son team David and Bill Malouf took the listing.

Despite no comment by either Malouf, sources put Shaw’s sale price at close to $7.5 million, which is much closer to the $8 million tag it should have carried last year.

The result is also hoped to free Shaw up to finally settle on the Spanish mission-style home of former restaurateurs Leo and Vicki Varvaritis for which he exchanged almost $12 million back in October 2018 through Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger.