Sydney's well-heeled face holidays at home despite record-high holiday-home buys

Spare a thought for some of our well-heeled citizenry this weekend who, despite paying record-high prices for holiday homes up and down the coast in the lead up to these school holidays, will be forced to slum it close to home with the rest of us thanks to Gladys Berejiklian’s latest travel restrictions.

Hopefully, Telstra senior executive David Burns managed to escape to his North Avoca beachfront house last week when he settled on the purchase from Southern Highlands-based private equiteer and Anchorage Capital co-founder Callen O’Brien.

Records show Burns paid $7.9 million for Navoca, making him a near-neighbour to the holiday homes of billionaire Scott Farquhar, tech veteran Daniel Petre, financial analyst Paul Clitheroe and Glencore mining boss Peter Freyberg.

The purchase by Burns, whose Pymble home is the historic Walter Burley Griffin-designed residence Coppins, tops the $7 million former high set at the other end of the beach in Avoca Beach in February by pastoralist Kim Cottle, wife of construction boss Ben Cottle.

In nearby Wagstaffe, broadcaster Greig Pickhaver – better known as his comedic alter ego H.G. Nelson – sold his holiday house before restrictions kicked in, pocketing more than the $1.9 million guide set by Belle Property’s Cathy Baker.

Even with the rebuild to a design by architect Nick Hollo almost 20 years ago, Pickhaver did well on the sale given he purchased it for $175,000 in 1997.

Further north near Forster, the landmark Chateau Le Marais on Wallis Island has been purchased by Shanghai-born entrepreneur “John” Qun Du, founder of Do360 Sapien Capital.

The sale didn’t realise the $20 million hopes of antique dealer Andre Fink and his wife Cecile before it was later sold mortgagee-in-possession for $2.88 million to developer Adam Dai. Instead, Du paid $4.88 million for the opulent mansion on 100 hectares built by the Finks as a fitting home to their 18th-century antique collection.

On the South Coast, former Australian Rugby League commissioner Mark Coyne and his wife Anne have set a $4,425,000 record for Mollymook Beach.

The purchase comes two years after the former star Queensland rugby league player resigned from the ARLC board after he failed to self-report he had been detained indefinitely in Singapore following his arrest for abusing a policeman while drunk.

Coyne, who now heads insurance company EML, is based in the Sutherland Shire’s Yowie Bay and is expected to make a weekender of the Moolmook Beach house.

Closer to Sydney, Microsoft Australia boss Steven Worrall has smashed the Wombarra record, buying a beachfront house for $6.31 million, and the boss of US investment bank Jefferies, Michael Stock, and his wife Narelle will no doubt be seen in the Southern Highlands following their $5 million purchase of Shanti Ghar in Exeter.

Meanwhile, Ilse O’Reilly, wife of Irish-Australian media executive Cameron O’Reilly, may be hoping that the restrictions only stoke the appeal of a Kangaroo Valley getaway, given she’s listed the family’s long-held retreat known as The Pavilion.

The 12-hectare property has been held by the O’Reilly family since 1990 when family patriarch Sir Tony O’Reilly purchased it for $265,000. This was the year before he led an unsuccessful tilt for control of now-defunct publishing house John Fairfax Group (previously publisher of this newspaper).

Buyers are being given a guide of $5.5 million to $6 million by Raine & Horne’s Frank Barker for the barn-style country house with a pool, separate studio and stables.

​Ilse’s bid to sell the family retreat comes as she settles on a Victorian terrace in Paddington bought for $5.25 million from Nicole and Nigel Lowry, the latter of whom is general counsel for Ausgrid.

O’Reilly is now based in the Swiss Alpine village of Verbier but maintains a few business interests in Australia, namely as a financial backer alongside John B. Fairfax of Eric Beecher’s Private Media.

Finally, Southern Highlands shoppers with $16.5 million to spare might need to wait to check out the premium horse stud Think Big Stud of late Malaysian billionaire Dato Tan Chin Nam.

Chin Nam, who died in 2018 aged 92, developed the 121-hectare stud into one of the leading nurseries of racehorse winners by the late trainer Bart Cummins, among them Melbourne Cup winners Think Big, Viewed and Saintly.

Think Big’s manager Duncan Ramage told trade publication ANZ Bloodstock it has been listed with three rural property agents, and sources say one of those is Drew Lindsay Real Estate, now headed by Samuel Lindsay.