Techie Robin Khuda does about-face on property market, lists $5m Woollahra digs

Tech entrepreneur Robin Khuda has changed tack on his acquisitional property strategy of the past year and has listed for sale one of his high-end investments in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

The founder and chief executive of hyperscale data centre operator AirTrunk has been one of the most prolific property investors since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, ploughing more than $74 million into luxury property in the past 12 months.

But on Tuesday a park-side townhouse he bought in Woollahra in May last year for $4.675 million was returned to the market.

Alexander Phillips, of PPD, has placed a guide of $5 million to $5.5 million on the property ahead of a mooted auction later this month with his colleague Vince Licata.

Independent sources suggested Khuda was shifting his investment focus from luxury real estate into development opportunities.

The four-level Woollahra residence was last owned by mining executive Mark Le Messurier and his wife Dayna and comes complete with a lower-ground studio, a double garage and a lap pool.

Khuda’s property splurge included four Palm Beach properties, two residences in Mosman worth $10 million and $13 million each, three terraces in a row in Paddington purchased for a little more than $3 million each and the McMahons Point apartment of former New Zealand prime minister Sir John Key, bought for $6.1 million.

The COVID-19 lockdowns prompted a surge in demand for cloud computing from AirTrunk, even before Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets valued the company at $3 billion and promptly bought an 88 per cent stake in it.

Khuda’s selling plans come amid a bull run in local prestige home sales, including the nearby Sydney home of former television boss David Leckie and his wife Skye for more than $17 million through PPD’s Phillips. The Leckie sale is mooted to have almost doubled their $9 million purchase price just five years ago.

Also sold last week was the historic Federation mansion Weeroona owned by outgoing AMP chief Francesco De Ferrari and his wife Elisabetta De Ferrari-Wicki for about $13 million, which is well more than the $7.5 million they paid for it just 12 months ago.