Mike Cannon-Brookes buys luxury Southern Highlands property Wattle Ridge for $13m

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie already have arguably the country’s largest collection of private homes and yet the stockpile of luxury property grows. Sources say they have purchased one of the most prominent properties in the Southern Highlands, Wattle Ridge, for about $13 million.

This is the consolidated parcel of 258 hectares on which former publishing magnate Matt Handbury built an American Georgian-style homestead designed by architect William Zuccon, with interiors by Thomas Hamel and gardens by Paul Bangay and Myles Baldwin. It has a separate guesthouse, manager’s residence, tennis court, pool and, most importantly, equestrian facilities and dedicated riding trails through native forest.

Handbury, the nephew of Rupert Murdoch, used to retreat to the property some 20 years ago when he and his then-wife Fiona Campbell were renovating their Point Piper mansion Altona before selling it in 2002 for what was then a house price record of just $28.5 million.

Handbury sold Wattle Ridge less than four years ago for $8.25 million to hotelier Steve Bowden, the former Newtown Jets player of the 1980s and ’90s, and Bowden listed it last year when he moved to Melbourne.

Cannon-Brookes, whose net worth is more than $20 billion on this year’s AFR Rich List 200, now owns six significant properties in the Southern Highlands totalling $49.5 million, including his record-setting $15 million Widgee Waa farm in Kangaloon.

When you’re worth more than $20 billion, property is a fairly safe place to plough your spare change, but despite now owning $278 million worth of luxury property in this state alone, Cannon-Brookes’ main interest remains fighting climate change, with $1 billion worth of green energy investments to his name.

Given no comment from Cannon-Brookes, settlement will confirm Wattle Ridge’s exact sale price.

Sight-unseen hill sale

Cannon-Brookes isn’t the only billionaire boosting prices in the Southern Highlands. Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar is rumoured to be behind the recent sale of “That House on the Hill” in Bowral for $5.8 million, ending months of house-hunting in the region with the help of a buyer’s agent.

Samuel Lindsay, of Drew Lindsay Real Estate, declined to comment on the deal, but settlement this week confirmed the sale figure to a corporate entity “Hastings Capital” of which the sole director is high-net-worth adviser Stephen Jankelowitz.

Jankelowitz also controls the similarly named company that recently bought a block of apartments in North Bondi for $12.4 million reportedly on behalf of Molnar.

Molnar’s purchase – sight unseen – is a 6.3-hectare property with three dwellings, including a five-bedroom homestead with district views, a studio built into converted stables and a caretaker’s cottage.

North Bondi’s youth cash out

Annabelle Shamir, the 30-year-old wife of dealmaker Adam Blumenthal, has listed her designer digs in North Bondi following the couple’s recent purchase for more than $30 million in Bellevue Hill.

The purchase price was an impressive nod to a lavish renovation of the Bellevue Hill mansion by fashion designer-turned lifestyle blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre less than three years after she purchased it for $17.1 million.

Meanwhile Conley-Buhre and her venture capitalist husband Oscar Buhre are staying in Bellevue Hill, having purchased the nearby Alcooringa mansion from medico Louis Klein and his wife Claire for about $28.5 million.

Shamir purchased her three-level residence in North Bondi in 2019 for $6.3 million complete with six bedrooms, swimming pool, separate study, home cinema and a gym. Ray White Double Bay’s Daryl Rosen has a $9 million guide ahead of the September 23 auction.

Rivkin moves on

Gayle Rivkin, the widow of infamous stockbroker and convicted insider trader Rene Rivkin, no sooner listed her Paddington terrace for $3 million-plus than – within a week – it sold for $3.35 million.

Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay, was keeping schtum on details, including where to next for Rivkin, but her former home is no secret.

Twenty years ago, when her late husband was most famous for his Rivkin Report stock-tipping sheet, the couple lived in the Point Piper mansion Craig-y-mor, which was demolished in 2014 by Chinese Communist Party princeling Zeng Wei and his wife Jiang Mei.

Rene was convicted of insider trading in 2003 and Craig-y-mor was sold the following year for more than $16 million. Gayle moved first to the historic Point Piper converted mansion Ardenbraught, and then to the Paddington terrace she bought in 2013 for $2.2 million.

Mosman’s year in review

Less than a year after private equiteer Peter Wiggs and his wife Electra purchased the house next door to their long-held waterfront Mosman home for $7.5 million they sold it this week for more than $9 million.

Admittedly there was a cosmetic makeover in the meantime and the Berejiklian government claimed $462,000 in stamp duty on the back of it, but it remains a decent earner nevertheless.

Geoff Smith and Richard Harding, of Ray White Mosman, declined to reveal the exact sale price, but were clearly aware of the stronger market conditions given their $8.5 million guide.

Nine days to a fortune

Marie and Mike Mangan, co-founder of fund manager 2MG, took all of nine days to sell their Mosman home this week, scoring well over $11 million.

It helped that Atlas’s Michael Coombs had a guide of $9 million to $10 million and more than half a dozen parties vying for it in that time. Sources say buyers’ agent Deb West snapped it up for a client.

Mangan, a long-time Murdoch watcher formerly at Deutsche Bank and Prudential, paid all of $841,000 for the five-bedroom house in Mosman’s Golden Triangle.

Still in Mosman, Country Road chief executive Raju Vuppalapati and his wife Lakshmi have bought a house on Balmoral slopes for $6 million.

The purchase comes just months after Vuppalapati moved into his new role after almost seven years leading RM Williams, which was bought out by billionaire miner Andrew “Twiggy” Forest a year ago for $190 million.

Something brewing in North Bondi

The coffee capsules business is clearly booming, judging by the real estate purchase of industry boss Tony Rubenstein.

Rubinstein, director of Coffee Caps, and his wife Emmanuelle Alter have bought a house in North Bondi for $7.565 million amid expectations it is to be a knock-down rebuild, if not at least a major renovation.

The off-market purchase comes just months after the couple sold their Vaucluse home for $11.16 million.

The sale result was a decent windfall on the Hopetoun Avenue digs given they purchased it for $4.865 million a decade ago, and it hit the market with a $10 million-plus guide through Ray White Double Bay’s Elliott Placks.

No market for seller’s remorse

In Wahroonga, the Clarendon Estate owned by Katrina and Don Tritton, founding member of Fleet Plus, is up for September 15 auction to buyers with $11.5 million to $12.5 million.

This is the grand six-bedroom property redesigned by architect Ann Ramm that found a buyer of more than $13 million in 2019 but never sold after the would-be buyer reneged on the deal.

The 3700 square metre property with a tennis court, swimming pool, “man cave” home gymnasium, sound-proof cinema, gardens by Charlie Albone and a bar set in a converted Monorail carriage goes to auction on September 15 through McGrath’s Alex Mintorn.