Rich lister Tony Denny offloads his $6.1 million Point Piper penthouse

Used car dealer Tony Denny has found himself with one too many Point Piper dwellings for purpose, prompting him to list a penthouse he bought last year for $6.1 million.

The penthouse atop the Liskeard building was Denny’s first foray into the rich-list heartland, but in February he added to his housing collection when he paid dentist Le Tran $19.5 million for his mansion across the road.

Denny, who founded the AAA Autos car dealership in Prague before he sold a majority stake for $320 million in 2014, has already gutted his newly bought mansion ahead of a major renovation before the family takes up residence.

The sale marked an end to a protracted sales campaign by  Dr Le that started in the last weeks of 2018 when he sold it on the quiet to property tycoon Richard Mingfeng Gu.

But a few weeks after buying it, Mr Gu says he renegotiated to rent it for a year, and refutes claims he had paid a deposit, insisting instead that the money paid at the time was for rent.

But Denny won’t be leaving his Central Coast community behind. He plans to keep the 15-hectare estate he has amassed through a handful of acquisitions in Killcare Heights, which boasts all the luxury home must-haves, from basketball and tennis courts, pool, and equestrian facilities, to an arts and crafts centre, garaging for his vast car collection and a gate into the boutique hotel Bells at Killcare next door for when he needs a bit of five-star service.

The Liskeard penthouse has been renovated throughout ahead of its scheduled auction in mid-July through Michael Pallier, of Sotheby’s International, and Julian Hasemer, of 1st City Double Bay.

Mosman’s point-of-sale purchase

Tech entrepreneur Nick Cloete has swapped Mosman’s rental market to be a high-end home owner instead, just six months after his point-of-sale software company was acquired by Canadian software giant Lightspeed for about $84 million.

Cloete, who was just 30 when he founded Kounta in 2012, has bought a three-level residence on waterfront reserve at Clifton Gardens for about $8.5 million – well below the property’s $12 million guide it carried in February.

The Morella Road property was listed by Ray White’s Colin Craig on behalf of Gia Ravazzotti, a member of South Africa’s wealthy ceramic tile family headed up by one of South Africa’s richest men Giovanni Ravazzotti.