Vaucluse mansion that set a price record in 2011 for sale again, at $38m+

When little-known Hong Kong arts patron Yang Yang moved to Sydney in 2011 and purchased her Vaucluse mansion for $21.5 million, it made a big impression on Sydney’s trophy-home market for all the right reasons.

It was not only the most expensive sale of the year, but also the first in a slew of big-ticket sales to international buyers that helped put Sydney on the map for Asia’s trophy-home shoppers.

Who can forget the jaw-dropping $52 million that Deke Miskin pocketed for his Point Piper mansion Altona in 2013 from wealthy businessman Wang Zhijun, or the $61.8 million it resold for three years later to rich-lister Jiaer Huang, not to mention James Packer’s $70 million sale of his La Mer in Vaucluse to businessman Chau Chak Wing?

And, in 2015, as then-treasurer Joe Hockey was forcing Chinese billionaire Xi Jiayin to divest his Villa del Mare mansion in Point Piper for $39 million, Title Deeds snagged an invitation to one of the year’s most glamorous Chinese New Year parties hosted at Yang’s Vaucluse residence.

Yang is likely hoping that her eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom home will again score top billing on this year’s sales list given that an off-market campaign to sell it kicks off next week to buyers with more than $38 million to pay for it.

The house, designed by architect Howard Tanner, was commissioned by the late businessman John McNiven and his widow Joanna after they bought the almost 2000 square metres of level land as a demolition project in 1996 for $3.9 million.

Paul Bangay designed the gardens, there is a heated swimming pool and the basement garaging has room for 10 cars. Yang has made her own cosmetic improvements over the past decade too, including a new copper roof, bathroom and kitchen.

“It is reminiscent of the grand estates of LA’s Bel Air, but with that iconic Sydney Harbour view,” said Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International, who has listed it with Darren Curtis and Martin Ross. It is also listed with Sotheby’s Michael Pallier.

Still with the McNivens‘ glamorous real estate, the Elizabeth Bay-based Joanna has sold her Wisemans Ferry historic retreat Cross Park for about $7.5 million.

There was no disclosure on the sale price by selling agents Alison Coopes or Paul Cutcliffe, both of their own eponymous agencies, but the guide had dropped from $10 million last October to more than $8 million at the start of this month.

Cross Park dates back to 1830 when it was so named after David Cross, son of First Fleet convict John Cross, and was licensed as an inn from 1838. The McNivens purchased it in 2003 for $2.15 million, and undertook a state-of-the-art restoration with a 12-metre pool and Paul Bangay landscaped garden.

Westfield heiress strikes again

When a rundown 1960s house on a battle-axe block in Vaucluse long owned by the Williams family went to auction recently with a $5.5 million guide by Sotheby’s Michael Pallier, there was a handful of buyers in attendance to compete.

They needn’t have bothered because, despite pushing the price up by a good $1 million, billionaire Westfield heiress Betty Klimenko was never going to let this house go to anyone else.

After all, since 2007 she has acquired all four of its immediate neighbours, giving her views to both the Pacific Ocean and the Harbour Bridge, but with the Williams family driveway cutting through the middle of it.

Records show the hammer fell at $6.6 million and the buyer was indeed Klimenco, daughter of the late Westfield co-founder John Saunders and owner of the Erebus Motorsport team.

It takes Klimenko’s Vaucluse holding to almost 3500 square metres at a cost of $23.47 million to create what is now a family compound with housing for herself and son Rick and — when her newly purchased house is demolished — a new playground out the back.

Swans boss scores in Glenquarry

Investment banker and Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham has expanded the footprint of his Southern Highlands getaway by 120 hectares and $11 million by buying the Essington cattle farm.

Pridham’s purchase ends 30 years of Dobson family ownership and sets a record for Glenquarry, topping the $6 million sale of Runnymede in 2010 to businessman David Baffsky.

Pridham’s new plot is conveniently located directly across the road from the 60-hectare weekender farm his investment company purchased for more than $5 million in 2003.

The Mosman-based Pridham also recently paid $4.5 million to expand his property portfolio with an almost-two-hectare property in Terrey Hills that looks ripe for renovation.

The other Mosman trophy-home owner buying into Terrey Hills recently is Ian Oatley, of the billionaire winemaking family which owns Hamilton Island. Oatley paid $6.1 million for a newly built residence which backs onto Garigal National Park and has its own equestrian facilities.

Cox Enterprises heir buys into Berrima

Henry Parry-Okeden, heir to the global media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, has purchased the French country-style homestead Cordeaux in Berrima for $4.5 million.

The Avalon Beach-based Parry-Okeden is the son of billionaire heiress Blair Parry-Okeden, who five years ago was ranked Australia’s richest person despite living in relative anonymity at the family’s Scone property Rockview Station.

That makes Henry, 39, the great-grandson to James M. Cox, founder of Cox Enterprises, the family-held media and automotive company, on which Henry secured a board seat in 2016.

His newly acquired weekender is the 26-hectare property in Berrima that was built in 2002 for Countess Susanna, of the David Jones retail dynasty and widow of French Count Patrick de Vienne, and includes a stone guest house that dates back to the 1820s. It was last owned by Fiona and Steven David, son of the late grocery tycoon John David, who purchased it in 2008 for $3.6 million.

Seafood king lists on the waterfront

Nick Manettas, of the seafood empire family, has his eye on a Seaforth house price record of more than $17.5 million for the family’s newly constructed waterfront residence.

Manettas purchased the waterfront site – next door to their long-held home – in 2013 for $3.85 million and commissioned Dino Raccanello Design for the three-level house with a steam room, lift, swimming pool and marine facilities.

Michael Coombs, of the newly minted Atlas agency, expects the sale to smash the previous high of $12,675,000 set four years ago by power tools wholesaler David “eBay man” Mills.

Mosman’s heady high-end action

Mosmanites can hopefully expect to see more of Melbourne-based National Basketball League owner Larry Kestelman in the neighbourhood, judging by his mother Svetlana’s recent $7.31 million purchase.

The Morella Road residence above Clifton Gardens Reserve was listed last year by Richard Simeon on behalf of Melbourne-bound Richard and Rhonda Sabella.

Kestelman is the entrepreneur who was the brains behind internet service provider Dodo that sold in 2013 for $203 million and he was ranked on last year’s Financial Review Rich List 200 with an estimated worth of $760 million.

Across the road, Amazon Web Services local boss Adam Beavis and his wife Kim have ended a year-long search for the perfect Mosman home by buying a five-bedroom home for $7.1 million.

Prominent dentist Daniel Adamo and his wife, former recruitment boss Katie, kicked off Mosman’s prestige market last year by selling for $22 million, and started this year by paying $14.5 million for their new digs in Clifton Gardens through Atlas’s Michael Coombs.

Meanwhile, Chicago-based Akuna Capital trader Toby Joy and partner Naima Naito look to have followed his boss, Andrew Killion, to Sydney, buying a $12.4 million home on Balmoral slopes from artificial intelligence entrepreneur Richard Kimber and his wife Ann Marie.

Akuna co-founder Killion scored one of the most expensive house sales of last year when he paid $30 million for the Vaucluse home of media scion Alexander Ma.

Modernist comeback

The modernist Point Piper home of race-car driver and developer Ash Samadi has returned to the market after a four-year absence.

This is the 1950s residence that was designed by the late architect Anatol Kagan for the late property developer Walter Rivkin, father of the late Rene, and that was later owned by Kings Cross developer and Juanita Nielsen nemesis Frank Theeman.

Theeman, whose Potts Point plans were the subject of green bans in the 1970s, died in 1989 and the property sold by his estate in 2001 for $2.7 million into the name of Samadi’s mother, Fatemeh Doust.

It was passed in at auction in 2017 on a vendor bid of $15.6 million, and D’Leanne Lewis, of Laing+Simmons Double Bay, says it is now on offer “in the teens” – whatever that means.

Bungan Beach’s record hopes

Veteran fund manager Chris Cuffe is set to farewell his northern beaches neighbours, given strong interest from $12 million already lodged on his Bungan Beach home.

The four-bedroom residence with a pool is next door to the getaway of Roosters chairman Nick Politis and down the sand from the likes of Seven’s David Koch and BBC correspondent Michael Peschardt, although former cricketer and sports commentator Michael Slater sold out of the beachfront last June for $5.65 million.

Cuffe, the former chief of Challenger and Colonial First State, purchased it in 2017 for $6 million, as somewhat of a downsize at the time from his Terrey Hills acreage sold the following year for $6.7 million.

The Barrenjoey Road house was renovated in 2019 and the keys were recently handed to selling agent Anthony Walls, of Max Walls International.