A $32 million property play turning two Vaucluse mansions into three luxury homes

Two neighbouring Vaucluse mansions have been bought for a total of about $32 million, only to be proposed for demolition and subdivided to make way for three luxury residences.

The big-ticket property play by Moshav Financial boss Tal Silberman would, in effect, create a 2700-square-metre holding on the Vaucluse hillside positioned to capitalise on gun-barrel views to the Harbour Bridge.

Mr Silberman’s high-end plans came to light after rumours the 1937-built house at the end of the Hillside Avenue cul-de-sac owned by Jane Dunstan had sold for about $11 million.

Last August, Silberman’s Moshav Development company bought the house next door for $21 million from Angela Teplitsky, the former wife of property developer Michael Teplitsky.

The redevelopment plans are disclosed in recently lodged DA plans before Woollahra Council seeking approval to demolish and subdivide the holding into three lots.

Top-end site amalgamation is nothing new in Vaucluse. Last year Alexander Ma, son of Hong Kong press baron Ching-Kwan Ma, paid about $55 million to buy two waterfront Vaucluse houses on Carrara Road amid plans to redevelop it into three residences.

Last year’s booming trophy home market forced Moshav Development to dig deep for the prized double lot.

Ms Teplitsky’s $21 million sale of her 1800-square-metre mansion with a swimming pool through Double Bay agents Alison Coopes and Brad Pillinger proved a windfall after only 18 months’ ownership.

The property last traded for $17 million when sold by dentist Le Tran. He had bought it two years earlier for $14 million from property developer Jacques Kurdian.

Sources say the Dunstan family have done even better after the same agents sold their property on the quiet to the developer. Records show the house last traded for $1.85 million in 1988 when sold by Danny Goldberg.

The 800-square-metre property was previously home to China’s consul-general in the early 1950s, and owned in the 1980s by the late socialite Lady (Gladys) Humphreys, widow of Network Ten chairman Sir Kenneth Humphreys.

Calls to Mr Silberman’s office were unanswered this week.

Vaucluse is home to some of Australia’s most expensive land acquisitions, including the $79 million paid by Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev in 2016 for four houses on nearby Coolong Road to create a private waterfront estate.

The Vaucluse mansion sold by James Packer for $70 million in 2015 is set on what were three houses bought for more than $30 million in 2009 and 2010 before the main residence on title was redesigned by Tzannes and Associates into the mega-mansion known as La Mer.

Property investor Anthony Medich also now owns adjoining Vaucluse residences after he paid $6.85 million for a Tudor-style house set behind his historic Djirang residence before DA-approved renovation plans could be implemented.

Medich, joint head of Medich Corporation with his dad Roy Medich, has been based at Vaucluse since 2015 when he bought the F. Glynn Gilling-designed residence for $12.8 million, and last year lodged DA plans of his own for a Tobias Partners renovation.

Medich’s own DA plans coincided with his neighbours’ approved plans to develop the attic level at a cost of $1.48 million, but before work could commence the owners have sold the property to Medich instead.