The Sydney multimillionaires buying their neighbours’ houses

There must be something about Elizabeth Bay. Locals keep buying one another’s houses in a bid to stay in the once-overlooked suburb.

In a string of multimillion-dollar deals, $146.4 million of property has changed hands between locals in under a year.

Mining magnate Nick Curtis and his wife Angela are understood to have bought a garden apartment on a prized street for $28 million last November from Alan Livingstone, who cashed in from Sydney’s M4 motorway, and his wife Daryl.

Livingstone was the managing director of Statewide Roads. In 2000, Macquarie Infrastructure Group paid $153.3 million for a 50.6 per cent stake in the company. Since Livingstone’s windfall he has invested in property.

The Curtis family are understood to have added to their Elizabeth Bay nest, splashing a reported $22 million on another unit in the same complex in an off-market deal in July. They reportedly bought from former Wesfarmers chairman Bob Every and his wife Sheryl.

The Curtises won’t have to pay an exorbitant fee on removalists, already owning a unit in a nearby street, purchased for $7.25 million in 2018 from Aussie Home Loans’ John Symond.

Moving on to the Every family, they are believed to be behind the purchase of a residence elsewhere in the suburb for about $13 million from yachtie and vice president of the Australian Olympic Committee, Matt Allen.

As previously reported by this masthead in 2023, Allen bought a yet-to-be built penthouse in the boutique Billyard Avenue development for close to $30 million. It settled in December.

Meanwhile, lawyer Karen Beck sold her Victorian Italianate abode for $18.5 million in December to Tim Eustace, star financial adviser at Mercury Private, and Stephen Panui.

Beck has since moved to a $17.5 million penthouse close by, bought from Tina Green, the widow of hotelier Maurice Green, and James Hawkins.

Green and Hawkins went on to buy a ground-floor pad in the same Billyard Avenue complex as Allen, with settlement documents in December showing they paid $17,429,995.

James Agostini of Agostini Property Buyers, who represented the Every family, said of Elizabeth Bay’s appeal: “It’s a tight-knit enclave with access to the harbour and city, and walking distance to lifestyle offerings such as shops and restaurants.

“They’re so entrenched in the area with their regular cafes, doctors and restaurants. Some of my clients looked at other areas but were head-set on Elizabeth Bay.”

Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay and Potts Point, declined to comment on some of the sales, although he did confirm the off-market sale but would not divulge the buyer, alongside business partner Geoff Cox. But Boon said buyers enjoy the suburb for its eclectic atmosphere, which reminds him of New York’s SoHo, and its proximity to hospitals, the beach and city.

Boon also said prices have caught up to suburbs in Sydney’s east, noting that the appeal is not down to affordability.

Sam Green of Advantage Buyers Agents is understood to have represented the Curtis family.

The eastern suburbs area with value

It’s not the only overlooked eastern suburb starting to draw attention.

In Bondi Junction, development Origami is targeted towards downsizers who are looking for apartments with house-like proportions, and one prestige agent says the area holds immense value.

“When comparing apartment projects, Origami offers space, natural light and stunning views for half the price of suburbs like Double Bay and Sydney’s CBD,” The Agency’s co-founder Steven Chen says. “Average square metre rates in the comparable suburbs are fetching between $90,000 to $120,000 per square metre.”

Chen said the suburb has traditionally been overlooked as it’s catered to investors over the years.

Chen is selling one-to-four-bedroom apartments in the complex that start from $1,299,000 for a one-bedroom and from $7.63 million for a four-bedroom. The penthouses are guided at $20 million. Chen recently sold one three-bedroom apartment exceeding $12 million.

Origami is by developer JQZ in collaboration with Koichi Takada Architects and designer David Hicks. Interiors will feature Arabescato marble and Italian travertine floors. There will be a rooftop pool, and uninterrupted city and harbour views.

Hicks told this masthead they drew on Japanese design principles.

“We looked to Japan – not to recreate a Japanese interior, but to draw on the principles that make Japanese design so enduring: restraint, clarity, craftsmanship and an understanding that our surroundings profoundly influence how we live,” he said.

JQZ has completed 7600 apartments, and chair Jianqiu Zhang has capitalised on its density push, having bought a Vaucluse mansion for $5.28 million in 2014 that he resold for $22.88 million in April last year.

He purchased the existing property on the site from barrister Rashelle Seiden and enlisted architect Bruce Stafford for the six-bedroom, four-bathroom rebuild.

Zhang also built a Rose Bay mansion for his daughter Hongyun Zhang, a financial controller, that’s currently on the market with a price guide of $46 million, local sources say.

Hongyun bought the existing dwelling on the site for $6.8 million in 2014 from Margaret Binetter, the matriarch of the Binetter family who established Nudie Juice.

Spencer Sun and Michael Pallier of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty are handling Zhang’s listing, but both did not respond for comment when contacted.