Moving on up: Bankstown dentist splashes $38m on Rose Bay mansion (2024)

As the mid-year point nears and property types calculate the number of trophy sales to date - it’s a short list this year – a house in Rose Bay has sold for about $38 million.

The city’s third-highest house price sale came to light on Friday presumably given gag orders on Alison Coopes, of her eponymous agency, leaving it to a trusty competitor to reveal the price of the harbourfront home.

A caveat on title reveals it was purchased by Kelly Do, who with Bankstown dentist Dr Phuoc Mai recently sold their grand Chiswick residence for $13.3 million, setting a record for the riverfront suburb in the process.

Before the Chiswick property was sold by Ray White Drummoyne’s Mario Carbone, it previously set a suburb high when it last traded in 2013 at $5 million when sold by greengrocers Chris and Emily Parisi.

Do and Dr Mai’s interests aren’t limited to cavities. Corporate records show their property investment interests include a fast-food retail site in Mount Pritchard, a house on the Georges River currently for sale for $1.85 million, and a handful of houses across the Canterbury-Bankstown area that have been bought and sold over the past decade.

For Do’s money is a five-bedroom house on the Rose Bay hillside with uninterrupted views down the harbour, home theatre, lift, spa, sauna, pool and gymnasium. It last traded in 2017 for $19.18 million when sold by Horizon Media owners Dina and Semyon Pinchuk.

The only recorded house sales higher than Do’s purchase in Rose Bay is the Rockleigh mansion in Point Piper at close to $82 million, and the more than $50 million sale price on Coolmore Australia boss Tom Magnier’s Point Piper home sold to Briana and Ben Voltz, the Melbourne-based co-founder of e-commerce marketing technology company Rokt.

For a bit of rich people’s perspective, there have been eight sales of $30 million or more this year, to date. Last year there were that many in May alone.

Downsizer moves

No surprise to see the Kurraba Point waterfront home of former Boral chief Rod Pearse and his wife Merryn listed for sale on Friday following recent revelations the couple are downsizing to a $13.5 million pad in Mosman.

The Agency’s Dino Gatti is telling buyers an asking price of $25 million for the Federation residence with a pool and boat shed set on the harbour on a maritime lease.

The Pearses purchased it 20 years ago for $5.75 million from Paloma Mobile co-founder Jennifer Zanich.

Mining the waterfront

Metal mining boss Gary Lewis has sold his Watsons Bay home for $19 million to cash buyer Wenbin Xu and Wei Zhou.

The millennial buyers also paid cash for their $31.2 million purchase over the Christmas break of the heritage-listed mansion Werribee in Vaucluse that was sold by China’s food tycoon Sun Shaofeng, and to which they have already started work on $4 million worth of renovations.

Lewis, the former Robust Resources mining boss resigned as chief of US-based mineral development company Electric Metals in March, had listed the Watsons Bay house with initial $22 million hopes.

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Records show it last traded in 2016 for $7.45 million.

Still with Sydney’s secret sales, Westpac’s Alex Bischoff and his wife Leah have purchased a house on Vaucluse’s prized Olola Avenue for about $8.3 million that is set to be another high-end home redesign by the couple.

The Bischoffs, who last year paid $9.75 million for the Southern Highlands property of The Agency’s chief Geoff Lucas and his wife Nicola, are yet to settle on the property, but are already seeking approval to demolish it to make way for a three-storey house at a cost of $3.3 million.

Dress circle Olola Avenue is crammed full of eastern suburbs identities, like former Test cricket captain Michael Clarke, lawyer Dr Alison Pert, former ACCC chairman Rod Sims, media heir Charles Fairfax, stockbroker Angus Aitken and freight industry boss Arthur Tzaneros.

The application has already copped 12 objections from locals, and two submissions in support, but the identity of objectors remains unknown.

Retiring types

Boatie Lee Dillon recently retired after 44 years in the luxury boat industry, but is up-sizing from his Newport home to make way for more space for grandkids and cars.

The former director of Lee Dillon Marine has owned his Newport home on Pittwater on 1300 square metres of deep water frontage since 2021, paying $6 million and commissioning a renovation the following year.

The four-bedroom residence with pool, jetty and boathouse has a $10.5 million guide through McGrath’s Sam Thompson and James Baker.