‘Aussie’ John Symond lists Point Piper trophy home. Yours for just $200 million-plus
By Lucy Macken
The Point Piper home, Wingadal, has long been lauded as one of Sydney’s best trophy homes, in part thanks to its no-expense-spared construction, its scale, and the eight years it took to build. The fact an offer of $110 million in 2017 was knocked back did nothing to dent that reputation.
Aussie Home Loans founder “Aussie” John Symond kicked off a new sales campaign on Wednesday morning that hopes to cash in on the waterfront mega-mansion for more than $200 million, and smashing all previous house price records nationally.
Sydney’s most expensive house has hit the market for $200 million.Credit: Domain
“Wingadal has been a special home for my family over the past two decades, and now I’m looking forward to spending more time travelling overseas,” Symond said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Travel plans were also the motivation for Symond’s decision to sell the house seven years ago when it was listed for $100 million, only for it to be withdrawn from sale months later, despite an offer of $110 million.
Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond on the site of Wingadal during construction.Credit: Simon Alekna
At the time, Symond said he “probably rushed into the decision” to sell, but opted to keep it when he and then wife Amber decided to spend more time in Australia than expected.
The tax-free status of the primary residence in Australia also made it a good investment given what he said at the time was growing interest in Sydney to international buyers.
He wasn’t wrong on the soaring value of Sydney trophy homes, but it wasn’t foreigners driving that demand. Months after Wingadal was withdrawn from sale, the Fairfax family sold the Elaine estate in Point Piper for a record $71 million to Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.
Atlassian’s other co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, topped that a year later when he paid $100 million for the Fairwater estate next door to Elaine from the estate of the late Lady (Mary) Fairfax, only for Farquhar to reset all national house price records again in late 2022, buying Point Piper’s Uig Lodge for $130 million.
The highest residential sale price to date is $140 million, set in 2019 by the consolidation of penthouses in Lendlease’s One Sydney Harbour tower at Barangaroo.
“The property [Wingadal] sits on the largest landholding of the waterfront off Australia’s premier road, Wolseley Road, with a 98-metre water frontage,” said Ken Jacobs, of Forbes Global Properties, who has listed it with Brad Pillinger, of Pillinger.
Wingadal’s position on the Point Piper waterfront offers a gun-barrel view of the Harbour Bridge.
The site previously boasted a landmark, doughnut-shaped house that was designed by architect Guilford Bell in 1956 for the Hordern family, and was later owned by high-profile corporate identities including New Zealand pulp magnate John Spencer, fellow Kiwi businessman Christopher Huljich and Sydney property investor and rich-lister Robert Whyte.
The Guilford Bell-designed house was demolished in the 1990s and the land was sold to Symond in 1999 for $10.85 million.
Architect Alec Tzannes said the commission to design the house was a highlight of his career. The house took eight years to build during which time it earned the moniker “Aussie stadium”. In the years since, its grand entertaining areas and lavish finishes have become the stuff of folklore thanks to the many charity events and Liberal Party fundraisers held there.
The four-level residence is effectively a four-bedroom home, albeit with the sort of add-ons and floor plan that are the stuff of fiction to most people. The entertaining areas have capacity for 500 people. There is undercover parking for 20 cars, of which eight are inside the garage.
As well as the main residence, there is a separate two-bedroom apartment. There are two commercial kitchens, a 2500-bottle wine cellar, a home theatre with seating for 22 people, and a swimming pool.
Perhaps most pertinently for the Point Piper buyer, is its west-facing position on the peninsula in Australia’s most expensive suburb. Or as Tzannes says, “a unique appreciation of Sydney Harbour from a variety of angles, rotating around an axis that lines up perfectly with the Sydney Harbour Bridge”.
There is no official price but Pillinger said: “We expect Wingadal will be the first sale to surpass the $200 million barrier in this country.”
Stamp duty on a $200 million sale would be $13.9 million, but rises to $16 million if the buyer is a foreigner.