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VC buys $14.5m house in cash as Canva makes investors rich overnight
By Lucy Macken
Design software giant Canva made some of its staff and early investors rich overnight when it finalised a share sale recently worth $3.6 billion. So what did they do with the money? Turns out, a lot of them bought property.
Take Rick Baker, the co-founder of Australia’s largest venture capital firm, Blackbird, and the largest investor shareholder in Canva, and former Inside Out magazine editor Victoria Baker who are trading in Artarmon for Kurraba Point.
The Kurraba Point house was sold by former 2UE helicopter pilot David Jones and Charlotte Harvey-Jones.Credit: Domain
Waterfront Kurraba Point, no less, for which they have paid $14.5 million – cash – for a Mediterranean-inspired house with a swimming pool, slipway and private jetty.
The home was owned for the past decade by former 2UE helicopter pilot David Jones and his wife Charlotte Harvey-Jones, until sold by Ray White Lower North Shore’s Geoff Smith and Richard Harding.
Blackbird Ventures co-founder Rick Baker is swapping Artarmon for the Sydney harbourfront.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Baker’s purchase emerged on title records this week as The Australian Financial Review was reporting that more than half of 119 former and current Canva staff were ploughing the proceeds of the share sale into property.
Baker, who co-founded Blackbird with Vaucluse-based Niki Scevak, sold the couple’s former Artarmon home late last year for $5.85 million following a major redesign.
Baker isn’t alone among venture capitalists making a notable impression on Sydney’s high-end market. Airtree co-founder Craig Blair and his partner Melanie Caffrey set a Bronte price record of $29.25 million last year, and Square Peg Capital’s Paul Bassat paid $10.25 million in 2022 for a North Bondi house.
The Kurraba Point house last traded in 2013 for $4.8 million.Credit: Domain
Surfection founder hits the beach
Mosman’s rumour mill went into overdrive this week that Surfection founder Chris Athas and his wife Amanda had spent well more than $20 million for a house on Balmoral Beach.
There are not many such houses, but having ruled out the house of racing scion Tom Waterhouse, it turns out it was the 1920s digs next door owned by Kristine Healy, widow of the late Healy Optical’s David Healy.
The four-bedroom house is not quite beachfront, but is set alongside the viewing platform Carroll’s Lookout, so named for the house’s former owner and 1930s Mosman mayor Dalton “Jack” Carroll.
Raine & Horne Mosman’s Brendan Warner was tipped to have sold the house given he sold it to the Healys, but declined to confirm such talk. No guesses who might be first in line to list the Athas home around the corner.
Still in Mosman, the waterfront apartment in the Watermarque block owned by Diana and Michael Briggs, co-founder of private equity outfit Anchorage Capital Partners, is up for $13 million to $14 million through The Agency’s Claudia Portale.
The Watermarque holds consecutive apartment records for Mosman, first set in 2018 at $10.22 million and again 2022 at $14.1 million.Credit: Domain
The whole-floor spread is in the Allen Jack + Cottier-designed block in which a previous apartment record was set in 2018 when RAMS Home Loan founder John Kinghorn bought downstairs for $10.22 million, and again in 2022 when Vittoria Coffee’s former part owner Clelia Cantarella sold for $14.1 million to gold mining boss Craig Williams.
Mosman’s Luxe purchase
Paul Franklin, who heads up the production company behind reality television hits like Byron Baes and Luxe Listings, and his partner Rachael Smith have made a suitably glamorous home upgrade, buying an $18 million house in Mosman in cash.
Paul Franklin co-runs Eureka Productions, the company behind Luxe Listings Sydney.Credit: James Brickwood
It was an off-market purchase through Atlas’s Michael Coombs on behalf of Jacqueline and Riaan De Jager, co-founder of i-gaming intelligence platform DeepCI.
Franklin, who co-founded Eureka Productions, is coming from Northbridge, where he and Smith are preparing for a May 11 auction.
The five-bedroom house is listed with Ray White’s Stewart Gordon with a $5.9 million guide.
Bondi Sands to Byron
Bondi Sands co-founder Shaun Wilson and his fiancee, model Tess Shanahan went to Byron Bay in August and got engaged. Eight months later they’ve paid more than $8 million for a six-bedroom house in the heart of town.
The six-bedroom house sold by Andrea and Craig Maber, of New Zealand’s Rich List family behind Power Farming Group.Credit: Domain
Oliver Berger, of Bespoke Buyers Agency, is said to have represented the couple to buy the house of Andrea and Craig Maber, of New Zealand’s Rich List family behind the Power Farming Group.
Shaun Wilson, co-founder of Bondi Sands, sold the company for more than $450 million.Credit: Natalie Grono
The purchase – through McGrath’s Nick Dunn – follows the sale of the Bondi Sands self-tanning product company to Japanese skincare giant Kao for more than $450 million.
Banker lands in Haberfield
The inner west isn’t bursting at the seams with senior executives from the “millionaire’s factory”, but if one were to get lost en route from Mosman to Bellevue Hill then Haberfield is where you might find them.
Take Mark Cruikshank, co-head of finance at Macquarie Group, and his wife Amanda, who have set a high of $7.3 million for the historic garden suburb.
Unlike most of the local heritage houses, it is a newly built house that forced the Cruikshanks to dig deep.
Marine electronics expert Guy Currenti built the Queen Anne Federation-style house with pool, home cinema and gym, and promptly listed with CobdenHayson’s Matt Hayson and Ben Southwell.
The Queen Anne Federation-style house set a Haberfield house price high of $7.3 million.Credit: Domain