They don’t just buy houses — they buy streets.
In Sydney’s most elite suburbs, the rich and powerful are quietly waging war on their neighbours – not with lawsuits or hedge disputes, but with money.
From Vaucluse to the northern beaches, the city’s cashed-up elite have been snapping up neighbouring properties and bulldozing the boundaries to build private compounds fit for royalty.
Forget white picket fences and friendly chats over the driveway: these are sprawling estates with security gates, private tennis courts, and enough manicured lawn to host a small footy match.
Those who have done it range from former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull through to billionaire Harry Triguboff, actor Russell Crowe and many more.
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Actor Russell Crowe formed a compound in NSW. Picture: Getty Images
Among the latest compound builders were the owners of apparel brand White Fox, who in April snapped up their fifth property in Vaucluse as part of plans to build a “super compound”.
Some of the biggest waterfront compounds are now worth more than $200m.
Sotheby’s Sydney director Michael Pallier, one of the top agents in Vaucluse, said the trend has been picking up in recent years because the city’s elite have more money.
“Buying up the neighbours is nothing new but people haven’t always had the money to do it in the eastern suburbs. That’s changed,” Mr Pallier said.
“The rich have much more money than they used to and thanks to the internet and other advances they are able to make their money much faster. The level of wealth is just so far beyond anything we had before.”
The view from a compound strung together by James Packer.
Mr Pallier added that wealthy homeowners wanting to swallow up neighbouring properties were often the biggest spenders in some enclaves – especially waterfront areas.
“In the last two years, the neighbours are often the best buyers on properties … sometimes they want their block to go from the street to the waterfront or they want a bigger garden.
“There’s lots of reasons to do it. But basically it comes down to, if you’ve got the money to do it, why not?”
WHITE FOX OWNERS
Owners of the online fashion brand White Fox have been reported to be planning a “super compound” after a $150m buying spree.
Daniel Contos, 34, and Georgia Moore, 33, last month bought their fifth property in exclusive Vaucluse, records show, with four of them neighbouring properties set to form a huge 4000 sqm compound.
Owners of online fashion business White Fox Boutique, Georgia and Daniel Contos. Source – https://www.instagram.com/gg_whitefox/
One of the properties Contos and Moore bought to form their Vaucluse compound.
One of the blocks was recently snapped up for circa $30m. The block adjoins properties they’ve acquired over the past four years for $34.5m, $25m, and $36m.
The compound is separate from an investment property snapped up by the couple on nearby Wentworth Rd for $25m in 2023.
MIKE CANNON BROOKES
Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and then wife Annie spent $14.25m in 2023 to buy a property neighbouring their Newport getaway.
Cannon Brookes owns these two adjacent homes.
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has amassed a considerable property portfolio.
The property was adjacent to the designer home the Cannon-Brookes family bought in 2020 for $24.5m after its construction by model Jennifer Hawkins and partner Jake Wall.
The neighbouring property was set on 3000 sqm and came with an approved 1000 sqm netted bathing area.
The billionaire Atlassian boss famously set an Australia price record when bought harbourside estate Fairwater for $100m in 2018.
MENULOG FOUNDER
Menulog founder Leon Kamenev bought an amalgamated site in Vaucluse of four separate properties for $80m in 2016. He lodged plans for a luxury home a year later.
The property was built across a site formed by four amalgamated blocks.
The Menulog founder’s property is one of the largest waterfront holdings in the eastern suburbs.
After numerous pushbacks by council, the home was eventually completed shortly after the Covid pandemic for a reported build cost of $30m. It’s estimated to now be worth about $200m.
PACKER FAMILY
The Packer family wrote the playbook on building residential compounds.
Their Bellevue Hill fortress Cairnton has been stitched together over generations, beginning with the late Sir Frank Packer’s £7500 buy in 1935.
Since then, five more titles were added in the 1960s, and Kerry Packer followed up with another four in the late 1980s and 1990s, shelling out more than $8.4m to build the empire.
The Packer family transferred ownership of the estate in early 2024 to a private holding company owned by the Packer family, with the value on official title records lodged at a conservative $105m.
JAMES PACKER REPEATS FORMULA
James Packer took the same approach to building his former Vaucluse home shared with then wife Erica.
The Vaucluse property known as La Mer sold in 2015.
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They bought the main part of the property in 2009 for $18m and added to neighbouring blocks for $12.5m to create a mega mansion known as La Mer. It sold in 2015 for a then Australian record price of $70m.
RUSSELL CROWE
Russell Crowe owns an expansive rural estate in Nana Glen, a village about 25km northwest of Coffs Harbour.
An aerial view of the Crowe compound.
He began acquiring land in the area in 1999 and, over the years, expanded his holdings by purchasing adjacent properties.
By 2013, his estate encompassed over 800 acres and included multiple residences, cabins, a farm cottage, a private wedding chapel, a cricket oval, and more than 700 black angus cattle.
HARRY TRIGUBOFF
Property tycoon Harry Triguboff, head of Meriton, has one of the biggest eastern suburbs compounds.
Mr Triguboff has quietly stitched together multiple waterfront blocks in Vaucluse to create a private enclave.
The Triguboff estate is one of the biggest in Vaucluse.
The original Vaucluse house on the site. A DA was granted recently to have the home replaced with a newer build.
The billionaire, with wife Rhonda, bought their main home in 1984 for $4.1m and snapped up the house next door for $6m in 1996.
An industry insider said waterfront land in Vaucluse typically sold for 50,000 a sqm. This would mean Triguboff’s 5200 sqm block would be worth over $250m.
“It’s more likely you’d get that value from subdividing as there would be very few people who could pay that kind of money alone,” the source said.
MALCOLM TURNBULL
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and wife Lucy made some clever plays to expand their landholding in Point Piper.
They bought what was then a beachfront residence known as Le Gai Soleil in 1994 for $5,425,000 and then purchased the adjoining property for $7.1m in 1999.
Malcolm Turnbull’s Point Piper waterfront home. Picture Craig Greenhill
This allowed them to carve some 600 sqm off that title to expand their waterfrontage. The remaining property was then redeveloped into a duplex and sold off in 2011 for $13.6m.
Agents familiar with the property estimated the amalgamated block could be worth over $100m and even be as high as $150m.
WESTFIELD SCION’S RETREAT
Steven Lowy, son of Westfield kingpin Frank Lowy, has pieced together a beachfront compound with wife Judy over three decades.
Part of the Watsons Bay compound.
The couple added this property to the compound in 2017.
The Lowys bought their original beachfront block in Watsons Bay for $2.5m in 1991.
They then snapped up a neighbouring 1000 sqm block for $9m in 2009. Their latest purchase came in 2017 when a 525 sqm beachfront block was added for $14.2m. The latest acquisition took their adjoining beachfront total to 2590 sqm.
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