Victoria’s luxury homes: Who spent mega millions on prestige pads

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Toorak’s Coonac mansion has been crowned Victoria’s most expensive home sold in 2025.

Retail royalty, medicine moguls and even a philanthropic poker player are among the big names to have splashed mega millions on Victoria’s priciest homes of 2025.

The state’s top 24 home sales of the year added up to a whopping $713m in total – a dollar amount which could purchase more than 700 median-priced Melbourne houses.

According to PropTrack, the city’s typical house value hit $1.015m in November.

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This figure is far less than the eye-watering $100m-plus splurged on Victoria’s most expensive home of the past 12 months, an Italianate-style Toorak mansion named Coonac.

The circa-1867 estate featuring a pool and tennis court changed hands in February.

Billionaire and Arrotex Pharmaceuticals, myDNA and DBG Health chairman, Dennis Bastas, is tipped to have purchased the 1.08ha property.

The deal has been linked to Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Gerald Delany.

More recently, in November industry sources noted Chemist Warehouse co-founder and Sigma Healthcare non-executive director Jack Gance snapped up an $80m-plus double block in Toorak, through Mr Savas and colleague Nick Kenyon.

An aerial shot of the 1.08ha Coonac estate. Picture: Instagram/Melbournehousespotters.

Chemist Warehouse co-founders co-founders Mario Verrocchi and Jack Gance. Mr Gance and Mr Verrocchi’s families both made big property deals in 2025. Picture: Nadir Kinani.

Chemist Warehouse’s other co-founders, the wealthy Verrocchi family, bought a $22m Toorak mansion listed off-market by Melbourne Sotheby’s International Realty Antoinette Nido and Max Ruttner, in August.

Ms Nido said she has also noticed a surge in younger home-hunters aged in their 20s and 30s who have made a fortune in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and similar fields.

“A lot of local buyers have done very well in business and aligning with their success in business, are seeking really significant landmark properties,” Ms Nido said.

Another mammoth mid-year transaction was the late retail and philanthropic couple Marc and Eva Besen’s Toorak estate which sold for about $50m.

12 St Georges Rd, Toorak - for herald sun real estate

12 St Georges Rd, Toorak, $33.288m fetched in June. It was bought by an overseas-based purchaser with business interests in Australia.

The six-bedroom property was the first Australian residential home to have a Healthy Living system installed from the US-based wellness real estate and technology firm Delos.

And in July, a 3800sq m Brighton property fetched more than $30m via Mr Savas and fellow agent Alex Schiavo.

Records show a caveat placed upon the address by Pamela Colman, wife to lawyer, MCS Property developer and international poker player Julius.

According to media reports, the skilled card shark has donated more than $1.5m in poker winnings to his education charity the Colman Foundation.

Mr Savas said Melbourne’s prestige property market has shown “extraordinary depth” across the past 12 months.

“When exceptional homes come to market – whether architectural landmarks, generational estates or rare development opportunities – they attract strong engagement and, in many cases, record-breaking results,” he said.

This Brighton property, spanning 3800sq m, sold for about $30m.

An artist’s render of the Como Toorak complex where construction is set to wrap up in 2026. Two of its off-the-plan penthouses have changed hands for $20.95m each.

In May, retail executive Daniel Agostinelli and his wife Lynette spent more than $20m on an off-the-plan penthouse in the One Toorak Place development by luxury property developer Orchard Piper and development and investment firm NPACT.

Mr Agostinelli is the chief executive of retail and distribution leader Accent Group which boasts more than 800 stories and 34 brands including The Athlete’s Foot, Glue Store, Hype DC and Platypus Shoes.

Top end buyers’ agent David Morrell said concerns about Melbourne’s crime rate had motivated some buyers to purchase penthouses for added security such as concierges, in 2025.

“There’s another reason too, if it’s not your principal place of residence the land tax on an apartment is only a fraction of that on a larger home,” Mr Morrell said,

His colleague, buyers’ advocate Matthew Cleverdon, said there has been a rise in demand for quality penthouses and sub-penthouses above ground level as they were seen as much harder to access and break into.

“In the top end downsizer market or just the downsizer market in general, apartments give a sense of confidence and security,” Mr Cleverdon said.

38 Monomeath Ave, Canterbury, named Alchemy House, transacted for $28.1m.

Forbes Global Properties’ Robert Fletcher said that in the past six months, an increasing number of interstate-based buyers have inquired about purchasing in Victoria’s capital as the city has been “underperforming against the national market”.

“There’s opportunity to land a very nice asset in Melbourne at what they perceive as a good price,” Mr Fletcher said.

Such buyers could find a Victorian property for less than half what they would pay for a similar home in Sydney or Brisbane, depending on location and a property’s individual features, he added.

Mr Fletcher inked a $29m Toorak sale and a circa-$25m Brighton sale this year, the latter in conjunction with Buxton’s Victoria Gregory.

The French Provincial-inspired Canterbury residence features gardens designed by famous landscape designer Paul Bangay, a day spa with a sauna, gymnasium, cinema and study.

VICTORIA’S PRICIEST HOME SALES, 2025:

1. House name/address: Coonac, Toorak

Price: $100m+

Agency/agents: Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Gerald Delany

2. Lansell Rd, Toorak

$80m+

Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Nick Kenyon

Black tie dinner at Mural Hall, Melbourne on April 2
Mr Marc And Mrs Eva Besen

The late Marc And Mrs Eva Besen, whose Toorak estate sold for about $50m in May.

3. Besen estate, Toorak

Circa-$50m

Kay & Burton Stonnington’s Ross Savas and Nick Kenyon

4. 12 St Georges Rd, Toorak

$33.288m

Marshall White’s Marcus Chiminello, Sotheby’s International Realty Peninsula’s Rob Curtain and Danielle Vains

5. Brighton

Circa-$30m

Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Alex Schiavo

6 Heyington Place, Toorak - for herald sun real estate

6 Heyington Place, Toorak, was another of Victoria’s top property sales results in 2025.

6. 27 St Georges Rd, Toorak

$29m

Forbes Global Properties’ Robert Fletcher

7. Alchemy House, 38 Monomeath Ave, Canterbury

$28.1m

Marshall White’s Andy Nasr and Marcus Chiminello

8. 6 Heyington Place, Toorak

Circa-$25m

Kay & Burton’s Gowan Stubbings

2 Kinane St, Brighton

Circa-$25m

Forbes Global Properties’ Robert Fletcher and Buxton’s Victoria Gregory

2 Kinane St, Brighton - for herald sun real estate

2 Kinane St, Brighton, features a pool and spa, tennis court and French-inspired parterre gardens. It sold for about $25m.

9. Toorak

$22m

Melbourne Sotheby’s International Realty Antoinette Nido and Max Ruttner

10 and 11. Two off-the-plan penthouses at Como Toorak, Bruce St, Toorak

$20.95m each

Christie’s International’s Sean Cussell, Kay & Burton’s Matt Davis and Nick Kenyon, and Marshall White’s Marcus Chiminello

12. 6-10 Marne St, South Yarra

$20m+

Melbourne Sotheby’s International Realty Antoinette Nido and Max Ruttner

An artist’s render of the One Toorak Place complex, where an off-the-plan penthouse sold for $20m-plus in 2025. Demolition on the build site started in December.