No mortgage needed: CEO buys $41m Kirribilli trophy home in cash

Former MCoBeauty director Anthony Sullivan has bought a newly built waterfront home in Kirribilli for $41 million in cash, smashing the suburb record by more than double.

The ex-husband of MCoBeauty founder Shelley Sullivan has emerged as the buyer of the trophy home after public records revealed the property had settled in his name.

The 49-year-old was, until January, a director of the wildly successful beauty brand that his former wife, an entrepreneur, created in 2020.

It is renowned for making cheaper versions of popular products, or dupes (short for duplicates). Among the company’s strengths is its speed: it replicates big-name cosmetic and skincare products at an affordable price, then sells them in supermarkets and chemists where they can hit shelves within eight weeks of an idea starting.

MCoBeauty was bought earlier this year by billionaire businessman Dennis Bastas, who made his fortune in pharmaceuticals, in a deal that valued the company at $1 billion.

Bastas’ DBG Group had taken a 50 per cent stake in the business in 2022 before Shelley sold the remaining 50 per cent to Bastas. He plans to take the company global.

It is the latest development in the brand’s meteoric rise. MCoBeauty’s revenue grew a staggering 2400 per cent over the past four years, with Bastas citing the higher cost of living.

For Anthony, the company’s sale has well and truly paid off with some prestige property shopping that broke the Kirribilli record, in the absence of a mortgage too.

He takes the top sale crown from Next Capital’s John White, who paid $19.1 million for a nearby waterfront property in 2022. White had reset it after Alex Harvey, who was until a fortnight ago Macquarie’s chief financial officer, and his wife, Tess, paid $18.7 million for a doer-upper on the same waterfront street.

Anthony is also the founder and chief executive of hospitality advisory Quantaco. He bought the Kirribilli home off-market from long-time locals Michael and Louise Tang, who operate supermarkets in Papua New Guinea.

The deal was struck by Ken Jacobs and Martin Ross of Forbes Global Properties. Neither could be contacted for comment.

New Mosman trophy home deal

But it wasn’t the only trophy home sale on the lower north shore this week. The Virgona family’s Mosman waterfront sold for circa $43.5 million, several local sources confirmed to Title Deeds.

And apparently there was stiff competition. Three parties with budgets of more than $40 million each vied for the keys to the property, which was due to hit the market last week but sold before the listing went live.

The ultimate buyer will emerge upon settlement, but both the successful buyer and underbidder were locals, said buyer’s agent Robert Klaric of The Property Expert International, who represented the underbidder.

Klaric said the strength of the Mosman market owed to a scarcity of waterfront homes coming up for sale.

“There’s only a handful of properties selling on the waterfront,” Klaric said. “It’s very rare in Mosman.”

Clearly, as there are still two buyers with $40 million-plus budgets floating around the area.

Sydney Slice buyer’s agent Deborah West said the high end of the market on the lower north shore was shifting “because [buyers] can’t get access in the east because stock in the eastern suburbs are so inflated price-wise” and so more people were looking north of the bridge for better value.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house has views of Chinamans Beach and was last purchased for $5.5 million in 2010 under Maria Virgona’s name.

Maria and her husband, Victor, who developed living estates for the over 50s and had a prefabricated homes business, are no strangers to trophy homes.

They took Mosman’s prestige market into the $20 million range in 2005 when they sold their family compound on Burran Avenue for $20.5 million to industrial property billionaire Greg Goodman.

Their latest sale should come as no surprise, nor should their $18 million downsize to a Manly beachfront penthouse they bought from AirTrunk’s Robin Khuda and his wife, Melea.

The off-market deal was struck by Glenn Curran of The Agency, who could not be reached for comment.

Inner west beauty

The Haberfield Federation home of Studio Trio creative director Lauren Mahoney and her husband, Steven Zahra, has hit the market with a $5.86 million guide.

Built circa 1913, Russellville has been meticulously restored and renovated by the interior design couple.

The five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, with gardens landscaped by Pepo Botanic Design, is in walking distance of Haberfield Public School and the suburb’s village.

The couple bought the 894-square-metre block for $2.2 million in 2019.

It is selling through Simone Azzi of Belle Property Annandale and is scheduled to go to auction on September 6.