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The stars of this year's Australian Financial Review Rich List are based in some of the best homes from Perth to Sydney, but no neighbourhood claims more of the ultra wealthy among its own than Sydney's exclusive harbourfront suburb Point Piper.
Despite Australia's new richest man Anthony Pratt being based in Melbourne, and second on the list, property mogul Harry Triguboff living in Vaucluse, Point Piper claims nine of the rich list set.
Point Piper's dominance is hardly surprising. Not only is it home to our wealthy former investment banker turned Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, it claims a prime, north-facing position on Sydney Harbour and has views to the Harbour Bridge and the Mosman bushland.
It also claimed the most expensive house sale on April 28 when the Fairfax family sold their long-held Elaine estate for about $71 million.
Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar is the most recent rich lister to buy into Point Piper, having paid more than $70 million for the Elaine estate.
Within 24 hours of the exchange, tech billionaire Scott Farquhar and his successful investment banker wife Kim Jackson were revealed as the buyers, although they are yet to settle on the purchase.
Farquhar is ranked as Australia's 18th richest person, with a $2.51 billion worth matched by his Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. When he moves into his new home he will be a neighbour to Mary Fairfax's Fairwater estate.
Lady Fairfax, the third wife and widow of Sir Warwick Fairfax and now ranked 113 on the list, retains ownership of the Fairfax family's last Point Piper trophy holding, but has promised to bequeath it to the people of NSW.
Scott Farquhar's Elaine estate (right) is next door to the Fairwater estate of Lady Mary Fairfax (left).
Point Piper's richest person is Westfield chairman Frank Lowy, ranked fourth on the rich list with a worth of $8.26 billion, and resident of what is widely regarded as the most expensive street in Australia, Wolseley Road.
Frank Lowy's Point Piper home was extended in the early 1990s after they bought their son Stephen Lowy's house next door.
Lowy and his wife Shirley bought their waterfront home in 1971 for $310,000 from Isabel Haynes, wife of Dr Byran Haynes, and in 1991 bought son Stephen Lowy's house next door for $1.3 million only to demolish it to extend their own residence with a home cinema and tennis court.
Jack Cowin, ranked 20th with a worth of $2.38 billion, has owned his Point Piper home on Wolseley Road since 1980 when it was bought for $750,000 in a company name.
Jack Cowin photographed at his Point Piper home. Photo: Andrew Quilty
Alan Rydge, billed as one of Australia's lowest profile billionaires on the list with a $2.09 billion worth, bought his Mediterranean-style waterfront mansion in 2004 for $8.7 million.
Huang Bingwen, the family patriarch behind China's paper packaging manufacturer for tobacco-related products Shantou Dongfeng Printing, is another relative newcomer to Point Piper after his son Jiaer paid $61.8 million last November for the landmark waterfront mansion Altona.
Huang Bingwen and family bought the Point Piper mansion Altona last November for $61.8 million.
Ranked at 73 on the list is Paul Lederer, who made his $824 million fortune in large part from the Primo Smallgoods business. He bought his Wolseley Road mansion two doors away from the Lowy family in 2008 for $26 million.
Paul Lederer paid $26 million in 2008 for this Wolseley Road house.
Aussie John Symond almost cashed in his only tax-free asset in Point Piper earlier this year when he received an offer of more than $110 million for his waterfront mega-mansion, but couldn't go through with it, pulling it off the market, thereby costing agents Ken Jacobs and Bill Malouf a potentially lucrative commission and Sydney's best chance of a nine-digit house sale.
Aussie Home Loan boss John Symond's Point Piper mansion was expected to set a national record before he pulled it off the market. Photo: Peter Braig
Now looking to set up home in London, Symond, ranked 97th with a worth of $673 million, is holding onto his treasured Sydney residence.
When property developer Robert Magid bought his waterfront home on the point for $7.35 million in 1998 he reportedly did so by topping the interest shown by Star Wars director George Lucas.
Previously known as Radford, it was built on the site of one of Sydney's best known landmarks, Paradis sur Mer, which was once the home of the late socialite Susan Renouf and then knocked down in the early 1990s to make way for three residences.
