Vaucluse house selling for $38m by Chinese billionaire after not living in it for seven years
Trophy mansion bought by a Chinese billionaire for $20million that was unloved and unlived in for seven years returns to market with a $38million price tag
- Vaucluse estate not touched for seven years
- Expected to hit the market on Monday
A trophy house in one of Sydney’s most expensive suburbs is hitting the market at an eye-watering price after not being in use for seven years.
The Werribee estate in Vaucluse was bought by Chinese food tycoon, Sun Shao Feng, for $20million in 2016.
Seven years later, the property is back on the market for $38million despite no one appearing to have lived in the house during his ownership.
The CEO and founder of one of China’s leading agriculture producers, China Green Holding, Mr Shao Feng bought the 3,330-square-metre trophy house during a frenzy of Asian investors purchasing similar mansions in the area.
The Vaucluse estate, Werribee (pictured), is hitting the market for $38million after being bought by Chinese food tycoon, Sun Shao Feng, for $20million in 2016 and not lived in since
Neither the house nor its neighbouring coach house have been used since Mr Shao Feng purchased the property from the late Cementaid founder, Peter Aldred, who bought it for a then-price record for a Sydney house of £41,000 in 1961.
The grounds of the 1914 house have recently been maintained in the lead up to its listing.
While the house has gone uninhabited or maintained for seven years, it does come with approved plans for a new 10-bedroom residence behind the heritage-listed façade.
The market for signature Sydney properties exploded at the time of Mr Shao Feng’s acquisition, topped off by businessman Chau Chak Wing purchasing James Packer’s Vaucluse mansion for a then-record $70million.
The family of billionaire Huang Bingwen purchased the nearby Point Piper mansion, Altona, for $61.8million while Richard Liu, an e-commerce billionaire, bought a nearby home for $36million.
The 3,300 square metre property, built in 1914, was bought during a frenzy of Asian investors purchasing trophy houses in the area and is set to hit the market on Monday
Starting out as a bureaucrat for the government office of Fuzhou City, Mr Shao Feng founded his farm produce export empire in 1998.
He would then go on to sell the company’s beverage subsidiary to Coca-Cola for US$400million 17 years later, just prior to him purchasing the Vaucluse estate.
The $18million price increase in seven years is greater than the increase of the average house price in Vaucluse over the same period of time.
However, Mr Shao Feng’s rise is not unprecedented, with gold mining businessmen John Li’s Vaucluse property selling for $16.9million after he’d paid $10.9million under two years prior.
The Sydney Morning Herald house expect Mr Shao Feng’s agent, Steven Chen, to launch the house on the market on Monday.