The Point Piper waterfront mansion known as Akuna has hit the market with a price guide of more than $55 million as its owner no longer needs two Sydney mansions.
Akuna has a pagoda heritage boathouse, pool and a private jetty for a 50-foot yacht, and last sold for $60 million in June 2023.
Vendor Hoang Trang Do, a property investor and businessman, intended for Akuna to be his principal residence. However, he later purchased another property, the landmark Spanish mission residence known as Boomerang in Elizabeth Bay.
The Agency co-founder Steven Chen is the exclusive selling agent for Akuna and said the “vendor is fortunate enough to own two of the finest waterfronts on Sydney Harbour and, as it stands, Point Piper is surplus to his needs”.
Records show Do purchased Akuna, a five-bedroom, six-bathroom home with postcard views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, from Scott Barlow, the former chairman of Sydney Football Club and the founder of property developer Strada, and his wife Alina, an owner and director at the club and the founder of jewellery brand Alinka.
The Barlows bought Akuna for $45 million in 2022 from big-band performer Warren Daly and his wife Karen. The Dalys had owned it since 1997, when grocery tycoon John David sold it for $7.75 million.
Akuna has approved plans with council for a transformation by Brian Meyerson of MHN Design Union, while the current design, by Walter Barda, Richard Christian, Michael Love and Thomas Hamel, includes curved archways, parquetry floors, skylights and a grand spiral staircase.
There is a formal lounge and dining room, a chef’s provincial kitchen, a teppanyaki kitchen, cinema and executive study.
Chen said the prized waterfront “will be highly sought after as the home itself is substantial and further enhanced by uninterrupted harbour views, a boat house and its own rare private jetty”.
Records show Do bought Boomerang for $80 million in November 2023 from the family of trucking billionaire Lindsay Fox.
The buyer of Akuna will be in the company of notable Point Piper residents including Scott Farquhar, co-founder of Atlassian, and his wife, investment banker Kim Jackson, media baron Lachlan Murdoch, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, freight boss Terry Tzaneros and his wife Anne, and Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond.
Chen is accepting expressions of interest.
Beverage king serves one of his homes to the market
Peter Brooks, who sold a part of his P&N Beverages company to Asahi for $188 million in 2011, is selling his Balmain East abode with a price guide of $23 million, local sources say.
Records show Brooks bought the circa-1895 residence known as Brookfield for $15.6 million in 2024 and, that same year, lodged plans with council for alterations and additions, as well as the construction of a first floor and an in-ground pool.
The result is a reimagined four-bedroom, six-bathroom Victorian estate with iron lace balconies, coffered ceilings, marble fireplaces, timber floors and a neutral palette. There are Harbour Bridge views from al fresco zones, a wine cellar and a boathouse.
Brooks, who also owns a property in Mosman, is no stranger to renovation. In 2023 he bought the Darling Point duplex of late heritage architect Ian Stapleton for $11.05 million and, after an opulent renovation and extension, sold it for $20 million in 2024 to barrister John Hyde Page.
Brooks founded P&N Beverages, which once included LA Ice Cola, Pub Squash and Waterfords Mineral Water, in 1992, after working as an executive at Coca-Cola.
Asahi agreed to buy the water and juice business of P&N Beverages for $188 million in 2011 after its bid to buy the entire company was blocked by an Australian watchdog. Brooks debuted on the then-BRW Rich List in 2011.
Maclay Longhurst and Robert Le of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty are selling the Balmain East home. Both declined to comment on any aspect of the listing when contacted.
Late pop artist’s home sells
The Bellevue Hill abode of late pop artist extraordinaire Martin Sharp has sold to his alma mater next door, Cranbrook School, despite his dying wish that someone else would buy it.
A sold sticker went up on the listing indicating a sale by private treaty on October 14 with the sale price withheld, and the school placed a caveat on the title this week.
It will be left to settlement to reveal the sales price as the listing agents were tight-lipped. However, local sources not authorised to comment publicly say the residence sold for a figure around the reduced guide of $25 million, down from the $30 million guide in August.
Sharp was a contributor to the pop art movement during the 1960s and 1970s. He left the 10-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion to a charitable trust to become a type of residency for artists.
Last year a NSW Supreme Court judgment was handed down allowing the heritage-listed house to be sold “for the best price reasonably attainable at the earliest practicable opportunity” – Cranbrook included.
Cranbrook said in a statement it is looking forward to exploring opportunities including the introduction of girls’ boarding and expanded art facilities, and will engage with heritage architects for a refurbishment.
Pauline Goodyer and Michael Pallier of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty sold the property but declined to comment when contacted.
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