27yo buys ‘ghost mansion’ for $80m

PHOTO: The house is reportedly derelict and nicknamed a “ghost mansion”.

A 27-year-old man has just become the envy of every Australian after snapping up the second most expensive house in the nation’s history.

In the past week, millennial Edward Craven forked out $80 million for a 10-bedroom 7187sq m property in Toorak, inner Melbourne, along St Georges Road.

Mr Craven co-founded crypto company Stake.com in 2017, a gambling platform that lets customers use cryptocurrencies rather than just fiat money to make punts on anything from sports betting to casino-style tournaments.

In December last year, the operation was valued at around $1 billion.

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Mr Craven’s recent purchase sets a new Victorian record, way ahead of the famous Stonington Mansion in Malvern which sold for $52.5 million in 2018 and was up until now the most expensive house transaction in the state.

In fact, the staggering price for his Toorak home was only beaten by a $100 million Sydney mansion that Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes bought in 2019.

However, unlike those other multimillion dollar properties, the St Georges Road house is reportedly derelict and known as a “ghost mansion” because it’s been uninhabited for 30 years.

Edward Craven has kept a low profile but is one of the richest millennials in Australia.

Then-Hoyts boss Leon Fink owned this “ghost mansion” decades ago and started building a French Renaissance-style mansion on the block.

However, when recession hit in the 1990s, he sold it half-built.

In 1991, David Yu, the director of a property development group called Ausvest Holdings, bought the incomplete Toorak home for $5 million.

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Mr Yu reportedly tried to subdivide the landing into nine lots in 1992, but the application and the house remained untouched and empty until now.

In 2020, the house hit the market with a $80 million price tag, and now, two years later and 31 years since its last purchase, the mansion has changed owners.

The house is reportedly derelict and nicknamed a “ghost mansion”.

It hadn’t been inhabited for 30 years prior to the sale.

This is not the first time Mr Craven has made headlines for splashing his cash.

In March, Mr Craven spent $38 million on another Toorak mansion, a luxury four-bedroom, four-bathroom, three-car-garage, 2000sq m home, in Orrong Road.