PHOTO: Point Piper
A new contender for the title of “most expensive house in Australia” is set to take shape on the Point Piper waterfront as millennial entrepreneurs Alexandra and Gabriel Jakob have amassed three properties in a row and have plans to build their forever home.
The mega-mansion is proposed to spread across three titles, two of which were once slated to be developed into a block of luxury apartments by a syndicate led by Ron Medich until the global financial crisis and issues with Woollahra Council brought the plan undone and triggered a series of incidents culminating in Medich going to the “big house” for murder.
The neighbours will need to contain their excitement to see what architect Bruce Stafford has in store for the Jakob family home given the DA is yet to be lodged, but a well-placed source says they can expect five to six storeys featuring walls of glass to take in Harbour Bridge views and a swimming pool across the lion’s share of its 70 metres of harbour frontage.
What will set this house apart from every other mega mansions is that it will include what is hoped to be the largest private gym in the country. Set across five levels with separate zones for weights, cardio equipment, a boxing ring, spa, sauna, a health centre with cryotherapy facilities, and a room Gabriel dedicated to his wife known as the “love room”. A rooftop tennis court has not been ruled out.
Gabriel Jakob, the private, 41-year-old head of technology and childcare-focused venture capital firm Hyper Capital, declined to comment on the family’s grand plans for the site.
Council plans show Stafford is already familiar with the site. Before the Jakobs bought the neighbouring two properties, Stafford redesigned their current home – purchased three years ago for $40 million from former Westpac director Steve Harker – to include an extra level with a parents’ retreat and Japanese garden that won approval from the Land and Environment Court last December.
Amassing the site has not come cheap. The land alone cost $99.5 million and had stamp duty of $6.77 million.
“Once completed, and based on a description of what is planned, this will rate as one of the best houses in the world given no other country can boast its iconic view to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge,” says Highland Double Bay’s Bill Malouf, who was involved in the sale of all three properties.
Rivalling it for the top spot are the home of Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond a few doors away for which an offer of about $110 million was knocked back in 2017, and the beachfront acreage Fairwater, for which tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes paid $100 million in 2018.
READ MORE VIA DOMAIN
MOST POPULAR IN NEW ZEALAND
Real estate agent forged vendors’ signatures
New kiwi Property TV Show: RICH LISTERS
Rags-to-riches story of a KIWI real estate agent | WATCH
Max Key talks about how being a property developer and doing jiu-jitsu has helped his mental health
WINNERS: 2022 REINZ Awards for Excellence
Beach becomes popular spot for first-time nudists
THE ANCIENT STONE CITY: Proof of NZ civilisation before Kupe
NBR rich list 2022
Rich Listers: The KIWI real estate reality series
Queen Elizabeth II death: King Charles III to inherit huge $33 billion property portfolio













