Billionaire media family buys $37.5m Iona

Billionaire media family the Stokes family is behind the record-busting purchase of one of Sydney’s most beautiful homes that is accustomed to A-list owners.

A billionaire media family is behind the record $37.5m purchase of the Darlinghurst mansion Iona, famous as the former home of Hollywood royalty.

The former home of film director Baz Luhrmann and his costume designer wife Catherine Martin at2 Darley St sold on Monday via the Sotheby’s team Clint Ballard, Maclay Longhurst and Harriet France, all of whom have remained tight-lipped about the purchasers’ identity.

However other sources on Wednesday confirmed that Bryant Stokes, son of the billionaire Channel 7 chairman Kerry Stokes and brother of its CEO, Ryan Stokes, and his wife Dominique were the buyers.

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Bryant Stokes and his wife, Dominique, on their wedding day. Picture Kai Godeck

The family are moving to massive a 2716sq m inner-city playground.

It’s highly likely that the same sales team will now be appointed to sell the couple’s current home in Edgecliff Rd, Woollahra, purchased for $3.8m in 2014.

Their new home is quite an upgrade for Stokes, 47, who quit the family investment company in 2014 in favour of property development and married long-time fiancee Dominique Lomas, daughter of celebrity hairdresser Lloyd Lomas, in 2017.

The couple have two children, a boy and a girl, and the family will no doubt relish their new playground — a seven-bedroom, seven bathroom Italianate manor on a 2716 sqm block.

They were obviously keen to snap it up, being among the six contract holders on the grand property that sold in just 12 days.

The home, this week’s Wentworth Courier House of the Week, had a $27m price guide this time round, having been listed with another agent last September with a $40m price guide.

Back then, it sat on the market for five months.

The grand home sat on the market for five months last year with a different agent, when it had a $40m price guide.

The attractive price guide of $27m brought a range of buyers to the table and it sold for $37.5m, a suburb record.

But the attractive price guide brought buyers to the table, and Ballard told the Wentworth Courier exclusively on Monday morning: “There were six contracts out, with four competing for it and then it was down to two.”

He said the home attracted strong local and international interest. Initially, a private auction was planned down the track, in perhaps five week’s time.

“The campaign was brought forward due to the calibre of buyers and their eagerness to own the home,” Ballard said.

“A local buyer ended up with the keys which the current owners are delighted with.

“It was a hotly contested four-hour private bidding process.”

The result sets a new house price record for Darlinghurst.

The property last traded for $16m in 2015.

The in-ground pool is one of the attractions.

Vendors Tim Eustace, who is Mercury Private’s principal adviser, and his partner Salvador Panui, have put their own stylish stamp on iconic Iona since buying it from the Luhrmann-Martins for $16m in 2015.

They modernised several elements of the 22-room house, specifically the kitchen which has undergone an complete transformation.

They also nurtured the expansive landscaped gardens to render the estate more private.

While the Hollywood heavy weights owned Iona, VIP guests included married couple at the time, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, as well as her Moulin Rouge co-star Ewan McGregor.

Later, The Great Gatsby stars such as Toby Maguire and Joel Edgerton also partied in the elaborate mansion.

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