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Pharma and beauty billionaires Dennis and Georgina Bastas have been quietly accumulating multimillion-dollar parcels of Toorak’s top real estate with the help of companies linked to the wealthy couple’s associates.
The pair already own prized historic mansion Coonac, which they bought for a record $136.1 million in May from businessman Paul Little and his Melbourne University chancellor wife, Jane Hansen.
They’ve been given the green light to spend $38.5 million on its renovation, and are also seeking permission to spend another $11.6 million on extending the 1867 Italianate mansion.
But it can now be revealed the couple also have a foothold on a collection of prestige properties that border the Toorak mansion.
Part of the deal to buy Coonac, which is on Clendon Road, included a 1950s apartment block on the adjacent Stonehaven Court. The two properties share a boundary fence.
Since that deal was struck, two other properties in Stonehaven Court which also border Coonac have been sold, for $13.1 million and $13.05 million.
Corporate records and title documents, seen by this masthead, show an entity called Stonehaven Property Holdings Pty Ltd, which was created in March, is behind the $13.05 million purchase. That corporate vehicle has only one director, Patrick Kypreos, also a director of Arrotex Investments, owned by the Bastases.
Arrotex is Australia’s largest generic drug supplier and part of the $5.4 billion rich-lister couple’s private business empire DBG Health, which has brands including MCoBeauty and Chemists’ Own.
The other property on Stonehaven Court, sold for $13.1 million, has been purchased in the name of a company whose sole director and ultimate owner is Kerry Goldfinger.
She is married to Melbourne businessman Eli Goldfinger, the business partner of Kypreos in EGA Corporate Advisers and Accountants.
That property’s previous owner was Tania Buckley, former wife of AFL coach Nathan Buckley. It is a five-bedroom Tudor-style mansion with open fireplaces, an outdoor lounge and wine storage.
The flurry of real estate activity in the area might even present Little, who is a former chairman of Essendon Football Club, with a further opportunity.
There remains squeezed into the area a property still owned by Little that backs onto Coonac estate. Little has held the remaining residential block since 2011 and has rented it out ever since.
The Bastases signed on the dotted line to buy Coonac in an off-market deal in February last year. Their purchase of the historic home was settled in May this year. The property sits on just over one hectare complete with a pool and cabana, tennis court and sprawling gardens.
All up, it means that if the Bastases took over ownership of the Stonehaven Court adjacent homes, the total real estate spend and estimated renovations would amount to an eye-watering $213.25 million.
Before the Bastases bought Coonac from the Littles, the title of Australia’s most expensive house was shared jointly at $130 million by two grand Point Piper estates in Sydney’s east – Elaine and Uig Lodge.
Coonac is held in the name of Georgina Bastas. The couple’s centrepiece new home was bought without the need for a mortgage.
In parallel to the nearby real estate dealings, the billionaire couple are seeking approval from local planning authorities to increase the scope of a planned $38.5 million renovation of their historic mansion.
Last month, they lodged an application with Stonnington Council to expand their renovation of the heritage-protected mansion by $11.6 million to a total estimated outlay of $50.1 million. Plans for the expansion have not been made public by the local council.
Stonnington Council declined to comment on the Coonac process. Paul Little, Dennis Bastas, Patrick Kypreos and Eli Goldfinger were all contacted but did not respond to requests for comment.
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