Lew family sells Mt Eliza clifftop

The Lew family’s former Mt Eliza home.

Jacqueline Lew, the daughter of Premier Investments chairman Solomon, has sold a Mount Eliza property at the centre of a planning scandal seven years ago.

The contemporary clifftop at the end of Osprey Avenue traded for $5.25 million following a campaign by Aqua Real Estate’s Michelle Skoglund.

It was this property where a reported $80,000 swimming pool was found to be built on public land without planning permits.

The improvement was later demolished under orders from Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.

It would be later reported the builder failed to lodge relevant paperwork or conduct appropriate soil testing (the area is supposedly prone to erosion).

The Mornington Peninsula News claimed in 2012 authorities discovered the illegal development “after workers were heard bragging in a bar about building a pool that neighbours thought was a water tank”.

The Lew family unsuccessfully tried to buy or lease the land before filling it in.

Via a registered private company Shuttlehall Pty Ltd, of which Ms Lew was a director, the Osprey Ave home was acquired for $2.65m in 2005 as a getaway.

This pocket of Mt Eliza, above Moondah Beach, is home to several wealthy business identities including horse trainer Jonathan Munz.

Earlier this month, we reported aged care entrepreneur Charles “Chas” Jacobsen was paying the philanthropic R.M Ansett Trust $33m for a 22.3-hectare Green Wedge parcel in the area.

That site neighbours the 11.7ha Gunyong Valley – where late Sir Reginal Ansett lived, and which cost Mr Jacobsen $14.5 million in 2006 (a then Victorian record price).

Ms Lew has upgraded to another Mornington Peninsula property, sources say.

The view from a deck of the outgoing Lew home.
A living zone of the outgoing Lew home in Mt Eliza.
An aerial view of the outgoing Lew home, far right in this aerial image.

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Marc Pallisco

A freelance property writer and experienced analyst, Marc is the co-founder of realestatesource.com.au