Sale of Podesta’s Monomeath Avenue Palace Latest in String of International Megasales
Xianwen Xu, whose biggest development at the moment is an 80-level apartment building in Hong Kong, has paid close to $9 million for the five-bedroom Monomeath Avenue mansion offloaded by advertising guru Anthony Podesta.
Sources say Mr Xu will live there for at least the period his children are at university in Melbourne.
During that time, he can expect to see at Neighbourhood Watch meetings the parents of pop princesses Kylie and Dannii Minogue, former National Australia Bank chief executive officer Frank Cicutto, and former Liberal Party MP Andrew Peacock.
Abercromby’s agents Jock Langley and Tim Derham sold the property a week after being appointed selling agents.
On Abercromby’s research, there has been a 45% increase in the number of prestige properties sold to international buyers since 2005.
This is supported by buyers’ advocate firm Morrell & Koren, which says buyers from England, Dubai and Hong Kong are becoming bigger forces in Melbourne’s top-end game. Recent big sales to international buyers include a property in New Street, Brighton, which sold to a Chinese buyer for $9 million, and a property in Coppin Grove, Kew, which sold to an English buyer for $5.5 million.
