“We just signed one of the properties in our portfolio on a 12-month lease for $200,000,” she says.
With properties from Palm Beach to Vaucluse, Maya also offers an added layer of luxe – hotel-style concierge and personal trainers – if required.
“Our customers are international businesspeople, celebrities and high-net-worth families coming back to spend time with relatives.”
In Sydney’s Point Piper, US actor Mark Wahlberg recently rented a Point Piper waterfront for a rumoured $50,000 a week to use as a Sydney base while filming forthcoming crime thriller Play Dirty.
Point Piper harbourside mansion Routala was rented by Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg.
The Wunulla Road property last traded for $51 million in 2020, but current valuations put the contemporary harbour front mansion closer to $100 million. The property is owned by the owner of global dance supply company Bloch International, David Fox, and his fashion designer wife Jozette Hazzouri.
Under the radar
Given the rental and housing crisis engulfing the country, no one is likely to shed a tear for those who can’t land a $10,000-a-week mansion. Still, demand at the pointy end is as tight as it has been.
The founder of Sydney Slice, Deb West, says the dedicated executive rental search service works closely with relocation agents and wealthy locals to trawl for long-term prestige rental options – those priced at $10,000 or above.
“There is a shortage of high-end properties that offer long-term leases, and the market is highly competitive,” West says. “Currently, we have five people based in the local market on our books looking for $10,000-a-week-plus rental properties.”
West says what most people do not know is about “70 per cent” of trophy rentals are tenanted in low-key, off-market deals.
“It’s all done under the radar, which suits owners and tenants,” she says.
This lavish Bellevue Hill mansion is owned by Samantha Rush, former wife of Macquarie Capital’s David Roseman, and is available for $25,000 a week, or $1.3 million a year.
However, one property on Sydney Slice’s public listings is a three-level Bellevue Hill mansion with a pool, tennis court and panoramic views of the harbour. It is available as a long-term rental for $25,000 a week, or $1.3 million a year – 41 times CoreLogic’s national weekly median rent of $601.
According to records, the lavish mansion is owned by Samantha Rush, who in 2022 paid $6.8 million for the home with her then-husband, Macquarie Capital’s David Roseman.
For $25,000 a week and a $100,000 bond, tenants can enjoy what is billed as “an immense three-level secluded Victorian residence” complete with five bedrooms, six bathrooms and a grand marble entry foyer in one of Sydney’s most exclusive pockets.
No wealth divide
BresicWhitney CEO Thomas McGlynn says that in the prestige rental market, the usual wealth divide between renters and their landlords is either less pronounced, or does not exist.
“The people who are renting these properties are also part of the high-net-worth group that are buying,” McGlynn says.
This was the case when businessman Ian Joye and his wife Maggie rented their Bellevue Hill trophy estate Barford for about $30,000 a week to Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and his wife, venture capitalist Kim Jackson.
It was from their Barford base that Farquhar and Jackson would go on to buy Uig Lodge in Point Piper for $130 million, setting the Australian house price record in the process.
Scott Farquhar and Kim Jackson rented Bellevue Hill’s Barford for $30,000 a week before buying in Point Piper for $130 million.
Also in Bellevue Hill, MCoBeauty founder Shelley Sullivan had recently been renting trophy mansion Leura, which is owned by international flower wholesaler Leo Lynch, who paid $76.5 million for the property last year.
It is understood Sullivan was paying about $11,000 a week to use Leura as her temporary base, before exiting ahead of the Lynchs’ planned renovation works.
Renos drive rentals
Although visiting celebrities or expats on extended visits can drive shorter-term rentals, Sydney Slice’s West says the bulk of long-term prestige renters fall into two broad categories.
There are those returning permanently from overseas who need a stop-gap before buying, and those who are undertaking major renovations on their own property and need a home away from home.
Beyond those two drivers, inherited properties, divorce and owning multiple unused properties can open up long-term trophy rentals.
Stephen Dash has offered his Bellevue Hill compound for rent asking $10,000 a week. Domain
Prestige buyers agent Simon Cohen, who also helms prestige rental service Cohen Farquharson, says while trophy homes are rarely purchased with renting in mind, owners can generate a healthy income while waiting for planning approvals and renovation works to begin.
One such property is the sprawling 1980s compound recently purchased by Credible’s Stephen Dash for $33 million last year. The Bellevue Hill pile was one of three properties purchased by Dash for a total of $48 million when he snapped up the combined residential estate of late property developer Tom Breuer and his art dealer wife Eva.
The three-level, seven-bedroom abode is now on offer for $10,000 a week, as the fintech entrepreneur hopes to generate some return as he enters the lengthy planning phase for his luxury consolidation.
Northbridge meets Lake Como
On Sydney’s lower north shore, a Mediterranean-inspired waterfront estate has been snapped up after it hit rental portals asking $8000 a week.
For the advertised $441,000 a year, the new tenants can expect to enjoy not one but two jetties, a boathouse and four sandstone terraces with views across Sailors Bay. Designed by Michael Suttor and with interiors by Thomas Hamel, the estate also features two self-contained one-bedroom units and a waterfront pool.
This recently rented Northbridge mansion comes with two jetties and a harbourside pool.
BresicWhitney’s McGlynn says the Northbridge property represents why vendors opt to rent.
“That particular home, it feels like you’re in Lake Como, and that’s a sign that people say ‘hey if I sell this, it could be 20 years before I get another’.”
McGlynn says even if owners’ circumstances change, or they move, they don’t want to risk selling and being priced out of the trophy market.
“This is why people are choosing to rent, as they are generational homes and they are hard to replicate.”
How much?
Cohen says setting a price at the top end is not an exact science.
“It’s not a yield price, it’s a market price,” he says, adding that while there are broad benchmarks for setting prices, the weekly rent for premium trophy homes is largely a case-by-case agreement between landlord and tenant.
“It’s about finding the right tenant,” Cohen says. “For tenants, there are very few good houses for rent – you want to jump on them when they come up.”