InkBlog

Billionaire fund manager Will Vicars has been revealed as the buyer of a humble semi in Tamarama with panoramic 180-degree views of the ocean.

The Wentworth Courier broke the news online on Friday that the compact four-bedder on just over 300sqm at 23 Gaerloch Ave had sold for circa $11m ahead of tomorrow’s scheduled auction.

Highland Double Bay Malouf’s William Manning had been guiding $10m to $11m for the home of World War II veteran and Charing Cross panelbeater Des Owens and his wife Irene, bought for 2000 pounds in 1952.

Manning has refused to reveal the identity of the purchaser, saying only it was a “local” who ultimately plans to redevelop it.

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But over the weekend, neighbours let slip that Vicars was behind the deal.

The Caledonia’s co-chief investment officer’s love affair with quality property has been a long one.

In 2018, it was reported that he’d bought almost $100m worth of NSW property since 2004.

He’d started with the Point Piper mansion — 100m from Australia’s most expensive homes, Fairwater and Elaine — that he bought from his mother for $3m.

In 2013, he bought two adjoining two-storey “lighthouse” penthouses off the plan in Pacific Bondi Beach for a combined $21.9m.

And three years later, he spent another $11m on another top-floor apartment in the Campbell Pde building.

In 2017, he bought a block of eight apartments in Fletcher St, Bondi, at auction for $11.6m — $2.3m over reserve.

Easy to see the potential of the Gaerloch Ave site, owned by the Owens family for 71 years.

Des died 23 years ago and Irene in March of this year at the age of 96.

Interestingly, the family also owned homes nearby — Irene’s sister owned the house next door at No.21 (last traded for $219,000 in 1984) and Des’s brother and his wife owned the 481sqm 27-29 Gaerloch Ave (the house that Annie Conley, daughter of the late aviation pioneer and philanthropist John Conley, sold for $15.75m to Karen Michael, the daughter of the late property mogul David Burger, in 2019).

Manning, who holds the eastern suburbs coastal record for his $29.2m sale of an old apartment block of five units on the oceanfront at 9 Kenneth St last October to socialite Di Maloney, says this circa $11m sale is a semi record for the suburb.

“We had 33 groups through and seven contract holders … it came down to three parties who all wanted to take the property off the market pre-auction,” Manning said last week.

Originally published as Billionaire fund manager Will Vicars revealed as buyer of World War II veteran’s Tamarama semi

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