Toorak's Stonington mansion has set a new record for the most expensive home in Melbourne.
Toorak's Stonington mansion has sold for $52.5 million, setting a new record for the most expensive home in Melbourne, and ranking as the seventh highest sale price ever recorded in Australia.
It has been reported the buyer is JH & Co, a company run by Xiao Cao, who is said to be an accountant representing the as yet unnamed buyer.
It has been rumoured that another of Menzies’ properties, Noorlim Estate near Nagambie, could also have been sold to the same buyer.
Built in 1890 by Cobb & Co partner John Wagner, Stonington was for 30 years the Victorian governor's residence. Also used at various times as a school and a hospital, the property was eventually gifted to Deakin University. In 2006, Deakin University controversially signed a deal on Christmas Eve to sell Stonington to property developer Manton for $33 million.
The historic home was sold to art dealer, Rod Menzies, in 2008 for $17.5 million.
The home is heritage protected, and local residents and both the state government and opposition say it's important that Stonington is not demolished to make way for apartments.
The agents are said to be Kay & Burton joint managing director Michael Gibson and former Marshall White director Sean Cussell, but neither have commented on the record-breaking sale.
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