Media heir Lachlan Murdoch just made a huge splash Down Under, buying a boat shed on the coast of Australia for about $29.8 million ($38 million in Australian dollars).
The mammoth sale was first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and confirmed to The Times by a person close to the deal.
Murdoch — a son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch who serves as co-chairman of News Corp. and executive chairman of the Fox Corp. — is no stranger to huge real estate transactions. In 2019, he paid $150 million for the “Beverly Hillbillies” mansion in Bel-Air, which ranks as the second-priciest home sale in California history.
His new boat shed is much humbler than the Bel-Air mega-mansion. Clad in green shingles, the modest structure sits on 131 feet of waterfront in Point Piper, a small suburb of Sydney that regularly ranks as one of the country’s most expensive communities.
The reason for the eye-popping price tag? The depth of the bay, reported Forbes Global Properties when the shed first surfaced for sale earlier this year. Point Piper offers unusually deep water, which makes it much easier for the ultra-wealthy to moor their mega-yachts.
Murdoch’s place takes advantage of the setting with two boat docks and four moorings, as well as a swimming pool surrounded by flat, grassy lawns. The listing, which was held by Private Property Global’s Ken Jacobs, describes it as a “privately-owned marina facility attached to a residential property.”
A two-story structure sits at the center of the half-acre property. On the main level, a wood workshop with stained-glass windows offers space to store and work on boats. Above that, there’s an apartment with white walls, hardwood floors and picture windows overlooking the bay.
Vaulted ceilings top an open-concept space with a living room, dining area and wood kitchen. Elsewhere are two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Murdoch and his wife, model and TV host Sarah Murdoch, sold their previous home in Point Piper for about $14.55 million USD in 2005, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Four years ago, they shelled out $29 million for a modern lodge on 45 acres in Aspen, Colo.
Lachlan Murdoch is the third of Rupert Murdoch’s six children and the elder of two sons. In the process of Rupert handing off his vast media empire, Lachlan was named News Corp.’s co-chairman in 2014 and Fox Corp.’s chairman and CEO in 2019. Forbes puts the Murdoch family’s net worth at $23.2 billion.