House That! Former student crash pad to smash City Beach price record with $20 million sale

The biggest coastal landholding in Perth, and one of its loftiest homes, has hit the market with a price tag set to smash the City Beach record. The Windarra Drive home is seeking offers from $20 million, which is nearly twice the next highest price in the beachside idyll. The 2572 sqm superblock and the mansion were created by the Salim Family, part of the $10 billion-plus Salim Group conglomerate. Back in the 1990s, Emma and Pieter Salim’s son needed a crash pad while he studied in Perth, so they bought and amalgamated three blocks to build him a mansion, which they visited from time to time. And the result is an insight into how the other half live. The home has 1400sqm of living space, making it about 6½ times bigger than the average Perth home. It includes nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, three kitchens, two offices and six living areas — including a cinema. It also has the biggest indoor pool in WA at 78sqm, which is the size of a two-bedroom apartment. The property has garage parking for six cars as well as several balconies and al fresco areas. It was no doubt a flash student life, given most of those at university or tech spend those sepia years surviving on instant noodles. But clearly things are different when your family is the world’s biggest producer of the student staple. The Salims sold it to family friend Ta Kin Yan, a developer and one of Malaysia’s richest businessmen, for $2.45m in 2002, before he sold it to a local man in 2022 for $6.5 million. The new price tag in part reflects the coastal boom, as well as the incredible hike in building costs in recent years. It is being sold via agent Vangelis Katsaitis, who said it could be subdivided back into three separate lots. It is understood the owner is seeking to downsize. And fair enough, too.