The biggest mansion in NSW, often cited for its expansive landholding on Sydney Harbour, is Fairwater in Point Piper, owned by Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, sitting on roughly 8,000 square meters (2 acres) with the historic main house and multiple residences. However, for sheer building size (floor space), the mansion being built in Dural by the Nassif family was projected to be one of Sydney's largest, with nearly 4,000 sqm of floor space, making it massive in footprint, though Fairwater has more extensive grounds.
The main residence is the Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. It is the largest privately owned house in the United States at 178,926 sq ft (16,622.8 m2) of floor space and 135,280 sq ft (12,568 m2) of living area.
You won't find resort guests roaming the halls, just the Evans family. They have been living at Girvan Estate, Australia's tallest private home, since acquiring it in 2012 from the late Peter Grey who, in 1994, spent more than $2 million and six years building it.
Toorak boasts gated cul-de-sacs, privacy hedges, tree-lined streets and 22 of Australia's richest people.
Iron ore magnate Rinehart has topped the Rich List for the sixth year in a row, but the falling iron ore price has hit the valuation of her Hancock Prospecting, wiping around $2b off her estimated net worth.
“The proportion of wealth held in cash and deposits is lowest in Australia at just above 10 per cent, only half as much as in Switzerland, Singapore and the UK.” In US dollar terms, Australia counts 1.9 million millionaires and is ranked eighth in UBS' millionaire index.
The largest single privately owned station is Anna Creek Station in South Australia, but the largest private landowner overall in Australia by total hectares is mining magnate Gina Rinehart, controlling over 9 million hectares through various companies like Hancock Agriculture and after acquiring S. Kidman & Co, with massive stations like Clifton Hills and a vast pastoral portfolio under her belt as of 2021-2025.
39 St Georges Road, Toorak, is a grand mansion owned by the Stamoulis family, built by property developer Harry Stamoulis after he purchased the land in 2010 and demolished the former Baillieu family home. The estate is considered one of Australia's most significant private residences, often described as a $70-$100 million palace.
Though the family stopped living in the mansion in the 1950s, it is still owned and run as a tourist attraction by the fourth generation of Vanderbilt descendants.
The Williams Cattle Company can claim the title of the owner of Australia's largest farm with the 2.3677 million-hectare Anna Creek Station near Coober Pedy, SA. Ownership of Australia's largest farms has remained relatively stable throughout the past year with only a handful of the biggest properties changing hands.
The richest suburb in Australia, based on average taxable income, is often Double Bay, NSW (postcode 2028), known as "Double Pay," followed closely by Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Perth's affluent western areas like Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove (6011). Other top contenders for wealth and high property values include Point Piper, Bellevue Hill, Vaucluse, Toorak (VIC), and Palm Beach (NSW), featuring high-end homes and luxury lifestyles.
To buy a $650,000 house in Australia, you generally need a gross annual household income between $100,000 to $140,000, with figures varying significantly by location and lender criteria, requiring a strong deposit (around $130,000 for 20%) and managing loan repayments to not exceed 30% of your income to avoid mortgage stress, often necessitating a joint income or substantial savings, as highlighted by financial experts and data from sources like Fundd, Finder, and Real Estate.
Post-war era. In the period of post-World War II prosperity, rising standards of living and land values caused Toorak to become highly sought after by a new generation of the wealthy, thought by some to be social climbers and nouveau riche.
Famous residents in the Southern Highlands (NSW, Australia) include Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban, Kyle Sandilands, Larry Emdur, Samantha Armytage, fashion designer Collette Dinnigan, artist Tim Storrier, and TV personality Michelle Bridges, drawn to the region for privacy and large estates, with properties like Bunya Hill (Kidman/Urban) being well-known.
That's how many HNW investors there are in Australia that collectively hold around $4 trillion in investable assets. 34,500 of these are categorised at UHNW (those with $10 million or more), and this segment experienced 19% annual growth, deepening the concentration of wealth at the top end.
Topping the list is Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, whose agricultural assets – through S Kidman and Co and Hancock Agriculture – are now valued around $2 billion. According to The Australian's recent rich list, Rinehart has a wealth of about $46.34 billion.
Wealth among the wealthiest growing 'much faster'
According to 2024 statistics from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW, the wealthiest 10 per cent of households in Australia own 44 per cent of all wealth, with an average of $5.2 million per household.
Qin is the richest farmer in the world and owns 883 million shares of Muyuan stock, 40.06% of the company. Qin's wife Qian Ying is also a billionaire, and together they own a majority stake in Muyuan. His son Qin Muyuan (秦牧原) is a vice-president at Muyuan Group.
Around 80,000 Australians had over $2 million in superannuation as of 2019-2020 data, with estimates suggesting this number might be higher now due to asset growth, potentially affecting around 80,000 people with balances over $3 million by 2025. While most with high balances are older, some young individuals (under 30) also hold over $2 million in super.
According to Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report, the average wealth of Australian households was $628,000 per adult in 2020, the fourth highest in the world behind Switzerland, the United States and Hong Kong (North America as shown on the graph refers to the region, as does Asia-Pacific and Europe).
Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency. There are approximately 584,000 US$ multimillionaires who have net assets of $10M+ worldwide in 2017.