14 Tivoli Ave, Rose Bay is right next door to Villa Florida, the Michael Suttor-designed home bought by Coverforce insurance broker, Jim Angelis, for $45m in 2021. Picture: Million Dollar Listing Sydney.

A Rose Bay home has sold for $82.5m, sources have confirmed, the top Sydney property sale of the year.

The waterfront on a 1,1385qm block at 14 Tivoli Ave has been for sale for years, with multiple sources telling the Wentworth Courier in November, 2023 that the vendor, Sicilian-born property developer Orazio Cambuglia, wanted well above $100m.

Some said the owners of the property — consisting of three separate residences with a total of eight bedrooms, 10 bathroooms and a four-car garage to house parents and children — wanted as much as $130m.

But the most recent guide via its sales agents, Ken Jacobs and Hui Xu of Forbes, is understood to have been $85m in April.

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The property was renovated in 2018.

The agents aren’t commenting, but other sources have confirmed to the Courier that the vendors were pretty happy to have achieved $82.5m.

The buyer’s agent, Simon Cohen, also isn’t commenting but the sources say the purchasers are locals who plan to live in the property.

The residence, which has views across the harbour back to Sydney’s CBD, was originally configured as two apartments when the Camuglias purchased the first half of the property in 2004.

Records show the owners lodged a DA for an extension and alteration in 2018, with a budget of $440k. No doubt it cost far more than that.

This week’s result beats the previous house record for 2025 of more than $60m for a waterfront house at 11 Coolong Rd, Vaucluse, achieved last month (although there has been an $80m apartment sale).

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It’s right on the waterfront.

That was a five-bedroom, six-bathroom residence with three-car garage, the home of the late Magda Moss, right next door to Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenov, on 1,663 sqm.

The most recent sale also smashes the Rose Bay record of $54.6m for 12 Dumaresq Rd, Vaucluse, achieved in February.

That was the home of Frank Qiang Geng, who made his fortune from recycled shopping bags.

When contacted for comment, Sydney’s leading prestige property valuer Simon Feilich of Dyson Austen said this week’s sale highlighted the growing strength of the Rose Bay market.

“This week’s $82.5m waterfront residence in Rose Bay underscores the suburb’s evolving,” he said.

“It highlights the remarkable dichotomy of the suburb.

“On one hand, Rose Bay continues to align with the upper echelon of Sydney’s blue-chip suburbs, joining Point Piper as a hub of premium residential transactions (fifth highest sale in Sydney ever).

“On the other hand, we’re seeing a growing wave of collective housing transactions, where long-held family homes are being amalgamated to accommodate State Government – driven LMR redevelopment, including aged care and medium-density projects.

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“Some of these group sales have reached $150m across 10 properties.”

“One thing is certain — the suburb is entering a defining chapter that will reshape its landscape, its skyline, and its very character for generations to come.”

The Tivoli Ave home is, right next door to Villa Florida, the Michael Suttor-designed home bought by Coverforce insurance broker, Jim Angelis, for $45m in 2021.

Orazio Cambuglia and wife Yolanda feature in a 2007 newspaper report about their legal fight, costing more than $200,000, over a neighbour’s proposed development threatening their harbour view.

The report said they’d bought their Rose Bay residence for its view of the harbour.

“Before we bought, Yolanda even went to [Woollahra] council to find out about people building in the area affecting the view, ” Orazio Camuglia says in the story.

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They must have been successful, as their property has a stunning harbour view.

The Camuglias have spent many years renovating the property, with a gym, pool and sauna on the waterfront and a jetty among the highlights. They’d commissioned Yolanda’s sister, architect Renato D’Ettore, for the reno.

Their property purchases have included Coogee Castle. They’d bought the original home at 14 Bunya Pde, South Coogee, for $621,000 in 1988.

Renato D’Ettore did a striking rebuild of that property and it sold for $8.2m to adman John Singleton in 2003.

He made a loss on it, selling it for $7.5m to the former Macquarie executive and Australian Turf Club chairman Laurie Macri and his wife, Christine.

Macri sold it for $16.85m to Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta in July, 2021.

D’Ettore also designed Italianate House in Surry Hills for Camuglia’s nephew, Mark Camuglia, which sold for a suburb record-breaking $11.5m in 2020.

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