The Portsea strip packed with Rich Listers (2024)

Mr Fox, who is ranked 21 on the AFR Rich List with $3.31 billion to his name, has been buying up neighbouring blocks of land for the past 30 years to establish a 16,000 sq m family compound close to Millionaire's Walk - with enough room for his helicopter to land - atop the cliff at Portsea. Much to the dismay of some locals and even the Victorian government, in 2014 Mr Fox managed to expand his private property laying claim to some of the beach below as well.

Next to the Fox compound is another prominent family who staked their own claim on the same highly sought-after beachside strip 35 years ago.

In 1983, two prominent businessmen, and brothers-in-law, bought and then subdivided a block that had been part of Edward Baillieu’s vast estate before building two separategrand residences. One, a split-level house with expansive terraces overlooking the bay with an original boatshed below, is the home of Stephen Nicholas, the grandson of Alfred Nicholas who founded the Aspro pharmaceutical empire, and wife Sandra.

Next door is Sandra's brother, one of Melbourne's most prominent stockbrokers, John McIntosh and wife Marita. The McIntoshes added an extra 2400 sq m to their clifftop estate when they spent $3 million to secure the parcel of land and four-bedroom home next door in 2010.

Further along on the hill is Portsea's most expensive house, the Spanish mission-style mansion "Ilyuka", which held a Victorian price record for six years when it sold in 2010 for $26 million to shrewd investor John Higgins, who made his $593 million fortune largely thanks to the canny investment in Polish beer back in 1990. The company in which he invested, the Grupa Zywiec brewery, is listed on the Warsaw stock exchange and majority owned by Heineken.

Former Computershare director Michele O’Halloran, who sold Higgins the 31-room cliff-top mansion, quietly bought back into the neighbourhood in 2017, with the $6.2 million purchase of a more understated modern five-bedroom home with a pool and views of the ocean, a stone's throw from the nearby Fox and McIntosh estates. Computershare, which provides technology for share trading, was founded in 1978 and floated in 1994.

Another Portsea resident who cashed in on the advent of information technology in the 1980s is Paul Holyoake, co-founder of Oakton Computing. Holyoake, who set up the IT services business with a friend in his second bedroom 30 years ago, bought the 1930s five-bedroom homestead "Inverary" on the clifftop above Shelley Beach with his wife, comedian and actor Marg Downey (best known for her roles in Full Frontal and Fast Forward) in 2010 for $8.67 million.

Further up the road is David Swann, who founded the Melbourne-based DIY home security company Swann Communications in 1987, when he began making modems in his garage. The Swanns' purchase of the modern five-bedroom trophy home for $9.75 million in 2015 came a year after his company was acquired by US surveillance manufacturer Infinova Group for $US87.5 million.

Despite the privacy these large estates afford, many of the Portsea homeowners know each other well.

Lindsay Fox, for example, doesn't have to walk too far to borrow some sugar from his business partner and fellow rich-lister Max Beck.

The veteran property developer, who founded Becton Property Group in 1976 and jointly owns Essendon airport and business park with Fox, lives further down Point Nepean Road in Sorrento on a private 8000 sq m block with a tennis court and courtyard pool.

"I've had a place down there for 40 years and we live most of our week down there. It's my favourite place on the planet," Beck told The Australian Financial Review.

While Beck and Fox didn't craft their business plan for Essendon Fields on the beach, he said they did catch up for coffees together when they were both there.

While small talk over his fence is unlikely given the expansive compounds, Beck, who is worth $671 million, shares more than just a jetty in common with his neighbours, the prominent Deague family, founders of property development company Asia Pacific Group (now Deague Group), who are behind the Art Series hotels.

In 2015, the Deagues bought a 1950s modernist property from Good Guys boss Andrew Muir for $21.5 million, before knocking it down to make way for two homes and a helicopter pad across the 9200 sq m estate. The family's patriarch, David Deague, also owns a home nearby which he bought for more than $1 million in 1980.

Beck and Fox aren't the only Portsea residents in the airport business.

Billionaire Paul Little, who made his fortune from his stake in the $6.5 billion sale of logistics company Toll Holdings, and investment banker Jane Hansen are two of the neighbourhood's most prominent residents.

Little, who has enjoyed a second career as a property developer and last year opened a VIP terminal at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport, has had a home in Portsea since 1990s when he and Hansen bought a 4000 sq m beachfront property for just under $2 million.

Then there's former Spotless chairman Brian Blythe, who also happened to buy a Portsea weekender back in the 1990s (for a record $6.25 million), but has more than that in common with Little. In 2002, Blythe sold Little hisToorak mansion, Coonac, for a then-record $16 million.

The other wealthy Melbourne family clearly keen on Portsea are the Knowles brothers, who built a retirement village empire before selling the business to Stockland for $323 million.

One brother, Russell, bought "Rovina", a grandiose 1960s clifftop home from Rich Lister Jonathan Munz for $10.2 million early last year. Another brother, John, and his Brighton socialite wife, Coral, own down the road. Clearly keen on the area, Coral recently bought a slice of Sorrento's Ocean Beach Road retail strip for $4 million.

Selling agent and local resident Liz Jensen, of Kay & Burton, says the availability of clifftop land that extends to the water's edge is so rare that when houses do come up for sale in Portsea, particularly those with jetties, there's always strong interest.

"We always have competition and therefore the prices just don't go backwards," she said. "The fact that Portsea is due north facing is a big part of Portsea's appeal. It's sheltered and the cold air warms on the water."