The buyer of a mansion in Toorak, Melbourne for $19.1 million – nearly $5 million over the top of the quoted price range – is the wife of a man whose assets have been frozen by a Federal Court order, and she is yet to pay the deposit.
The private auction sale of 2 Myvore Court two weeks ago has thrown pricing in the top end of the upmarket Melbourne suburb into confusion, with both buyers and sellers rethinking their strategies.
But buyer Orna Ida, the wife of expatriate businessman Yoav Ida, has not yet paid the deposit for the newly built five-bedroom mansion, her lawyer Jonathan Kenny said.
"As far as I know, not [yet received]," Mr Kenny told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday. "My instructions are that they're on the way."
Mr Kenny, who bid for Ms Ida at the private auction on May 30, told the Financial Review a week after the sale that the deposit for the property had been paid.
He contacted the Financial Review late last week, however, to "correct" what he had previously said, saying he had understood it had already been paid.
Mr Kenny said he could not discuss why the deposits had not been received.
The risk is that the sale does not complete and that the pricing expectations created by the deals distort the market. Toorak had a median house price just above $4.2 million in February, CoreLogic figures show.
"Toorak's alive with the sale, but it's not a sale yet because the deposit hasn't been paid," buyers' agent David Morrell said.
"It's nuked the market. Every vendor in Toorak now thinks his house is worth $4 million or $5 million more than the reserve. It's causing people sitting on the fence to go 'I'm not going to miss the bus' and they've probably paid more than they needed to."
The mansion developer Chris Holland recently completed at 2 Myvore Court is not the only recent Toorak purchase by the Ida family in limbo.
Mr Kenny also helped other members of the family, whom he declined to identify, buy 3 Myvore Court – which sold two days after 2 Myvore Court for reportedly more than $8 million – as well as another property at 1a Woorigoleen Road which sold for a price thought to be $9.5 million.
Those deposits have also not been received, he said.
The $19.1 million sale caused a great stir in the leafy eastern suburbs, but speculation that the deposit hasn't been paid has also caused caution.
"It is a Melbourne Game Changer," buyers advocate Mal James said of the sale in an article he published online and subsequently withdrew
"That article was written in good faith," Mr James told the Financial Review on Tuesday. "If it goes ahead, it's a game changer. If doesn't go ahead, people will go back and write it off."
Mr Kenny said Ms Ida, a citizen of both Australia and Israel, was not currently in Australia, but he did not know where she was. Nor did he know Mr Ida's current whereabouts.
Real estate agent Jock Langley of Abercromby's, who marketed 2 Myvore Court, declined to discuss the sale.
"The property's sold," Mr Langley said. "I'm not prepared to have any discussion with you in relation to any part of the sale. We're not at liberty to discuss it."
Kay & Burton agent Andrew Sahhar, who handled the sale of 3 Myvore Court and previously said "someone put in an offer that was well ahead of the vendors' reserve and they decided to take it", also declined to comment.
Marshall White agent Marcus Chiminello, who managed the 1a Woorigoleen Road sale, did not respond to request for comment.
Mr Ida is currently subject to Federal Court orders restricting him and his company IMC Holdings from dealing in financial services. IMC's bank account has been frozen by the Federal Court.
The orders were put in place following a request by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as part of its investigation into the activities of unlicensed binary options trading site Titantrade.
ASIC has alleged Mr Ida and Tony, Sandy and Cameron Senese, a clutch of their family businesses including Allianz Metro are all "associates or agents" of One Tech Media and Ultra Solutions and have "received, and are holding or in control of moneys and other property derived from, and related to, the carrying on of the unlicensed financial services business".
Mr Kenny said Ms Ida was not subject to any order affecting her husband.
ASIC last week issued an application for contempt against Mr Kenny's firm Kalus Kenny Intelex, alleging the firm breached the freezing orders made against his defendant clients by wrongfully dealing with assets.
Mr Kenny denied the allegations and said his firm would oppose the application.
The matter returns to court in August for further directions.
