One of Double Bay’s most distinguished heritage homes, the Victorian Italianate mansion at 61 Cross Street, has sold for circa $11 million, close to its asking price, in a result agents are calling a significant win for the suburb’s prestige market.
The two-storey home, built circa 1880 on a 335-square-metre block just 200 metres from the Double Bay ferry wharf, changed hands without a single renovation from its most recent owner. In a market that has been grinding through a difficult year, selling close to the guide is no small thing.
“There’s a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the eastern suburbs property market right now, but our office is still executing premium results on a regular basis,” says Ben Cassen of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty, who handled the sale alongside Sotheby’s director Clint Ballard.
A home that has made money for everyone who has owned it
The property carries a notable transaction history. Shark Tank personality and recruitment entrepreneur Andrew Banks purchased it in 2018 for $6.065 million, a figure that at the time made it the third most expensive house sale in Double Bay that year.
He sold in 2022 for $9.8 million to China-based buyer Chi-Lan Janet Cheng, a gain of roughly $1 million per year of ownership.
Cheng has now on-sold for circa $11 million, a more modest return of around $250,000 per year during her ownership. The 2021 market, which drove Banks’ exceptional result, was an outlier. What Cheng has achieved in a significantly more subdued climate is nonetheless considered a strong outcome by those close to the deal.
The vendor made no renovations during her ownership, which makes the result more notable still.
What the home offers
The mansion retains many of its Victorian Italianate / 1880s architectural elements, including soaring 3.4-metre ceilings, marble fireplaces and original hardwood floors. A high-end renovation completed under a previous owner introduced a custom Poliform kitchen and updated bathrooms while preserving the heritage character throughout.
The residence features three bedrooms, a north-facing landscaped garden courtyard and wide balconies on the upper level that catch the harbour breeze. Rear laneway access via William Street connects the property to the foreshore. The position, close to Steyne Park and the boutique dining and retail strip that defines Cross Street’s village character, makes it consistently attractive to buyers and tenants alike.
The home collects approximately $3,500 per week as a rental property, figures that will not have been lost on the incoming buyer.
The buyer
Agents declined to name the purchaser. Sources suggest the buyer is Martono Jaya Kusuma, known as MJ, the founder of Indonesian mobile telecommunications company Nexian, and his wife Rosana.
The Kusumas are well known in Sydney’s eastern suburbs property market, having previously sold a designer Bellevue Hill home for just shy of $24 million in 2021 while simultaneously acquiring a three-lot site in the same area for around $16.5 million to build a family compound.
The reported acquisition at 61 Cross Street, if confirmed, adds another chapter to what has been a sustained and active presence in the eastern suburbs market.
A suburb finding its footing
Double Bay’s prestige end has not been immune to the softening that has spread across Sydney’s eastern suburbs in 2025 and into 2026. But transactions like this one, where a heritage home sells close to its guide without renovations and without a boom-era tailwind, suggest the fundamentals at the top of the market remain intact.
For buyers watching from the sidelines, and for agents who have had a tougher year than the headlines might suggest, that is a meaningful data point.
For further information on the property, contact Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty.
Published 29-May-2026
