Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Andrew Banks and his wife Andrea have made a high-end return to Sydney's property market - and Point Piper in particular - with a house purchase of more than $20 million.
The star of Channel Ten's Shark Tank reality series and his wife are no strangers to Australia's most expensive neighbourhood, having made headlines in 2010 for the sale of their waterfront mansion Villa Veneto for a reported $52 million.
They return to the neighbourhood having bought the 1930s-era residence on Wyuna Road owned by South African medical device entrepreneur Dr Charalambos Revelas.
Despite recent talk of an off-market deal worth more than $20 million for the property, it was only confirmed when a caveat was lodged on title in the name of Andrea Banks. Settlement will reveal the exact price.
Set on 664 square metres and next door to the home of billionaire fast-food mogul Jack Cowin, the ornate red-brick residence with six bedrooms and a swimming pool was previously owned by printing magnate Michael Hannan, who sold it 11 years ago for $10.5 million.
The property was the long-time home of the late RAAF Squadron Leader, Fredrick Rothe, who bought it in 1945 for ??9800 and lived there until he died in 1992. The following year it was sold by his estate for $1.8 million to Hannan.
Banks, who started his career as an actor in England at The Old Tote Theatre Company, made his name and millions in the recruitment industry, co-founding Morgan & Banks in 1985 with Geoff Morgan.
Following the sale of his Point Piper trophy home in 2010, the couple moved to Los Angeles, paying $US9.18 million for a Beverly Hills mansion. As Banks said to Fairfax Media columnist Andrew Hornery a few years later: "We don't have a home in Sydney anymore, the kids have married Americans so we have made our home there too."
After a major renovation the couple sold that Beverly Hills property late last year for $US15,995,000, and a source close to them said they have been looking at property in the neighbourhood in recent months during visits to Sydney.
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