What did Nicole Kidman, Test cricketer Mitchell Starc and the Big Little Lies author have in common in 2023?

The buying and selling of multimillion-dollar properties in prime real estate locations in Australia, that’s all.

Although 2023 saw the Reserve Bank lift interest rates in February, March, May, June and November, some of our biggest celebrities, business leaders and sporting identities increased their property portfolios with marquee waterfront purchases and suburban ranches … to die for.

Australian acting royalty Kidman, who is promoting her latest TV series, Expats, secured her sixth apartment in the Sydney waterfront suburb of Milsons Point.

The $7.7 million, 15th-floor apartment in the Latitude complex takes her and husband Keith Urban’s portfolio in the one building to $27 million, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

They bought the penthouse from Wizard Home Loans founder Mark Bouris for $6 million in 2009, followed by a $7 million apartment next door in 2012.

Three other apartments were bought for $2.68 million, $2.78 million and $1.35 million.

They are “creating a family enclave,” reported realestate.com.au this week.

Born in Sydney, author Liane Moriarty wrote her first book, Three Wishes, while studying at Macquarie University. Photo: realestate.com.au

‘A fitting suburb’

Her friend and long-time collaborator, author Liane Moriarty, who achieved huge international success writing nine works of fiction, has become a neighbour.

She reportedly paid $19.5 million for a five-bedroom house in Mosman’s coveted Balmoral Slopes, moving in from the upper north shore.

In 2013, her fifth novel, The Husband’s Secret, was released in the US and within two weeks had climbed the charts to become a No.1 New York Times Bestseller, with Big Little Lies clocking in at No.1, making her the first Australian author to debut in the top spot in the US.

Kidman has starred in and produced two TV adaptations of her novels, Nine Perfect Strangers and Big Little Lies. 

Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall (Annette Bening and Sam Neill lead the cast) is scheduled for release in March.

Local website and magazine, Mosman Living, says her purchase “quadrupled” the suburb’s median house price of $5.39 million.

“Mosman is a fitting suburb for the beloved author whose stories are often set in the middle-class suburbs of Sydney’s North Shore,” it wrote, adding Moriarty and her family were based on Pymble’s “millionaire’s row”.

“They lived in a mansion fit with a tennis court and pool, which Moriarty and her husband bought for $7.25 million in 2015 to mark the sale of six million copies of her books.”

Now her family, including a husband, a son and daughter, live in a five-bedroom, three-level waterfront mansion, one of a handful of the most expensive real estate purchases in Mosman in 2023.

Charlotte Park includes horse stables, a tennis court, pool, cabana and weathered timber pavilion, plus a chicken coop and kitchen garden. Photo: Colorbond

Mitchell Starc and Alyssa Healy

Australian cricket’s golden couple, Test cricketer Mitchell Starc and women’s national team member Alyssa Healy – he a left-hand fast bowler and she a wicketkeeper/batter – reset the price tag for real estate in Sydney’s outer northern suburb of Terrey Hills this year.

According to realestate.com.au, the couple bought the Charlotte Park acreage estate for $24.5 million, and doubled the suburb record in one almighty hit.

Bordering Duffys Forest on the edge of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park – the set of the popular television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo – the property was built by architecture and construction firm, Cadence and Co.

The property website said at the beginning of the year the suburb record was $12 million when rugby league commentator and former Australian and NSW captain Brad Fittler sold his acreage.

Another 1.76-hectare equine property sold for $14.1 million in September.

Starc continues to enjoy success on the field, taking six wickets in the first Test against Pakistan in Perth and being snapped up by India’s IPL Kolkata Knight Riders franchise for a whopping $4.43 million payday on Tuesday.

“[I was in] a fair bit of shock, and certainly excitement with how it was all unfolding. But nothing that I could’ve ever imagined,” he told ESPN afterwards.

Excitement too, as the cricketing couple pack their bags for new digs in the new year.

The Australian Financial Reviews says Joyce’s Mosman property, built in 1908, was off the market for a mere 15 months before being advertised again for sale. Photo: Ray White Lower North Shore

Meanwhile, former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, sold a $21 million Mosman waterfront property in July.

“The couple never actually lived in the trophy home with private jetty, berths and netted sea pool but they did extensively renovate the Musgrave Street property, which they had purchased in March last year for $19 million,” reported realestate.com.au

In September, Qantas revealed it paid its departing boss $21.4 million in the past financial year.

And a Palm Beach oceanfront home once owned by the late George Michael – one half of UK pop duo Wham! – sold for $13.5 million in March.