Lady Mary Fairfax's death was still making headlines across the country this week when prestige agents started to ask if it was too soon to doorknock the family home.
And as funeral arrangements were being made ahead of yesterday's service at St Marks Anglican Church more questions were being asked if the family estate was still to be bequeathed to the people, as was her stated intention 20 years ago.
Understandably, the family has not yet issued any statement regarding their plans for the property, but that hasn't stopped some agents letting their billionaire clients know that arguably Australia's best trophy home could be up for grabs.
"It is tacky in the extreme, but the fact some agents are circling even before the funeral doesn't surprise me," said one Double Bay veteran who asked not to be named.
If there was buyer's remorse after the other branch of the media dynasty sold their Elaine estate next door for $71 million in April, Fairwater is certainly an even better real estate prize to meet a trophy home buyer's needs.
???And in a year in which Aussie John Symond knocked back more than $100 million for his Point Piper home, and knockdown-rebuilds on Sydney Harbour are selling for $28 million in Darling Point and $30 million in Rose Bay, it is clear there is no shortage of buyers with the funds to afford Fairwater.
At 8000 square metres, with a heritage-listed house in much better condition and with a larger frontage to Seven Shillings Beach than Elaine, speculation has it that Fairwater is the most likely property to score Australia's first nine-figure sale.
John B. Fairfax's sale of his Point Piper estate Elaine took three years, but as is so often the case with these sales it ended in a rush thanks to last-minute competition.
Ultimately, Mr Fairfax took the lesser of two offers, by a few million dollars, given tech billionaire Scott Farquhar's stated ambition to not carve up the 6986 square metres and instead retain it as a family residence.
As Farquhar tweeted the day after Domain broke the news of his record house house purchase: "Could totally be top of the market. My expertise is software not property trends! But couldn't let it be chopped up by developers."
Meanwhile, Farquhar's Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie are yet to find their forever home, having looked at all other available offerings, including the Bellevue Hill estates Rona and Barford.
And British Indian billionaire Sanjeeev Gupta, who bought a majority stake in battery storage and solar energy firm ZEN Energy this week, has made no secret of his plans to base himself in Sydney in coming years, with whispers he's been scouting Sydney's finest in bricks and mortar.
