Ching-Kwan Ma's family pays $14.7m for Double Bay property at 12 Cross Street

A private family sold the property leased to 11 retail and commercial tenants, after owning it for more than 20 years. The property sold above price expectations.

The Ma family is famous for owning a large chunk of Double Bay’s commercial assets including 29-33 Bay Street and 27 Knox Street, hot on the heels of the Roche family, which also own a number of properties in the suburb.

It is not clear if the Ma family will follow other owners on the street such as developers Toga and SJD and develop the site into a residential project.

Toga is developing the site at 16-18 Cross Street into a 13-unit project called The Hunter, while SJD is developing the $150 million 1788 Residences at 20-26 Cross Street and 28-34 Cross Street.

Colliers International’s Miron Solomons, Matt Pontey and James Wilson sold the property at auction, which was also attended by developers such as Loftex Property, which is building an apartment tower Embassy in St Leonards in Sydney’s lower north shore.

The Ma family has been acquisitive in the past year, buying up the 12-storey office tower at 299 Elizabeth Street in the Sydney CBD for $90 million. The acquisition increases their stranglehold on that block of the city as they already own the adjoining property.

Ma scion, Alexander Ma, bought a Vaucluse mansion for about $27 million, moving up from Dover Heights.

His father, Ching-Kwan Ma, made his fortune from his Hong Kong media empire Oriental Press Group. His family founded the group’s flagship newspaper, Oriental Daily News, in 1969.

He also goes by the name of Walter Marr, after a name change in 2001.