Vaucluse lies on Sydney Harbour’s eastern edge in a way that only a particular type of suburb can: quietly, even smugly, conscious of its own location. The streets ascend away from the waterfront, past sandstone walls and fig trees, past driveways that vanish behind electric gates, past houses that hardly ever change hands and, when they do, seldom make any noise. By any fair standards, it is among the nation’s most concentrated enclaves of inherited and amassed wealth. The fact that Miki Hendler and her husband Elliot Solomon have made this their home may therefore not be shocking. The way they paid for it is a bit of a surprise, the kind that moves quickly around Sydney real estate circles.
Hendler, 34, and Solomon paid $20,575,000 for a five-bedroom, four-bathroom property on 900 square meters, just a short walk from Nielsen Park and close to Vaucluse and Rose Bay towns, according to settlement paperwork last week. Hendler’s name is on the title. Additionally, the mortgage with ANZ Bank is still in place.
Because Miki Hendler is the granddaughter of Harry Triguboff, who maintained his ranking at the top of the Australian Financial Review’s 2026 Rich List with an estimated wealth of $32.28 billion acquired through his Meriton apartment complex, that final element is the one that people keep coming back to. It’s actually further up the same road to the family compound. In a home they bought for $6 million in 1997, her parents, Sharon and Gary Hendler, also reside there.
What makes the Miki Hendler Vaucluse home mortgage story intriguing is exactly what it isn’t. It is not a story of financial need or estrangement from family. A 34-year-old woman who worked in the family business made the conscious decision to bear her own debt on her own property instead of reaching a $20 million acquisition free and clear on the strength of someone else’s name. Even though it’s impossible to understand the secret rationale behind it, it’s a distinction worth making. A mortgage, a title in her name, and a couple constructing something that is structurally theirs are all available in the public record.
Elliot Solomon contributes his own expertise. In his capacity as CEO of his family’s hospitality business, Solotel, he oversees a number of establishments, including North Bondi Fish, Aria, Chiswick, and Chophouse, that are ingrained in Sydney eating culture in a way that transcends style. These are not experiments supported by celebrities or pop-up ideas. These are well-known, serious eateries that endure economic downturns because they have a loyal customer base that doesn’t require marketing.
Additionally, the pair has an ANZ mortgage on a four-bedroom Meriton home in Bondi Beach that Hendler bought for $3.73 million in 2020 and was last offered as a rental in early 2021. The form of a purposeful financial strategy—structured holdings, mortgaged assets—becomes at least partially apparent between the two properties.
Christopher and Vivian Kalowski, who had owned the Vaucluse home since 1988, sold it for $1.625 million, a sum that today seems almost archeological. Before a failed attempt at real estate development, which was eventually sold to another developer to finish, Christopher Kalowski worked for decades in the manufacturing of women’s clothing. Paul Biller and Ben Torban of Biller Property sold the house, which Biller openly described as one of his favorite listings—a decent family home on one of Vaucluse’s finer neighborhoods. It’s difficult to ignore how subtle the wording is for a $20 million deal, but that’s more the suburb’s character.
