A once-high rolling deputy mayor has been forced to list his party pad on the market after entering bankruptcy.
Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer’s dilapidated six-bedroom, 13-car garage home in Sydney’s west is set to be sold for millions in the coming months.
Joseph Hansell and David McGrath of FTI Consulting, the mortgagees appointed by the National Bank to handle Mehajer’s assets, are preparing the house for sale.
The extravagant four-storey mansion fitted out with a swimming pool, spa, Swarovski crystal chandelier and a Persian onyx staircase was first purchased by Mehajer for $565,000 in 2007.
Since then the embattled former-deputy mayor has spent 11 months in prison after being found guilty of election fraud and declared bankrupt in 2018.
He had previously listed the Lidcombe mansion for lease at almost $3,000 a week in 2017.
The home and its owner drew heavy media attention after Mehajer hosted his wedding ceremony to former beautician Aysha Learmonth there in 2015.
During Mehajer’s time in prison however, the property began falling to pieces and images showed its exterior reverting to rubble in 2019.
The Federal Circuit Court declared Mehajer bankrupt after a liquidator’s petition, supported by the tax office, found that he owed a Greenacre-based marble company $600,000 for its work on his staircase.
The staircase also featured in US rapper Bow Wow’s music video for the single ‘Too Real’.
Mehajer was ordered to pay not only the initial cost of the stairs, but another $400,000 in other legal fees.
Mehajer had previously also installed a $25,000 pool and spa in 2009.
During a bail application hearing, Mehajer described his situation as ‘an absolute mess’, with frozen bank accounts affecting his business, family, employees and investors.
‘I am here between four walls and letting everything collapse… this is going to be a catastrophe,’ he predicted.
Richardson & Wrench’s Jason Boon, a specialist in properties in Sydney’s inner suburbs, estimated the property will sell for roughly $4 million.
It became recognisable after Mehajer’s lavish wedding ceremony closed down Frances Street and earned him a $220 traffic fine.
On the day, he hired four helicopters, a jet, a sea plane, luxury sports cars, motorcycles, a film crew and a troupe of drummers to celebrate the occasion.
His former investment property has already been sold by FTI Consulting for $2.1million.
He purchased the property, also in Lidcombe, for $857,500 in 2013 but it had been demolished in recent years.
Dooleys’ Concourse at Lidcombe hospitality development purchased the vacant lot.