John Laws' savvy $12m move prior to shock retirement
John Laws said he would “probably” retire in November. Picture: Richard Dobson
Veteran radio presenter John Laws made some key property moves just ahead of his surprise announcement that he was retiring from a long career in broadcasting.
The 89-year-old Laws broke the news on his 2SM radio show on Tuesday, after reading out an email from a listener who had written in to tell the host he enjoyed listening to his program.
“You’re not going to be hearing it for long, mate,” Laws said in response to the email. “I think that I’ll just call it a day, and call it a day pretty soon.”
Laws said that he will “probably” retire later this year when he celebrates 71 years on air.
Sales transaction reveal Laws, nicknamed “Golden Tonsils”, has been quietly selling a slew of savvy property investments over recent years.
Laws recently sold a property on Woolloomooloo’s Finger Wharf. Picture: Monique Harmer
Another recent sale in the Finger Wharf revealed a luxury interior.
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The radio host earlier this year decided to offload one of two formerly adjoined waterfront apartments in Sydney’s Finger Wharf. The unit was in the same complex where he lives.
Paperwork registered in September revealed the price was about $12.5m and the property exchanged off market.
The buyers were understood to be billionaire steel tsar Sanjeev Gupta and wife Nicola.
The unit was one of just nine at the Harbour end of the 400m long wharf in Woolloomooloo – also home to actor Russell Crowe.
The finger wharf apartments were completed in early 2000 by the Hunters Hill property developer Lang Walker after the wharf was saved from demolition in the early 1990s.
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Laws has actor Russell Crowe for a neighbour. Picture: Getty Images
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Laws and late wife Caroline purchased the bottom-floor wharf apartment in 2001, a year after the development opened, for $3m, according to sales records.
In 2005 they added the apartment above, for which the Laws reportedly paid $15m. This gave the couple five bedrooms, five bathrooms and parking for six cars.
The couple’s record price at the time exceeded the $14.35 million paid in 2003 by Crowe for a nearby apartment.
Prior to that, Laws had long resided in a luxury home in Woollahra designed by Espie Dods before selling it in 2004 for $7.7m to make the move to the Finger Wharf.
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Laws previously owned a Woollahra house. He sold it for $7.7m in 2004. It was resold last year for $17.5m.
Laws pictured at his former Woollahra home back in the 1990s.
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His Finger Wharf sale this year came four years after he sold a rental property in Woollahra that he had owned since the 1980s but reportedly never lived in.
The cottage changed hands for $3.42m. Laws had paid about $295,000 for the 250sqm property in 1988.
The radio host also quietly sold off another property he owned on the Finger Wharf in 2018, pocketing $2.9m for the apartment he bought off the plan for $660,000 in 1997.
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Laws talks with then Prime Minister Paul Keating in the 1990s.
Laws has featured on a range of stations over the years but is most famous for his long stint on Sydney’s 2UE dating back to 1957.
He retired from radio in 2007 but after a few years off signing with 2SM in 2011.
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