Toorak’s $50 million Besen Estate sold quietly in one of the biggest deals in 2025

The Besen Family’s $50 million Toorak Mansion sale is one of Melbourne’s largest real estate deals in 2025.

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One of Australia’s wealthiest families has just launched a $50 million power relocation to sell the late Mark and Eva Besen’s late Toorak mansion.

The sprawling Lansell Rd Estate has become one of Melbourne’s largest residential deals in 2025 with a sale-priced deal.

Property documents confirm that Besen’s four adult children, Daniel Besen, Sussan Boss Naomi Milgrom, philanthropist Carol Schwartz and Deborah Dadon, CEO of the Besen Family Foundation, own the property.
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A well-positioned source said the residence is a long-standing family foundation, filled with private gatherings, philanthropic visions and business strategies, although the buyer’s identity remains a closely watched secret.

“In Toorak, this is as close as a royalty address to changing the address,” the source said.

“Bass helped shape Melbourne through fashion, retail and philanthropy, and the ending like this is the quiet sale of family homes.”

Marc and Eva Besen established an empire of retail and philanthropy to shape Melbourne through fashion, property and millions of dollars in art donations. Photo: James Croucher.

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Holocaust survivor Marc Besen, who died in 2023 at the age of 99, rose from wartime displacement and became a Titan of Australia’s retail industry, driving Susan’s growth with his brother-in-law John Gandel.

The two later expanded to Suzanne Grae and the Sports Girls, while also snapping up the Melbourne Mall, as well as the Box Hill Central (formerly White Horse Forum).

The family’s last stake in Highpoint was sold to GPT Group for $680 million in 2017.

Besens held major stakes in Highpoint, Box Hill Central and other major Australian malls before exiting for more than $1.3 billion.

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Box Hill Central (formerly Whitehorse Plaza) is one of several retail properties the Besen family acquired during its business expansion. Image: Kiel Egging.

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The legacy of Dr and Mrs. Besson is also defined by charity, donating tens of millions of institutions, donating to include NGV, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Australian Ballet, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Scoops Hill Academy, and the Bird Family Performance Centre in Burwood remains the name.

Reputable agents, Ross Savas and Nick Kenyon of Kay and Burton Stonenington were widely tilted to handle transactions.

Both sides declined to comment.

Andrew Dod, director of the industry’s in-house property Toorak, said freight commercial transactions dominated Melbourne’s super-old property scene.

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Andrew Daid, director of Toorak, an in-industry property for prestigious buyer agents, said the deal follows familiar scripts from Toorak’s Ultra-Prestige marketplace.

The date says: “Sales like this are all about discretion.”

“Once you operate in a $20 million to $100 million space, it has nothing to do with open houses, but with legacy, trust and relationships.

“These families don’t want media, they want privacy and control.”

The $50 million sale is Melbourne’s highest residential deal of the year, second only to the $100 million acquisition of “Coonac” by the neighboring Clendon Rd Mansion, formerly owned by Toll Boss Paul Paul Paul Paul and his wife Jane Hansen, and is now in the hands of drug tycoon Dennis Bastas.