Dave Droga shells out $50m for ‘Lang Syne’, a 1100-square-metre block on the clifftops of Tamarama in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs
May 12 2023, 12:48 pm | | 17 Comments
New York-based Australian superstar ad man David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song and the founder of Droga5 – which was acquired by Accenture in 2019 for just under $500m – has snapped up ‘Lang Syne’, a 1100-square-metre block on the clifftops of Tamarama in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Droga bought the four-bedroom and two-bathroom home for just under $50 million from Dimity Griffiths, who lived in the home for 64 years with her late husband, the radio personality Harry Griffiths, which has reset Sydney’s coastal price record.
Droga emailed CB from New York: “I wanted to have a lovely place in Australia. (I felt guilty having so many deep roots in America and none back in OZ).”
The exact sale price remains unknown until the settlement period is completed.
When Griffiths bought the home, it traded for £9750 – the equivalent of around $18,000 without adjusting for inflation.
17 Comments
Very happy for the guy and gee, hasn’t he done well.
Such a prized piece of land. Good on him. Congrats.
Of course droga bought my favorite place in Sydney. He is the most successful person in our industry because he has talent and good taste!!!!!!!The crazy thing is, this sounds like its just his Australian holiday pad. Wowza.
The memories. Dave at Omon – then the curious McCarthy Watson Spencer wedding. Then the world. Interviewed him many times and worked for him at D5 in Sydney. Bottom line. He was always grounded and more interested in those around him than they were in him – no easy task for a “rock star”. Impossible but true – spend a night with him in the Gutter Bar. I reckon if someone is going to take charge of an amazing piece of our coastline, he will do something special with it.
Such a prized piece of land. Good on him. Congrats.
Wouldn’t we all love that view and buy it if we could. Congratulations. I expect the poor old house doesn’t have a hope.
An Aussie treasure buys an Aussie treasure. Not sure why, but it makes me feel good knowing David will be sitting in that little place. He is the new king of Sydney. Even if it is a holiday home.
This made me feel better about my rent going up 45% and the prospect of lining up with hundreds of others for a shot at a 1-bedder in Sydney.
Just got back from the US yesterday after being caned on the exchange rate. For Dave the actual cost is closer to $30M
Finally something on CB that transcends the hate, toxicity and unites us all in positive encouragement;
Property investment
Cool story bro!
I’m late to this but well played.
Michael you need to do an interview with the man about his business decisions.
He is lauded for his creativity and awards but people gloss over the sheer genius of his decision making process. I have listen to many a podcast he has been on but I laugh as he never gives all the details. My brother in-law works at the bank that represented them during the deals. We all know he sold the majority of his agency to Accenture for a boat load but what we didn’t know is that he made even more with his Hollywood deal 4 years earlier. Apparently when he sold 49% to endeavor back in the day, he personally took half cash but also half in stock and equity. giving him something like 3-5% of the company. The company was worth about 1B then. Today they own the UFC and WWE and it’s worth about 25 billion. Holy f’ing shit balls. Tell that story mate.More aspiring creative need to know they can be badass business titans too.
What a fabulous story the Droga story is. From the top AWARD School student to this. It’s unusual for a creative to get rich but he has always been driven by true creative excellence and bold originality, and I assume he believed that that would ensure business success. On the few occasions I met him back in the day he was an extremely modest young man of few words, unlike the brash over-confident adman of fiction and cliché.
I love that place. I’m so glad he bought it and not some grubby developer…
Smartest man around.
David is also a property developer and he will develop this block.
[Well done David]
Dave’s reno plans are now officially the hottest brief in the country. Gonna judge that DA documentation so hard.
Have so much love and respect for Dave, even more after having worked for him. But $50m for a knockdown! I’m sure he will do something amazing with it, but sheesh, a pad like that would have been $10m tops two years ago.