EXCLUSIVE
Santa will have to wait another year for his first visit to Anthony Minichiello and Terry Biviano’s long-awaited dream home, with the almost decade-long project nowhere near complete.
The Sydney power couple’s harbourside mansion at Vaucluse has been a work-in-progress since shortly after Minichiello retired from rugby league at the end of the 2014 season.
Neighbours have regularly complained about the building site being an eyesore and claim they’ve been told it would be finished by Christmas for the past four years.
When Daily Mail Australia viewed the property late in November it appeared to be in a similar state to how it looked in June.
One tradesman arrived during the most recent visit. Fittings are yet to be installed in upstairs rooms and steel fencing still standing between the footpath and front wall.
The backyard was bare and a swimming pool which has reportedly been a refuge for frogs and mosquitoes was holding stagnant dark water as well as various items of rubbish.
There was no longer a skip bin out the front and a portable toilet had been removed, while a covered walkway entrance had been built on the street.
A $10million six-bedroom house next door on a corner block is now also being renovated, with scaffolding surrounding the upper level.
Footy great Anthony Minichiello is fed up with constant speculation about why the Sydney harbourside mansion he and wife Terry Biviano have been building for almost a decade remains unfinished. The couple is pictured
When contacted to see if he could provide an update on the work at his house, Minichiello asked, ‘Why’s that?’ then politely said he had to take another call.
The 44-year-old has previously expressed his annoyance at constant speculation over what was causing the slow pace of construction and questions about when he and Biviano would finally move in.
Minichiello told Daily Mail Australia in late May it was no one else’s business how long it took to have the house ready to occupy but he expected to be settled in ‘later this year’.
‘If I want to take eight years to build a house, then I will,’ the NRL great said.
Minichiello starred at fullback for the Roosters, NSW and Australia, and since retiring from football has run health and fitness programs for children under the MiniFit banner.
Biviano gained fame as a shoe designer before marrying Minichiello in 2012 and the 49-year-old fashionista is set to appear in the 2025 season of the Real Housewives of Sydney.
Together, ‘Mini’ and ‘The Biv’ have been red carpet fixtures, once topping a tabloid list of the city’s power couples in which they were likened to David and Victoria Beckham.
In December 2014, the couple spent $3.1million on a four-bedroom brick house in Hopetoun Avenue with the intention of turning the rundown pile into their ‘Mini mansion’.
Santa will have to wait another year for his first visit to Anthony Minichiello and Terry Biviano’s long-awaited dream home, with the almost decade-long project nowhere near complete
When Daily Mail Australia viewed the property late in November it appeared to be in a similar state to how it looked in June. One tradesman arrived during the most recent visit
They later decided to knock down the existing structure and start from scratch but objections from neighbours, cost blow-outs and the Covid-19 pandemic repeatedly delayed construction.
When Minichiello and Biviano took the keys to the house, their daughter Azura had just celebrated her first birthday – she turns 11 on Monday. .
Minichiello could not understand why there had been so much attention on the building’s progress, but in June assured Daily Mail Australia it was nearing completion.
‘It’s all systems go again, which is good,’ he said.
Minichiello said the ‘five bloody years’ he had spent dealing with Woollahra Council had added to the length of construction but nothing would hold it back any longer.
‘We’ve got joinery, we’ve got retaining walls getting rendered, a plasterer, tiler – they’re all working at the moment,’ he said.
‘We’re on track to move in later this year.’
Neighbours have regularly complained about the building site, which they describe as an eyesore, claiming they’ve been told it will be finished by Christmas for the past four years
The backyard was bare and a swimming pool (above) which has reportedly been a refuge for frogs and mosquitoes was holding stagnant dark water as well as various items of rubbish
Minichiello supported Biviano’s earlier assurances the job had not stalled due to lack of funds.
In June, several neighbours said they were fed up with the ongoing construction and would be relieved if the end was in sight.
‘It’s been enormously frustrating,’ one said. ‘There’s been lots of difficulties and issues.
‘Its dragged on for an enormous amount of time. We’ll be enormously grateful when it’s completed.’
Another nearby resident said: ‘It’s looking at the mess, for a start people would come in for a couple of days then they’d go. It just hasn’t been a consistent build.’
‘It would be nice if it was done at some point.’
A third neighbour had heard about multiple real estate agents visiting the property and recommending Minichiello and Biviano sell up.
There was no longer a skip bin out the front and a portable toilet had been removed, while a covered walkway entrance had been built on the street
Fittings are yet to be installed in upstairs rooms (above) and steel fencing still stands between the footpath and front wall
‘They’ve told us for the last four years that they’re going to be in by Christmas,’ that neighbour said.
‘All we can hope for is that they do shift in at some point in time and that the build is finished.
‘They may shift in. Whether it happens this year or not we don’t know but it’s an eyesore at the moment.’
Minichiello and Biviano sold their Bondi Beach penthouse for almost $2million five months before buying in Vaucluse, after searching for the right place for about a year.
The existing 1980-built dwelling, which sat on a 770 sq m block with 20m of street frontage, was described at the time as being in a ‘very nice part of Vaucluse’ and ‘renovator’s delight’.
‘Held by one family for 35 years, it’s surrounded by prestige family homes at the peaceful end of one of Sydney’s premier streets,’ advertising material stated.
Back then, Minichiello and Biviano hoped to move into their new home by late 2015.
Almost two years after the purchase the couple lodged a development application for a $560,000 renovation which included a new second-floor level, pergola and garage extension.
Minichiello previously expressed his annoyance at constant speculation over what was causing the slow pace of construction and questions about when he and Biviano would finally move in
When contacted to see if he could provide an update on the work at his house, Minichiello politely asked, ‘Why’s that?’ then said he had to take another call and hung up
Their plans were lodged with Woollahra Council in August 2016 while they were living in their former Bondi Beach penthouse, which they had leased back.
In April 2017, Biviano revealed instead of renovating the house they were knocking down the original home and building from the ground up.
‘It is in its very early stages,’ Biviano told the Telegraph. ‘The slab hasn’t even been laid yet.’
Unexpected costs, labour shortages and supply chain problems caused by the pandemic then contributed to multiple delays in construction of the three-storey house.
In September 2022, Minichiello told the Telegraph he and Biviano had fought neighbours’ objections to their plans, including over the loss of harbour views.
He also conceded he and Biviano had been ‘too eager’ in the early days.
‘Building a house has been a huge learning curve for us, as first-time builders,’ Minichiello said.
‘Especially during Covid. The pandemic hit and everything shut down. Now we’re back into it. Work finally recommenced this year.’
In June, several neighbours said they were fed up with the ongoing construction and would be relieved if the end was in sight. The house is pictured in late November
By then, carpenters, painters, stonemasons were labouring on the of the cube design building and the middle floor was complete.
At the time, Biviano dismissed suggestions the couple had been financially stretched by the setbacks, saying ‘If we couldn’t afford [the house] we’d have sold it’.
Minichiello and Biviano had hoped to be moving into the property, which they estimated to be worth upwards of $7million even if unfinished, by Easter 2023.
In November last year Biviano told Daily Mail Australia she and Minichiello had experienced ‘a little bit of a problem’ with a neighbour.
‘It’s just normal stuff when building a house,’ she said. ‘I think everyone has those issues and Covid of course didn’t help.
‘It’s all in progress and at the end of the day, it’s just a house.’
