More Cannon-Brookes buy at Palm Beach

It's a bit of like son, like father.

Michael Cannon-Brookes has bought on Palm Beach's Snapperman Beach, just two doors away from his son, Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder and CEO of Atlassian Software Systems who last year spent $8.7 million to buy on Pittwater at Palm Beach.

The Australian Citibank founder Michael Cannon-Brookes and his wife Helen, the grandparents of seven, have paid $4.05 million for the top-floor apartment of The Boatshed, buying from Joan Johns, widow of the late property developer and yachtsman Warren Johns.

The Johns paid $4.25 million for the upstairs unit in 2007, then spent another $5.25 million a month later for the ground floor at the Snapperman Beach site which had served for about five decades as a marine engineering business. 

The Boatshed was initially the David family's award winning Palm Beach residential triplex. 

Both Cannon-Brookes' homes are on Snapperman Beach, and both Wally Barda designed. Roderic David oversaw the development of the Iluka Road property with curved roof lines that hint at the bow of a ship.

The units, which won the villa development of the year gong at the Housing Industry Association's national awards, had ambitious prices when first listed in 2005, with the ground-floor unit having $8 million-plus expectations and the top-floor unit came with $7 million expectations. 

Joan Johns has also recently sold the ground floor apartment for $4.6 million to the McDowell family.

Michael Cannon-Brookes retired from IBM in 2012 after 15 years with the company, including eight years in Shanghai.    

Before IBM he was the managing director of law firm, Freehills, based in Sydney.  

Prior to that he spent 25 years as a banker, the majority of which between 1969 and 1991 was with Citibank, where he established the bank in Australia.

He was appointed to the Board of Advance Australia in 2013.