Woollahra mayor said ‘I don’t own a house’ … but she does own three units

October 6, 2026 — 5:00am

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It looked like Woollahra’s Liberal mayor Sarah Dixson had pulled off the ultimate “gotcha moment” when, amid an extraordinary general meeting last week, she outed Sydney YIMBY chair Justin Simon as someone who “certainly could afford to” buy in the eastern suburbs.

It was an uncalled-for allegation – no offence to the good folk of the east. Such a claim would no doubt be welcome news to plenty of Sydneysiders, but given the heated recent debate was over plans to add 9400 homes in the area, the mayor’s interjection turned the YIMBY versus NIMBY policy arguments into something far more personal.

Dixson went all Title Deeds on Simon ahead of the council meeting by looking up the cost of his Summer Hill home and sharing the details with everyone.

The revelation clearly delighted Jon Adgemis’s former chief financial officer-turned-councillor Alexander Andruska, who was seen on camera falling about in laughter.

Simon responded by asking Dixson where she lived and how much her home was worth.

“I don’t own a house,” said Dixson, who with her mother, Judy Swan, runs Swan Lawyers out of the family’s Bellevue Hill home and has clients such as Melissa........

© The Sydney Morning Herald