Celebrity chef Shannon Bennett is parting ways with a sky-high Melbourne apartment. An apartment that feels less like a penthouse and more like a private luxury retreat suspended above the city.
The celebrated founder of Vue de Monde has listed his sprawling Spring Street residence with a reported $5.7 million to $6.1 million price guide. It comes after years of transforming the apartment into a deeply personalised family home.
Not what you’d expect
Unlike many ultra-modern apartments that may lean cold or untouchable, this home reveals something more intimate beneath the polished finishes. Here, there is warmth in the way the spaces unfold. From the moody lighting and layered textures to the surprising family-focused details hidden within its glamorous shell.
Intentional design
Interiors veteran Dion Hall, who has long collaborated with Bennett across several of his restaurants, layered the reimagined Melbourne apartment with rich textures and moody finishes, from dark timber and earthy tiles to elegant fluted glass.
Created by combining two apartments into one expansive 250-square-metre residence, the home was custom designed around the realities of busy family life, entertaining and Bennett’s love of food.
Food is at the heart of the apartment
At the centre sits what agents have described as a “genuine chef’s kitchen”. It is a space that feels worlds away from the minimalist show kitchens often seen in luxury listings. Instead, it carries the atmosphere of a kitchen meant to actually be lived in: generous, dramatic and designed for gathering.
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Elsewhere, the Melbourne apartment balances indulgence with practicality. A media room with its own bar, a wine cellar and sweeping open-plan living spaces bring a sense of old-world luxury, while an inventive children’s sleeping pod hints at the realities of raising a family in the sky above the city.
“One of our favourite family trips was to Japan, and while we were there we stayed in a pod hotel in Osaka,” he explains.
“The pods I made are like those mini hotel pods, with their own lighting and airflow. They’re super-comfy, and the kids love them.”
Winning apartment views
Floor-to-ceiling windows frame uninterrupted views across Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens towards the MCG, softening the moodier interiors with ever-changing natural light. In doing so, this rare connection to greenery, particularly from such a central CBD position, gives the apartment an almost calming quality despite its scale and prestige.
The apartment also underwent an extensive $1.5 million renovation in 2022, further elevating the residence into something highly bespoke and almost impossible to replicate in Melbourne’s current apartment market.
Now based increasingly in Byron Bay, where he has established the Belongil dining precinct, Bennett is reportedly spending more time away from Melbourne, prompting the sale of the home he has owned since the building was first developed.
What makes the property especially compelling, though, is not simply its price tag or celebrity ownership. Instead, it is the way the apartment reflects a shift happening across luxury design more broadly. Even at the highest end of the market, buyers are gravitating toward homes that feel layered, emotional and deeply personal rather than purely architectural showpieces.
And in that sense, Shannon Bennett’s sky home feels surprisingly grounded.
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