Blackmore, who owns 25 per cent of vitamins company Blackmores, which has a market capitalisation of $2.7 billion and has long been riding the sharemarket wave, is about to fork out $9.2 million to buy a waterfront house in the affluent Sydney suburb of Bayview.

But like his contemporaries, Blackmore bemoans the fact that he must fork out $584,000 in stamp duties to the state government to buy the Pittwater property. “At least I am making a contribution to the NSW government,” he says.

Other cashed-up individuals go further saying NSW’s stamp duty imposts are “almost criminal”.

Real Estate Institute NSW president John Cunningham is calling for the NSW government to review stamp duty. “It has openly admitted that taxes imposed on transactions, such as stamp duty are relatively inefficient, because people react to them by moving home less often,” Cunningham says. “For every $1m the state government raises in stamp duty, there’s $800,000 less in economic activity.”

He is pushing for stamp duty relief for first-home buyers and retirees, people who are buying their last home.

“We suggest a 50 per cent concession to stimulate more transactions,” he says.

Stamp duty is calculated on a sliding scale but roughly represents 6 per cent of the purchase price of a house or apartment.

Therefore, buying a $5m house or apartment in Sydney costs $290,490 in stamp duty; a $12m house in Melbourne will set you back $660,000; while an $8m apartment in Brisbane will require $433,350 in stamp duty.

McGrath partner Ben Collier, who deals with wealthy clients in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs, says “stamp duty is not a particularly nice cheque to have to write but everybody is in the same boat. You can’t claim it back, it’s a figure we all have to pay”.

Retail billionaire Gerry Harvey is more sanguine, saying he is never happy about paying taxes: “But I am always happy to pay a lot of tax if I am making a lot of money.

“Stamp duty has been around for an awful long time and it is a big revenue raiser for state government,” Harvey says.

“The likelihood of that changing would be zero. It’s a strange tax because you are taxing a person on buying a house. (But) if you have $9m to spend on a house why are you complaining?”

In Brisbane, riverfront specialist John Johnston, of Johnston Dixon Quality Property, says most of his wealthy clients “don’t like it but they don’t complain about paying stamp duty — it’s a necessary evil”.

Johnston says his clients are time poor and would rather pay more money for a property to get what they want.

But Collier disagrees, saying the wealthy are still shrewd and definitely not flippant.

“When you reach certain price thresholds there are levels of expectation — it might mean a particular level of finish or a waterfront ­location.

“At each price threshold, depending on the suburb, there’s another level of expectation, whether that be the amenities or the finish, it might be temperature-controlled wine cellars or it might be a tennis court.”

On the rental side, Luxehouses managing director Jessica Kirkpatrick, who has hosted celebrities including Ronan Keating, Gerard Butler and Ashley Hart, says wealthy clients typically ask for chefs, butlers, and cleaners on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis.

The online accommodation finder rents properties to the wealthy in Australia and Europe.

“We stock the fridges and pantries, and we organise drivers, car rentals and we have standard gardeners to maintain the property,” Kirkpatrick says.

“Sometimes our clients want spa treatments in-house or we might be asked to set up gym equipment and deck out a whole room. We might be asked to supply pool toys for the children, or tickets to the Sydney Opera House or Harbour Bridge climbs.

“We had a client in public relations from Latvia, he wanted our chef available every day for a month and now our chef travels with him for three months a year.”