Sydney 'slumlord' walks away with nearly $4 million

A Sydney 'slumlord' has made a fortune after selling his inner-east premises which was the site of a shanty town for almost $4 million.

Fifty-five-year-old Masaaki Imaeda is cashing in on Sydney’s astronomical house prices and sold the Alexandria property for at least $3.8 million, $1.36 million above the reserve, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Fifteen people, including Koreans, Japanese and New Zealanders, were being charged up to $160 a week to live in a mess of shipping containers, a bus with no wheels and caravans stacked on top of each other.

The site burnt to the ground on July 2 last year, with fire investigators laying the blame on Mr Imaeda’s home-made electrical wiring.

Four small businesses around Mr Imaeda’s property were destroyed by the blaze but the owners don't have enough money to take the man to court.

"We have absolutely Buckley's chance of getting anything " said Vicki Bonneville, who lost about $30,000 of equipment from her catering business.

"We felt (Mr Imaeda) had some sort of culpability because it was his illegal set-up [that led to the fire] but none of us have the money left to fight it. There is no sense of justice at all."

Mr Imaeda has yet to be fined, but the city is coming down hard on illegal housing, issuing 20 search warrants on suspect properties.

The maximum punishment he faces is a $1.1 million fine or prosecution under environmental law.