Francesca Packer Barham offloads Elizabeth Bay unit for tidy $500k profit
Young Packer fortune heiress Francesca Packer Barham has made a $500,000 profit on the Elizabeth Bay home she bought just four years ago. Read about where she is moving to next.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Young Packer fortune heiress Francesca Packer Barham has proved from an early age that she has her family’s successful property portfolio gene.
The 25-year-old daughter of Gretel Packer and British financier Nick Barham, and niece of casino mogul James Packer, has sold her Elizabeth Bay apartment for $2.6 million — $500,000 more than she paid for it four years ago.
It comes after she recently bought a whole-floor apartment in the Harry Seidler-designed building Horizon in Darlinghurst for $16 million.
The young socialite, who names Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko as a bestie but steadfastly protects her privacy by keeping off social media, will use the apartment with 360-degree views across Sydney as her Aussie base when she is in town.
MORE FROM JONATHAN CHANCELLOR
Latrell Mitchell buys $600k rural retreat
Carrie Bickmore looks for tenants at Byron Bay Airbnb
Battle over Bob Hawke’s estate could be over today
The five-bedroom apartment, the biggest single-level unit in Sydney, was completely renovated in recent years and boasts a wine room and parking for up to eight cars.
It previously traded for $9.83 million in 2017 when the Melbourne-based Graham family bought it and transformed it.
The luxury apartment is no doubt an upgrade for the design school graduate whose former Sydney base, the recently-offloaded Elizabeth Bay Rd apartment, had two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Though much less luxurious, it still featured a double-storey layout with a balcony overlooking Rushcutters Bay and an impressive master suite.
As she has increasingly established herself in London, Packer Barham has been consolidating her local holdings, also selling her Melbourne investment property in South Yarra for $7.6 million in 2017.
DESIGNER DUO SELL IN SWIFT STYLE
Fashionable couple Roberta Pecoraro and Jono Friend have sold their one-bedroom Bellevue Hill apartment and are on the search for a bigger home closer to the beach.
Pecoraro, one of Australia’s most popular runway models, and her fashion designer partner of six years sold their first home together for $915,000.
The top floor apartment in the distinctive Art Deco block, Reddington, fetched the pair a tidy little profit after they bought it in August 2018 for $820,000.
Agent Charles Stevens of McGrath Coogee said the couple had not done much to the home in the almost two years they lived there, other than a cosmetic revamp of the kitchen.
“We were going off market for the first week and during that time we had someone come through who made an offer of $915,000,” Stevens said.
“Then it went live on the market, but they ended up selling to that first person.”
Stevens said the couple want to live closer to the beach and have been looking for a new home in the Bondi or Coogee areas.
They already have a connection to the eastern beaches as Friend has his fashion brand’s flagship store, DearFriend, on Gould St, Bondi.
The apartment was bought by a single lady who wanted the perfect downsizes to live in.
FAMILY TIES IN AGENT’S SUCCESSFUL SALE
An unrenovated three-bedroom Northern Beaches cottage on the market for the first time since 1947 sold for more than $250,000 above expectations — fetching $1.76 million prior to auction this week.
The single-storey Freshwater home was the third most viewed property on realestate.com.au.
For agent Jake Rowe of Rowe Partners Real Estate Manly the success was a relief — the home was his wife’s grandmother’s deceased estate.
But he was not surprised to hear the Coles Rd property was a popular one online. The agency had received 200 inquiries in five days, conducted 70 buyer inspections by appointment and had 30 contracts out.
“We as a family didn’t expect it to go so well,” Rowe said. “Initially we priced it at the entry level for the suburb at $1.5 million to $1.65 million but we were inundated with inquiries so we upped the price guide to $1.65 million-plus.”
He said the agency did a lot of work to prepare the cottage, which had an original kitchen, bathroom and old carpeting throughout, including in the bathroom.
“We ripped up all the carpet to reveal beautiful cypress pine timber floors, painted it, did the garden up and had it styled. But it didn’t even have parking.
“In the end what generated the interest was the fact it was a good entry level buy for Freshwater,” he said.
A five-bedroom home in Caringbah South was the second most clicked on.
On the market through Highland Property Group’s John Schwarzer with a May 27 auction scheduled, it has a home theatre, polished concrete floors, a real flame fireplace, pool and spa.