The Sell: Packer Barham’s Horizon penthouse up for grabs for rumoured $35m
Heiress Francesca Packer Barham has listed the penthouse she bought in the Horizon building just four years ago — and the rumoured asking price is more than double the $15.8m she paid.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Interior decorator Francesca Packer Barham has quietly listed the largest apartment in Darlinghurst’s landmark Horizon building.
The five-bedroom, five-bathroom listing was emailed to the Black Diamondz estate agency database midweek without any asking price indication for the level-40 penthouse.
The whisper is it can be secured for $35m.
The whole-floor space cost $15.8m when sold in late 2019, just before the pandemic-prompted price boom.
The median Darlinghurst apartment price currently sits at $957,500, down 10 per cent in the past year, according to realestate.com.au, but still up on the $850,000 median when Packer Barham made her purchase.
It comes with a vast 565sq m of internal living space plus four balconies. It is more than 700sq m when the 116sq m eight-car garaging is included.
Set in the iconic 43-storey Harry-Seidler-designed skyscraper, it was last traded following its major renovation by Melbourne firm Mim Design.
There is Cote d’Azur marble in the kitchen sourced from Brazil, French oak herringbone parquetry and bespoke joinery with leather and brass accents.
The major addition is the Sunlighten mPulse infra-red sauna plus some joinery work in the master bedroom walk-in robe.
The apartment had previously traded in 2017 for $9.83m when bought by Julie Graham, wife of Melbourne eye specialist Dr Glen Fernando. She had bought it from car dealer Neil Sutton, who had bought it for $6.7m in 2009 from billionaire property developer Bob Ell.
Ell more than doubled his $3.035m off-the-plan outlay in 1996.
Packer Barham, the daughter of international financier Nicholas Barham and philanthropist Gretel Packer, celebrated her 29th birthday at Mimi’s in Coogee midweek.
She has studied interior design in London at the Inchbald School of Design. Her first home away from home was the $2.1m pad she bought into Encore, Elizabeth Bay in 2016, which was sold in 2020 for $2.6m.
Her brother Benjamin Packer Barham bought a 370sq m two-level $8.4m penthouse with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a three-car garage in Bondi earlier this year. The pavilion-style apartment features a 120sq m Palm Springs-inspired terrace.
STRIKING PAD, BUT LOSS LOOMS
Glamour couple Nathan Dalah and Georgia Fowler appear to be steeling themselves for a loss-making sale at their upcoming midweek Bellevue Hill auction.
Prospective buyers have been advised of a downward price revision for the striking Drumalbyn Rd courtyard apartment offering.
It seems listing agent Warren Ginsberg may have misread its resale pricing potential, with the expectations now advised as $6.5m.
It was initially listed with $6.8m guidance three weeks ago.
The couple paid $6.6m in a 2021 off-the-plan transaction for the ground-floor apartment designed by MHNDU Architect, with interiors by Lawless & Meyerson.
The apartment has 401sq m on title with a pool, in the redesigned Palomar complex. There is 205sq m of internal space, 175sq m of garden with plunge pool, plus parking.
The April settlements revealed it was the priciest sale of the eight developed by Ronnie Shulkin’s RNB Group. The next priciest was the $5.8m paid by Edward Jewell-Tait, the former Credit Suisse operative.
The prices had started at $3.5m in the 2018 marketing launch of the remodled 1928 Spanish mission apartment complex, although the cheapest ended up fetching $3.4m.
The median three-bedroom Bellevue Hill apartment price currently sits at $2,547,500, down 17 per cent in the past year, according to realestate.com.au, but still up on the $2.4m median when Dalah and Fowler made their purchase in early 2021.
Fowler told her Instagram followers that she was in New York “excited to be back with IMG models” after living in Sydney for the past few years, during which she’d had a baby, daughter Dylan, and married Dalah.
Dalah, who co-created the healthy food chain Fishbowl, hopes to launch in the US, having opened 44 stores since the first at Bondi Beach in 2016.
FASHION DUO OFF TO THE BEACH
Alemais fashion couple Chris Buchanan and Lesleigh Jermanus have splashed nearly $13m in Byron Bay’s dress circle Wategos Beach neighbourhood.
They’ve bought adjoining townhouses in a duplex that sits on a hillside 1073sq m.
Only one of the Brownell Drive homes had been on the market, with the other secured off-market.
The priciest purchase was $6.9m for Larimar, the three-level, five-bedroom offering which was marketed as a “funky holiday retreat” by Byron Bay and Hinterland Property selling agent Rez Tal. It was bought from Priscilla Darcy.
The couple then paid $6.035m for the neighbouring townhouse, which was sold to them by Jordy Catalano, from the Raes on Wategos family.
Jordy, who also runs the off-the- plan listings platform Apartments & Developments, had bought with wife Jessica for $3,552,000 in 2021.
His father Antony Catalano, who chairs regional publishing group Australian Community Media, had previously owned Larimar, but sold it for $3m in 2020.
Buchanan and Jermanus bought both properties through their investment vehicle Bowie Ferris Investments.
They have been under fire this year after their company submitted plans to close Paddington’s landmark Village Inn historic pub and turn it into the fashion brand’s first store.
Jermanus and Buchanan spent $6m earlier this year to buy the South Coogee home that had been redesigned by Chloe Brookman.
HISTORIC STATELY HOME WITH GLORIOUS GARDENS
Leuralla, the remarkable 1914 Leura trophy home, has been listed for sale by the Evatt family.
Four generations have enjoyed it since its design by architect Edward Hogben for acclaimed big-game fisherman Harry Andreas.
The seven-bedroom Edwardian residence, which features a music room and billiard room, has been listed by Craig Pontey at McGrath Double Bay in conjunction with Christie’s International.
The listing comes after the 2018 death of the defamation barrister Clive Evatt Jr, who housed his toy and railway museum at the property. The museum was closed last year by his widow Elizabeth.
The historical collectables, memorabilia and artworks were sold by Davidson Auctions last year, including the $19,200 sale of a Government Railways platform clock from Blacktown station.
E. P (Harry) Andreas, who died in 1955, was the father-in-law of Clive Evatt Sr who had married his daughter, Marjorie.
The Evatt family hopes that the new owner will endeavour to continue the story of this remarkable property and make the grand house and glorious gardens their own, Pontey said
Set in 2.22ha Paul Sorensen gardens, the grand Balmoral Rd house was the second house built by Andreas as his 1902 house was destroyed by bushfire in 1910.
Another Sorensen garden estate has hit the market on nearby Craigend St, with a 1920s weatherboard cottage listed for the first time in 35 years.
The 3205sq m holding has been offered through Sarah Thompson, of Agent Blue, who notes original Sorensen structural elements, including its retaining walls, amid mature oak and dogwood.
The 5682sq m St Raphael estate, a holiday convent for the nursing sisters from St Vincent’s Hospital from 1908 to 1976, remains listed through Belle agent Kim Martin, with its input from Sorensen coming in the 1960s.
SEALE HAVEN UP FOR AUCTION
The former Beecroft home of late gardener Allan Seale and his wife Margaret has been listed for November 25 auction with a $3m guide through Belinda Hill at McGrath.
The updated four-bedroom, three-bathroom mid-century Malton Rd residence is set in refreshed 3272sq m grounds.
It was sold by the Seale family for $2m in 2017, some 16 years after Allans death. It traded again in 2022 for $3.15m.
LYNCH SPENDING SPREE CONTINUES
Flower wholesaler heir Leo Lynch and his wife Christina have not stopped with their soon-to-settle $70m purchase of historic Leura in Bellevue Hill.
Their investment company has bought a $5.2m Wellington St, Bondi apartment.
The Lynch’s redundant Kambala Rd, Bellevue Hill mansion sold for around $61.5m to freight boss Arthur Tzaneros who’s yet to sell in Vaucluse following listing in June at $55m.
TAKING THE $8.25M PLUNGE
A 1940s Coogee house built by prominent bookie Tom Powell fetched $8.25m at weekend auction, through Kiki Bermudez of Raine & Horne Unlimited.
Listed with a $7m price guide, the two-level Beach St home last traded when the local Hargraves pharmacy family bought it in 1967 for $40,000.
Powell and his wife, Leta sold it for £10,500 in 1950 to jockey Billy Cook and his actor wife, Rae Fisher.
Got a property news tip? Email jonathan.chancellor@news.com.au
Larrikins of the hill: Bathurst 1000 crowd in images
Sure, there’s still a totem pole of empty tin cans, enough beer to float a race car, and mullets galore, but there’s a softer side to Bathurst these days as women and kids join the throng.
‘One of Aussie music history’s best’: Cold Chisel show rocks
Cold Chisel rocked their Sydney show, as more than 10,000 fans united and watched Jimmy Barnes and the band give one of their best performances for their 50th anniversary.