Mystery surrounds $12.6m sale of old Packer home

Mystery surrounds the purchase of a prized $12.6m home once part of the massive Packer family empire.

The home was once part of the Packer family real estate empire.

Mystery surrounds the purchasing company – and its intentions – following the mid-week $12.6m settlement of a prized Woollahra home.

Built for late media family scion Clyde Packer, it was snapped in 12 days when offered last month for the first time in 33 years.

The property came with a $12.5m guide through BresicWhitney agent Shannan Whitney, in conjunction with TRG. The 545sq m holding has been purchased by Clanricarde Investments, a shelf company dating back to the 1960s.

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The Queen St, Woollahra, home built for Clyde Packer has been sold for $12.6m.

The 545sq m holding has been purchased by Clanricarde Investments.

Old school pool.

Mr Packer had bought the Queen St property for $74,000 in 1970 from economist Dennis Shannon – the year he was made joint managing director of the Nine Network alongside his father, Sir Frank Packer.

Architect Guilford Bell was commissioned to design the house, which was sold when Clyde relocated to California in 1976, where he died in 2001.

His brother, Kerry, had taken over the reins on their father’s death in 1974.

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Clyde Parker.

Eye surgeon John Elder and his travel agent wife Susan bought the property for $145,000 in 1976 and sold it for $950,000 in 1991 to retired judge Kenneth Raphael and his wife, Deborah.

Clanricarde Investments has been directed by Vaucluse-based company director Dennis Broit since the late 1980s. Its most recent non-beneficial appointee was Clementine Whyte, daughter of longtime Packer associate Robert Whyte, the 80-year- old card-playing property devotee who lives at Darling Point.

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The home changed hands for the first time in 33 years.

It spent just 12 days on the market.

Granny flat?

Clanricarde Investments, which gives its registered office address as MBP Advisory, has intriguingly been associated with Packer property plays by both Kerry and son James over five decades.

Its first known property acquisition was in the Consolidated Press-backed Bondi Beach Pacific Terraces development by Bill Shipton in the 1980s. More recently, Clanricarde Investments paid $12.85m to buy off the plan in Crown Residences at One Barangaroo.

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Originally published as Mystery surrounds $12.6m sale of old Packer home