The Packers are building another compound. Pictured is James Packer with sister Gretel.
The Packers are busy building another compound.
Gretel Packer, daughter of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer, ends the year with a huge new backyard snapped up for $59m that more than doubles the size of her grand Sydney estate.
And the $3.3m stamp duty takes the cost to well over $60m.
Recent settlement records for an unrenovated light pink house and a neighbouring vacant block in Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s affluent Eastern Suburbs, next door to Packer’s 1919-built mansion, Winston, revealed her as the new owner.
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The backyard. Source: Million Dollar Listing, Sydney.
Gretal Packer.is growing her home compund.. Picture: Richard Dobson.
It was a perfect opportunity for Gretel – older sister to James Packer and estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of around $2.25bn – to expand her luxury compound by an extra 2631sqm, meaning she now owns a 5122sqm compound. A reliable source estimated her property would now be worth about $150m.
The recently settled sale is No. 6 on the top 20 home sales list around the country for this year, as revealed on Wednesday by News Corp.
The land she’s snapped up was owned by hardware tsar the late Graham Nock, of the Nock & Kirby family.
Could this bright pink mansion, adjacent to her newly expanded property, be next in Gretel’s sights? Source: Million Dollar Listing, Sydney.
Nock had been approached many times by agents wanting to sell the huge property before his death in May at the age of 96.
His wife, Pamela, had died in 2022.
The $59m deal consisted of the 1960s house with pool on a 1442sq m block and the 1189sq m block next door.
Ken Jacobs of Forbes Global Properties was behind the off-market deal, though he’s not commenting on it.
It’s not clear why the Packer heiress wanted the extra space, though being a billionaire, she doesn’t really need a reason. It’s likely the ugly old house will soon go.
An image of Packer heir apparent Clyde, Kerry’s older brother, blowing out birthday candles at his 4th birthday party on July 22nd 1939 at “Cairnton”, the Packer family home in Bellevue Hill. Picture: Francis Packer Instagram
To be a large veggie patch, perhaps? With some cows beyond that to keep the grass down?
Neighbours recall the vacant lot was previously green grass, so perhaps this recent shot indicates she’s planning an orchard or some canola crops?
The reason for the purchse could be as simple as preventing someone else from purchasing it and having another large home built there overlooking her property.
Or maybe she wanted to avoid the construction noise of a new residence being built by pesky new neighbours.
James and Kerry Packer in an undated photo.
You’ve got to wonder what other adjoining properties Gretel has in her sights, and some are wondering if the adjacent bright pink home could be a future target.
That’s owned by Edward Fairfax Simpson, grandson of the late media proprietor Sir Warwick Fairfax.
If that 1902sq m property ever became available, she could potentially own a massive 7000sqm compound, which experts advise would be worth more than $200m.
She’d bought Winston, designed by Edwardian architect John Manson, in 2000 for $11.25m.
But Gretel still has a way to go to expand her boundaries to the extent of her brother, James, whose nearby Cairnton estate occupies 1.1ha.
That was amassed over three generations of Packer family ownership since Sir Frank Packer first bought land there in 1935.
Sir Frank Packer started buying up land in Sydney’s east in 1935. Picture: Supplied
Cairnton is one of the biggest private compounds in Sydney’s east.
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