28 Billiard Avenue, Elizabeth Bay penthouse sold

The two level penthouse crowning one of the modern blocks on Elizabeth Bay's Billyard Avenue dress circle has been sold by fund manager Michael Hill.

The penthouse was set to go to Cooley Auction last night, but was withdrawn with auctioneer Damien Cooley advising the near empty auction room that there had been "offer and acceptance."

No sale price advisory was given on the offering which was listed with $14 million hopes by Clint Ballard at Ballard Property Group.

The apartment, atop the Burley Katon Halliday-designed block, dates back two decades. It has five bedrooms and six bathrooms across its 425 sqm of internal space.

It features 375 sqm of wrap around balconies and terraces with views over the boat-filled harbour.

The development was completed in the late 1990s after East Asia Property Group paid $8.5 million for Cardigan, the waterfront mansion of solicitor Cedric Symonds and his socialite wife Elizabeth.

They knocked down the building in 1996 and replaced it with a six apartment development with a pool and private jetty.

The penthouse first traded for $7.1 million in 2001, three years after its completion. It was bought by David Wilkenfield, a ballet clothing manufacturer.

He doubled his money in five years, selling for $14 million in 2006 to Hal Herron, the former Deutsche banker.

Herron wasn't so lucky however and sold at a $2 million loss, selling to Investec Bank chairman David Gonski for $12 million in 2012.

Gonski only held the apartment for two years before its $12.5 million in 2014 sale.

The last sale in the tightly held block was three years ago when Anthony Hourigan and Monique D'Arcy Irvine from the recruitment company, Hourigan International, bought the third level apartment for $7 million.