Francesca Packer Barham sells South Yarra terrace

Francesca Packer Barham, heiress to one of Australia's largest media fortunes, scored an impressive profit on her first rather pricey property foray.

Her $7.6 million Melbourne investment terrace sale settled just as she headed back to London recently to complete her final year of design school, where she will also be studying psychology remotely.

The daughter of billionaire Gretel Packer and English financier Nicholas Barham had paid $6,125,000 for a South Yarra home in 2015 when she was dating a Melbourne property developer.

During her 18 month ownership she added a new kitchen with sleek black island breakfast bar and an all white marble bathroom.

There was also the major expensive of stumping up the $330,000 stamp duty fee.

The stately two-storey terrace purchase was financed by a company directed by Gretel.

Packer Barham has kept her nearby $1.4 million quaint South Yarra cottage.

Earlier this year she enrolled in a $50,000 a year interior design course at the prestigious Inchbald School of Design in Chelsea.

She's certainly following in her mother's footsteps when it comes to decor and design.

Gretel was into interior design when she had Barham and Bragg design with cousin Adelaide Bragg, which they co-founded in Sydney in the late 1980s.

Bragg has since kicked on independently as Adelaide Bragg & Associates.

In a recent interview with Sydney Confidential, Francesca said she inherited her mother's passion for design. 

“Design is really fun. It is something I always had an ­interest in that has grown ­recently,” Packer-Barham said. 

"I'm heading back to London to complete my design diploma and working on my psychology degree by correspondence," she said of her plans for the rest of the year. "There's more crossover than you might think."

She has just finished refurbishing her Elizabeth Bay apartment.

Packer-Barham is set to be a VIP guest however at the Melbourne Cup carnival in November and spending Christmas with the family while on a break from her year long studies. 

Francesca is the eldest grandchild of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer and his widow, Ros. 

She had been living at Double Bay.

Prior to that was the Bellevue Hill mini compound of her mother, next to Gretel's 1919 home, Wiston.

It was a $4 million purchase of an adjoining house which the Packer's bought from the Fairfax family in 2013.

Her grandmother Ros lives at nearby Cairnton, the huge compound whose ownership dates back to 1935 when Sir Frank Packer started to buy up some hillside property.

This article first appeared in the Daily Telegraph.