Whisper quiet $18 million Double Bay house sale

Double Bay quietly notched up an $18 million off market sale late last year, the fourth highest house sale the harbourside suburb has seen.

The $18.3 million purchaser was local investor Herman Melkman, whose only reported movement in property circles was in the Sydney office space.

His company Ogen Nominees spent $95.3 million on a recently completed seven storey office in Macquarie Park in 2017, Knight Frank noted.

The Castra Place home is just one of a handful on the exclusive waterfront, where the Westfield Lowy's also own.

The home last traded for $13 million in 2015 when bought by Wenbin Xu, who quickly submitted plans for a $900,000 plus renovations and extensions.

It was reported in 2015 that he was a FIRB-approved buyer Wenbin Xu, 26, from China, with established interests in an accountancy firm and property in Perth.

The home had belonged to venture capitalist Richard Woods and his wife Vickki McFadden, who was the Takeovers Panel president.

Woods and McFadden completely rebuilt the home after they paid $2.49 million in 1998.

They still own a $5 million duplex next door.

Xu's alterations included changes to the arrangements of the windows, skylights, a new garage door and an internal reconfiguration by Cameron Woo Design.

The approval also included changes to the landscaping, with the raising of the sea wall and swimming pool level.

When the home sold in 2015 it was described as a private sanctuary with five bedrooms and five bathrooms on the harbour facing 675 sqm block with its own putting green.

The Double Bay house record is the $100 million Fairwater, which the Fairfax family sold last year, followed by the $71 million Elaine, next door a year earlier.

The third highest sale came in 2015 when Multiplex scion Andrew Roberts sold his Gladswood Gardens home for $38 million.