Fairfax sell to Gretel Packer who joins the Bellevue Hill property compound power games club
The super rich don't just have mansions - they have expanding property compounds.
Property accumulation - and their ensuing lengthy ownership - feature especially amid the power games of Sydney's richest media families.
So it came as no surprise to Title Tattle that the Packer dynasty have spent $4 million more in Bellevue Hill.
But it was Gretel Packer who's proven like father, like daughter. Or actually like grand-father, like grand-daughter since it was Sir Frank Packer who made the original acquistions in the pricey Sydney suburb.
Cairnton, the family compound, was secured by the late Sir Frank Packer in 1935 for 7,500 pounds. Then Sir Frank, in five separate purchases, spent more than 28,000 pounds expanding Cairnton.
Following Sir Frank's death, the family's Bellevue Hill fiefdom gained another five separate acquisitions via his son, Kerry and his wife, Ros costing about $9.1 million. They included convenient over-the-back fence boltholes for his then youthful only son, James and only daughter, Gretel. Both subsquently left the expanded family nest.
After years at Bondi Beach, James Packer bought the landmark 1972 Guilford Bell-designed house for $18 million in 2009, adding two more houses to the Vaucluse estate at a $12 million cost before the amazing rebuild.
Gretel has been quiet since 2000 when she bought the 1919 Bellevue Hill residence, Winston for $11.25 million. It (highlighted below right) was bought from investor David Archer and his wife Vicki who had paid $5 million in 1989. Designed by Edwardian architect John Manson for Bank of NSW general manager Sir John French, it sits on a 1,740 square metre block with previous owners including the publisher Ezra Norton and lawyer Sir Alastair Stephen.
However very quietly last month Gretel Packer spent $4 million on an adjoining property (highlighted above left) that adds 702 square metres to her holding - a little more space for her three children and staff.
It was the first opportunity to buy the property since 1999 when sold by the solicitor turned Magic Millions chief executive John Needham whose father John Snr paid $190,000 in 1978. It was sold by the Needhams at $2.21 million to the battleaxe neighbours.
Gretel Packer bought the property from Edward Fairfax Simpson, the son of the late Caroline Fairfax Simpson whose late father was the media proprietor, Sir Warwick Fairfax.
One can't quite call it a true compound acquisition because there is a right of way between Gretel's two holdings that leads down to Edward Simpson's own house.
But that's another sale for Title Tattle to watch out for, although possibly not for many decades.
And ofcourse Le Manoir, Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch's $23 million Georgian estate in Bellevue Hill, got bigger in 2011 when they spend $2.63 million spent on a property next door to their initial $23 million initial 4097 square metre purchase.
