Gambling mogul James Packer and his former wife Erica made Australian real estate history with the sale of La Mer, a six-storey mega mansion on Vaucluse’s Wentworth Road for around $70 million.
The sale of Le Mar easily tops the previous record price for an Australian residential sale, which sat at $57.5 million after the 2009 sale of a Perth mansion by mining heiress Angela Bennett.
The previous Sydney residential record was $52 million after Chinese businessman Wang Zhijun purchased Altona, a waterfront Point Piper mansion, in 2013.
According to Fairfax Media, the sale is part of the Packer’s divorce settlement and while the price tag is certainly a record, it won’t be delivering any capital windfall.
Le Mar sits on a 3300 square metre parcel of land formed after the Packers reportedly spent around $29 million on three neighbouring properties between 2009 and 2010.
The building costs for the mansion are estimated to be around another $40 million.
A spokesman for Mr Packer told Fairfax Media the property had been sold to a local buyer
