Palm Beach's landmark estate The Hideaway listed for the first time in 30 years for $20m

The Palm Beach estate known as The Hideaway long owned by the late, renowned art dealer Shirley Wagner is set to hit the market for about $20 million.

The original 1936-built residence on 4000 square metres is expected to spark keen interest from Sydney’s well-heeled given it is the first time it has been offered in more than 30 years since it was bought for $1.63 million in 1988.

It comes at a time when Palm Beach is enjoying a surge in buyer interest from Sydney’s well-heeled that kicked off early this year when the weekender of the late media legend Sam Chisholm was sold by his daughter Caroline Jumpertz after just a few weeks on the market for a record $24 million to fund manager Mike Messara.

That buyer activity hasn’t waned despite the onset of the pandemic thanks to a surge in the number of buyers looking to Palm Beach less as a weekender destination and more as a permanent address where they can work from home.

The Hideaway was known as Arcadia when it was built for Ernest Verey, a tailor who ran Vereys, marketed as “tailors for men who care”, and was later converted into the Vere Mathews Restaurant, modelled on a restaurant by the same name in town.

Despite being privately set down a winding driveway and having only traded a handful of times since it was built, the Mediterranean-inspired residence has been a well-known landmark residence among locals given its hillside position with views over Pittwater to Lion Island and set on one of the suburb’s largest privately held holdings.

By far the largest Palm Beach property remains Kalua, the 5500-square-metre, plantation-style estate bought by retired car dealer Laurie Sutton for $22 million in 2012.

It is a near neighbour to the Packer family’s weekender on 3800 square metres that was transferred for $24 million to billionaire Gretel Packer from the estate of her late father, media titan Kerry Packer.

Next door to the Hideaway is the landmark Villa D’Este on 2600 square metres that was bought in 2013 for $7 million by investment banker Steven Heinz and his wife, former model Toneya Bird, best known for her stint in the iconic 1980s ad for Antz Pantz.

The Hideaway is set on 4000 square metres of north-facing hillside with the main five-bedroom residence and a swimming pool, and a separate guest house.

Shirley Wagner, regaled for decades as somewhat of a matriarch of the Sydney art scene, died in 2018, aged 83, prompting the family to list their prized Palm Beach jewel with Noel Nicholson, of Ray White Palm Beach Prestige.

But don’t ask him to predict the type of buyer it will most likely attract. The typical holiday-home buyer from Sydney has been joined by a new class of buyer hoping to make the traditional holiday enclave their permanent residence, especially for those large-enough to accommodate family blow-ins and guests at peak times of year.