Heiress Francesca Packer Barham buys $16 million Horizon apartment

Heiress Francesca Packer Barham is only 24 but has already developed her family’s propensity for high-end real estate, snapping up the largest apartment in Darlinghurst’s landmark Horizon building on Friday.

The purchase price remains undisclosed but the whole-floor spread was passed in at auction on a vendor bid of $16 million last Saturday and agents have been in negotiations with buyers since.

While it is not the $60 million spread her uncle James Packer bought in Crown Resorts’ One Barangaroo and is a downsize from her mother Gretel Packer’s Bellevue Hill mansion Winston, it is a significant step-up from the $2.1 million pad she bought in Elizabeth Bay in 2016.

Packer Barham bought the level 40 apartment after a major renovation was undertaken in recent years, in which the vast 565 square metres of internal living space was gutted and redesigned with interiors by Melbourne firm Mim Design.

It is just down the road from the Macleay Regis penthouse bought by her billionaire mother for $8.75 million two years ago.

The apartment has been one of the most closely watched high-end listings this year given it was listed in February with bullish $20 million hopes that were revised to $16.5 million more recently.

Adam Ross and Oliver Stillman, of Knight Frank, were gagged by confidentiality orders from commenting on the sale price or buyer, but Packer Barham’s purchase had already been leaked to Domain by independent sources.

The London-based niece of casino mogul James Packer has been regularly spotted on the local Potts Point and Darlinghurst apartment hunting trail this year.

The five-bedroom apartment with 360-degree views of Sydney, wine room, and parking for eight cars last traded in 2017 for $9.8 million when bought by Julie Graham, wife of eye specialist Dr Glen Fernando.

It was previously owned by car dealer Neil Sutton, who originally had $15 million hopes on it when he listed it in 2015, but sold it two years later after it was listed with a handful of different agents.

Sutton bought it for $6.7 million in 2009 from billionaire property developer Bob Ell, who more than doubled his $3.035 million investment from 1996.