Sam Chisholm’s Palm Beach holiday home claims $24 million record

Palm Beach has an official new record house price of $24 million thanks to the sale of the trophy home of the late media legend Sam Chisholm’s daughter Caroline Jumpertz.

The sale finally puts to rest the Packer family’s claim to that title thanks to the carve-up of Kerry Packer’s estate and the transfer on Christmas Eve of 2015 in which the long-held retreat was lodged in Gretel Packer’s name for $24 million.

But as property watchers and agents argue, a family transfer for money does not offer a true reflection of market value even with the input of an army of lawyers.

The sale of the Chisholm family’s Melaleuca property also eclipses the $22 million sale next door of Kalua in 2012 when businessman Ian Joye offloaded it to retired car dealer Laurie Sutton.

Ray White’s Desiree Hough and Geoff Smith have declined to reveal the buyer, and even after settlement this week it remains a mystery after the property was lodged in the name of shell company Paravit Investments.

Paravit Investments has acted in the property interests of a handful of Australia’s wealthiest people, including Westfield heir Steven Lowy, son of Sir Frank Lowy, when he bought a semi next door to his Camp Cove Beach house in Watsons Bay in 2017 for $14.2 million.

Records show that property was lodged in the trust’s name for three months before ownership was later transferred to Lowy’s name.

Likewise, billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson’s White Rabbit Gallery bought a corner terrace in Chippendale last year for $2.235 million that was held by the trust for three months before it was transferred into the gallery’s ownership.

The trust was set up in 2017 by Speed and Stracey Lawyers Daniel Appleby and Malcolm Stewart.

Despite suggestions in The Daily Telegraph and The Australian that the property was purchased by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, multiple sources have denied it was bought by the Atlassian co-chief executive.

The Palm Beach property last traded in 1994 for $3.1 million as a modest weatherboard house, but was rebuilt to a design by architect Susan Rothwell soon after Chisholm bought it.

Sam Chisholm was one of the most colourful figures in Australian media until he died in 2018, aged 78, having led the Nine Network during its ratings dominance of the 1970s and ’80s, and later moving to the UK to head up Sky Television.

Jumpertz listed the property in February after she moved to Melbourne and it sold two weeks later.