Palm Beach weekender with rare tennis court and beach frontage sold for $21 million

The Palm Beach weekender long owned by the Esplin family and boasting one of the few tennis courts in the glamorous holiday enclave has sold for about $21 million.

The sale of Palm Haven is expected to be one of the highest in Palm Beach when it settles, topped only by the Kalua estate which has held the $22 million high since 2012 when it was bought by retired car dealer Laurie Sutton.

The Packer family set a private record of $24 million in the suburb when, as part of the settlement of the estate of the late billionaire Kerry Packer, his daughter Gretel Packer took possession of the nearby family holiday home.

The latest sale puts the Pittwater waterfront in the record books given high-end demand for absolute beachfront, where the Esplin family have owned their weekender since the 1980s.

The property was listed earlier this year by LJ Hooker Palm Beach’s David Edwards with $23 million to $25 million hopes, and was registered as sold on its website on Thursday.

Mr Edwards declined to reveal the sale price, but sources say about $21 million was paid by an eastern suburbs family.

The almost 2100-square-metre holding is an aggregation of two blocks, the first purchased by the late lawyer Phillip Esplin, founder of Esplins Solicitors, in 1987 for $900,000.

The block next door was bought the following year for $1.3 million and architect Phillip Cox was commissioned to design the residence across both blocks in 1990.

Houses fronting the north-facing Snapperman Beach have lured a who’s who of holiday-home owners in recent years, including billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes in 2013 when he bought his $8.7 million weekender a few doors from Palm Haven.

The widow of the late AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young, O’Linda Young, bought a beachfront house on Snapperman Beach in 2015 for more than $10 million. Property baron Stephen Burcher last year bought there for $12 million, and earlier this year Goldman Sachs managing director Zac Fletcher paid $10.35 million on the same stretch of beachfront.