Sydney Airport chief Geoff Culbert sets $12m suburb record selling Paddington terrace

Hours after the Paddington home of Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert and his wife Emma Ward hit the market this weekend with an $11 million guide it sold for $12 million.

The sale result has not only reset Paddington’s record books but is the first time in more than a decade that a single terrace has reclaimed the suburb’s top price from a slew of luxury converted warehouses and a former pub.

The Agency’s Ben Collier confirmed the $12 million sale price, well ahead of the scheduled October 16 auction; however, the buyer remains undisclosed.

Culbert and Ward purchased the 400-square-metre property with a north-facing rear garden and a swimming pool for $5.35 million in 2014.

The last time a single terrace set a record was in 2006 by Alster House – the former home of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – when it sold for $6.55 million. A double terrace on Union Street then set a $7.75 million high a few months later.

A warehouse known as the House of Desks was the first to crack the double-digit millions when tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes sold it in 2015 for $10.4 million. A converted motor mechanic workshop sold two years ago for $10.5 million.

In 2015, the former Windsor Hotel was bought by hotelier Ben May for $11.85 million. It was resold for that same price a year later to investment banker David Nolan and his wife, Anita.

Culbert and Ward are downsizing to Double Bay, where early this year they paid about $9.7 million for a contemporary five-bedroom terrace on 500 square metres with a gymnasium, sauna and swimming pool.

Culbert’s house sale comes as he oversees a takeover of Sydney Airport, with a non-binding offer of $23.6 billion on the table by a superannuation fund-led consortium.

Sydney’s property boom has seen a slew of eastern suburbs records this year in defiance of dire property forecasts last year, with the most notable sale in Woollahra, where television queen Kerri-Anne Kennerley sold her long-held home on the quiet for $22 million.

Randwick’s record was reset at $8.5 million in March, a Clovelly house sold for $13.5 million, and an oceanfront house in Maroubra sold for $14 million.