Westpac's Steve Harker scores $40m Point Piper sale from entrepreneur Gabriel Jakob

Westpac board member Steve Harker has scored one of Sydney’s few trophy sales of the year, pocketing more than $40 million for his waterfront Point Piper home.

The sale comes almost 10 months into one of the worst-performing years for the trophy market since 2012 and is the price nearly double this year’s nearest high-end sale result.

Rumours of the sale pinned the negotiation on Bill Malouf, of LJ Hooker Double Bay, and Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International, but given no comment from the agents, it was only confirmed this week when interests linked to start-up investor Gabriel Jakob lodged an interest on title.

Jakob (whose surname was previously Yakob) co-owns the Early Learning School company, of which 20 centres were reportedly sold to rival operator Only About Children last year in a deal worth as much as $150 million. Following the sale, he founded a family start-up investment firm Hyper Capital.

The distinctive waterfront residence with a curved facade is in Wolseley Road, next door to properties owned by Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam, Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow and along the waterfront from Aussie John Symond’s landmark mansion.

The property last traded in 1993 for $2.01 million.

Harker’s decision to sell comes just six months after he retired as chief executive of investment bank Morgan Stanley and took up a seat on the board of Westpac.

Harker and his wife, Linda Heighway, are expected to move to Potts Point where they bought a sub-penthouse in the Grantham building in 2012 for $6.4 million.

Records show that in June the couple bought a south-coast beachfront weekender at Culburra Beach for $2.5 million, and a printing warehouse in West Gosford in July for $5.6 million.

The sale is only one of a handful of sales in the $20 million-plus trophy range recorded this year.

It is also almost double the nearest high-end sale result of $23.56 million set by high-profile corporate lawyer Amanda Banton when she bought the Rose Bay waterfront home of property baron Stephen Burcher.

This year’s other eastern suburbs trophy sales include the Rose Bay waterfront house next door to Banton’s that sold for $22.6 million to Amway China’s Zhijian Zhou and Guo Ying Ou; the Point Piper home of insurance boss Richard Enthoven for more than $21 million to property developer Barry Nesbitt; and the Palm Beach weekender of the late lawyer Phillip Esplin for about $21 million to Bill and Imelda Roche.

This story has been amended since first published.