Whale Beach house jumps $450,000 in value in three months thanks to $11.6m resale

Surging median house prices on the upper reaches of Sydney’s Northern Beaches have played out in real time thanks to the off-market sale of a beachfront house in Whale Beach for $11.6 million to liquor mogul Steven Chambers and his wife Patricia.

Records for the latest sale of the four-bedroom house on Whale Beach Road show it had jumped in price by $450,000 since late last year, when it was purchased for a then-bullish $11.15 million by Dr Philippa McCaffery, founder of Clear Skincare cosmetic skincare clinic.

The gain echoes broader median house price jumps across Sydney of 6.7 per cent in the March quarter, according to the latest data from CoreLogic.

However, despite the leap in sale price for the four-bedroom house – up 4 per cent in three months – it still proved a loss for Dr McCaffery given her purchase came with stamp duty of almost $720,000.

The repeat sale wasn’t just a windfall for state government coffers, however. Peter Robinson, of LJ Hooker Palm Beach, confirmed he had sold the property on the quiet both last year and again more recently, although he declined to comment on the buyers’ identities.

It is a long way from the lacklustre market conditions of just four years ago when the same Whale Beach house sold for $6.5 million by Vittoria coffee company co-owner Clelia Cantarella after just two years of ownership. Cantarella had paid $5.5 million in 2015 and the only improvement in that time was approval for a DA to rebuild the residence.

That DA has never been activated.

Cantarella sold it to the Taylor family, who sold to a company headed by Dr McCaffery for $11.15 million.

The Chambers family, which owns the liquor store chain Chambers Cellars, are no strangers to the local holiday home market. Son Theo Chambers, chief executive of Shore Financial, owns a house on the hilltop at Palm Beach, bought in 2017 for $5.4 million.

The house made headlines in late 2016 after Chambers hosted a wild party which left three revellers in hospital, including NRL Bulldogs player Dylan Napa.