Peak Sydney: House bought in 1978 for $325,000 resold for more than $80m

An off-market bid to sell the Point Piper mansion Rockleigh in recent years has finally landed a buyer willing to pay between $80 million and $85 million, ranking it in the top five house sales in Sydney.

Cashing in on one of the most expensive house sales in the country is medical specialist Philippa Harvey-Sutton, who inherited the property from her mother Val Rundle in 2016.

The family have owned the property for 46 years, purchasing it for $325,000 in 1978. Census data from that time shows Sydney’s median house price was then $43,200.

Details on the latest sale of Rockleigh have been shrouded in secrecy since buyers were first shown through more than a year ago, and only spilled onto the prestige market rumour mill on Friday.

Independent sources say the sale is expected at more than $80 million on a long settlement.

It was listed originally with $100 million hopes in an off-market campaign that involved no public marketing and no open inspections given the downsizing plans of Harvey-Sutton and her husband, retired lawyer Alistair Harvey-Sutton.

Rockleigh was previously owned by printer, publisher and politician Frederick Pratten, who was a Liberal member of state parliament until 1959 when he defected to the Country Party.

Pratten died in 1977, and his widow Helen Pratten sold it the following year to Harvey-Sgutton’s parents, the late medical doctor Philip Rundle and his wife Val, the latter of whom died in 2016 aged 90.