James Packer’s mansion smashes Sydney records with $61m sale

James and Erica Packer have sold their Vaucluse mansion for a new Australian house price record.

The buyer, Chinese-Australian billionaire Chau Chak Wing, is well known for funding a Frank Gehry-designed building at Sydney’s University of Technology, referred to affectionately by locals as the “Paper Bag”.

Packer, who is dating pop star Mariah Carey, also has a home at Sydney’s Bondi Beach but is frequently overseas.

Packer and his former wife Erica Baxter spent millions renovating the designer home, that sits on 3345 square metres, but split just months after moving in. Packer’s numerous other properties include a luxurious house he recently bought in Israel, where his neighbour is Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chau is a Guangzhou-based property developer and investor who has donated more than A$2 million to Australian political parties in the past decade, Fairfax said. He and his Crown Resorts empire own numerous casinos across Australia and in Macau, as well as Crown Aspinall’s in Mayfair in London, and a casino in the Philippines.

“The plan is to create an iconic global business”, he told reporters this week during a brief visit to Australia.

The record price for an Australian residential property has been smashed after the sale of a Vaucluse mansion this week.

The previous Sydney residential record was $52 million after Chinese businessman Wang Zhijun purchased Altona, a waterfront Point Piper mansion, in 2013.