This Palm Beach home has reportedly sold for $21 million.

The unconfirmed $21 million sale of a Phillip Cox-designed beachfront home at Palm Beach has buoyed market sentiment at the docile top end of the property market.

The trophy home, bought by an eastern suburbs family as a weekender, ranks as the third priciest sale so far this year.

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The perfect weekender.

The incredible home is designed by Phillip Cox.

There were initial bullish $23 million-plus hopes for Palm Haven, the vast Barrenjoey Road estate of Phillip Esplin, the late lawyer and founder of Esplins Solicitors.

There have only been two known higher sales in Sydney’s east, at Vaucluse and Rose Bay with agents complaining activity has been very subdued this year.

Sydney typically scores 20 sales or so above $20 million a year.

A $60 million Vaucluse home hit the market this week.

There were initial hopes of around $23 million for the retreat.

Amazing views of the water from every aspect.

The pricey Palm Beach sale comes as the Australian Bureau of Statistics calculated that Sydney’s overall house sales activity fell to just 12,000 in the March quarter — the lowest level since 2002.

“The Sydney listings story is going to be an interesting one to watch over the next few months,” CoreLogic property researcher Cameron Kusher said, noting the trend had continued through autumn and into the seasonal winter slowdown.

“Housing sentiment has improved and auction clearance rates have lifted yet newly advertised properties for sale are continuing to trend lower,” Kusher noted.

The home is one of just a few in Palm Beach with a tennis court.

The Palm Beach offering was listed in March.

It had been in the Esplin family name since the late 1980s when they spent $900,000 on one block before spending a further $1.3 million next door to create the sprawling 2,075 sqm waterfront property.

Cox designed the double brick and timber home in 1990 to win the HIA Award for Design and Building Excellence.

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LJ Hooker Palm Beach agent David Edwards had the listing.

The Palm Beach record stands at $24 million when Gretel Packer secured the family bungalow which was handed to her as part of the breakup of her father, the late media tycoon Kerry Packer’s, vast fortune.