House prices sky-rocket in Australia's multi-million dollar market
A historic estate in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill was bought for $70 million – the same night the buyer sold his own house, just blocks away, for $61.5 million.
A palatial six-bedroom home in Melbourne’s Toorak was snapped up for an undisclosed sum, but on a price guide of $55 million to $60 million.
And a magnificent penthouse in Newstead, Brisbane, is inviting eye-watering expressions-of-interest offers, having last sold in 2008 for $14.25 million.
Despite interest rate rises, softening prices in some cities and uneasy consumer sentiment, 2023 has already seen sales records smashed across the country, and agents expect many more to be set in the next six months.
“Sales and prices have both been very strong at that top end,” says Michael Pallier, principal of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty.
“I think driving them has been the lack of stock on the market, the low Australian dollar compared to the US dollar and all the expats and new migrants coming into the country.
“No doubt prices will remain strong as I don’t see a lot of new stock bursting onto the market any time soon in a volume that’d be enough to satisfy the high level of demand.
“People are looking for good family homes and large, luxury apartments. I have a very positive feeling about this year.”
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Among the record-breaking sales in Sydney this year so far have been: that $70 million sale of the Leura estate at 24 Victoria Road in Bellevue Hill, which set a new suburb high; the sale of 49 Wunulla Road, Point Piper, for $69 million; and the sale of 81 Fitzwilliam Road, Vaucluse for just over $40 million.
Pallier also has another home at 82 New Beach Road, Darling Point, which is now also close to settling for another $70 million.
Apartments have also been selling well, with a four-bedroom, four-bathroom apartment in Crown’s One Barangaroo being picked up for a cool $25.5 million.
While Michael Finger of McGrath Real Estate Double Bay isn’t allowed to talk about the top Leura sale, he says Sydney’s eastern suburbs seem to be in a little bubble of their own, impervious to the pain of interest-rate rises affecting the middle market.
“People buying these properties have perhaps sold a business for multi-millions or come up with some concept, invented something, or are at another level in their professional lives, like surgeons,” he says. “They’re bulletproof in terms of any talk of a recession.”
Melbourne, too, has been seeing far more than its fair share of blue-chip sales, after the sale in 2022 of its most expensive home ever – an unfinished mansion at 29-31 St Georges Road, Toorak, for over $80 million.
In June, 55 Albany Road, Toorak, sold with a guide of $55 million to $60 million, while in May a Victorian mansion at 20 Shakespeare Grove in Hawthorn – with nine bedrooms, seven kitchens and two resort-style pools – sold for $41 million within six days.
Another handsome sale was 4305 Frankston-Flinders Road, Shoreham – for an undisclosed price, although the guide was $18 million to $19.8 million – and 41-45 Yarrbat Avenue, Balwyn, again undisclosed, but with a guide of $13 million to $14 million.
Key listings now on the market include 61 Clendon Road, Toorak, for $42 million to $46 million, 16 Moule Avenue, Brighton, for $39.9 million to $43.89 million, and 16 Balwyn Road, Canterbury, for $37 million to $40 million.
Kay & Burton managing director Ross Savas, says these are in addition to the numerous sales that he and his agents have conducted off-market this year – the ones that no one knows about.
“We’re finding it a very strong market with a lot of expats coming back from the UK and Europe because of the war in Ukraine and Russia, as well as a lot of new migrants,” he says.
“Australia is a very hot market at the moment for families to come here and educate their children.
“We’re bound by confidentiality, so can’t talk about many of our sales, but we feel the luxury market is only going to get stronger. A lot of records have already been broken and that’s going to continue.”
The high-end (in every aspect) apartment market is also going well, with the record price smashed in March for a sub-penthouse above level 75 in STH BNK by Beulah bought for $38.5 million.
Brisbane, too is having a fine old year, price-wise.
The city’s record was set last year with the $17.25 sale of a six-bedroom house at 673 Musgrave Road, Robertson, but it now looks as though that might be topped by the sale of a four-bedroom penthouse, with 52 metres of uninterrupted river frontage, at 250/1 Newstead Terrace, Newstead.
It last sold in 2008 for the then-record of $14.25 million but is expected to be bought for a great deal more now, with a co-listing by Sarah Hackett of Place New Farm.
“It’s an absolutely magnificent property,” she says. “Stock levels are still at an all-time low, which is keeping prices high, so it’s an amazing time to sell.
“Certainly, we’ll have more records smashed by the end of the year.”
Hackett is also selling a penthouse at 25/70 Oxlade Drive, New Farm, for $12.95 million, and 19 Ormadale Road, Yeronga, for offers over $8 million.
She’s just sold a 1600-square-metre riverfront estate at 90 Virginia Avenue, Hawthorne, for $11.1 million, and 22 Quay Street, Bulimba, for $10.4 million.
In Perth, the tightest market for decades is leading to records tumbling, with a landmark off-the-plan sale of a penthouse apartment in Crawley at 8/20 Mounts Bay Road for $6.92 million, and the sale of an old apartment block at 40 Mount Street, West Perth, for $7.6 million.
“The quality, high-end luxury house and apartment market in Perth is so busy, it’s ridiculous,” says William Porteous Properties International director Peter Robertson.
“Good properties are thin on the ground and high construction costs means far fewer new houses and apartments are being built.”
Adelaide is similarly having a good year at the top end of the market.
Its previous record sale of $10 million to $11 million for the Anglican Diocese’s 164-year-old mansion Bishop’s Court in North Adelaide is thought to have been eclipsed this year by a 2023 sale in the same area for “several million dollars higher”.
Outside the capital cities, high-end real estate is also going great guns.
In Byron Bay, a new record was set for the NSW North Coast this year with the $37 million sale of the luxury farmhouse Coopers Shoot, on 48 hectares.
A new South Coast record is expected to be set, too, with the sale of 106 North Kiama Drive, Kiama Downs, which is likely to fetch over $10 million.
In Queensland, Noosa’s record was broken by a four-bedroom apartment at 5/81 Hastings Street, which sold for $16.1 million to an interstate buyer.
In country Victoria, a new record was set in Port Fairy by the $7.2 million sale of 36 Griffiths Street in May, although that could be topped soon by 109 Beach Street, which is on the market for $7.2 million to $7.5 million.
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