Millionaire rows: The most expensive streets across the nation
They’re the places where Australia’s best-heeled millionaires and billionaires live – leafy, tree-lined streets, often with big blocks of land and sometimes with gorgeous water or city views.
Every state capital has its own alpha row where oversized homes command sky-high prices and ultra-luxurious living, often shielded from the eyes of curious onlookers.
In Sydney, it’s Wolseley Road in Point Piper. The most expensive street in the nation’s priciest city saw a new house price record of $130 million set late last year by tech mogul Scott Farquhar.
“And that wasn’t even waterfront!” says Highland Property director Bill Malouf.
“The ones on the waterfront have that beautiful unrestricted view of the harbour between the two icons, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, with the perfect northern outlook and natural sunlight all day.
“There’s a reason Wolseley Road has always been considered the most expensive strip of real estate in Australia.”
Other huge sums of money tossed around on the prestigious one-kilometre stretch have included the $95 million sale of Edgewater – although John Symonds turned down a $110 million offer for his bolthole in 2017 – while speculation is mounting about the likely consolidation of three houses into a mega-estate that could be valued at over $100 million.
Among the street’s other residents are Westfield chair Frank Lowy, Hungry Jacks’ Jack Cowin, investment banker Paul Uren and Primo Smallgoods’ Paul Lederer. Former residents include media boss Lachlan Murdoch and recruitment guru Julia Ross.
In Melbourne, the equivalent blue-chip street is St Georges Road in Toorak, which runs between Toorak Road and the Yarra River and is lined with large luxury mansions.
“It has very large estates with beautiful old buildings, and a high pedigree of people who’ve lived there for a long time,” says Kay & Burton managing director Ross Savas.
“Those houses rarely change hands as they’re tightly held by captains of industry and remain in families for generations.
“Depending on the land size, they’re worth anything from $30 million to $100 million, or more. The fact that there are so few sales add to the street’s prestige.”
Last year, an uninhabitable mansion was bought for an astonishing $88 million by gaming software entrepreneur Edward Craven, while another house on the strip has been reported to be under offer for more than $70 million.
A massive palace is also being built on the former Baillieu family estate by former soft-drink boss and property tycoon Harry Stamoulis. Onlookers say it could be worth over $60 million on the market if sold.
Brisbane’s millionaire row is the riverfront – yet flood-free – King Arthur Terrace in Tennyson, which in late 2019 had a sale of $17.6 million, for the 10-bedroom house of Brisbane Broncos chairman and Ord Minnett executive chairman Karl Morris.
Previously, the record had been a $12.5 million sale in 2021 for a 10-bedroom house further down the street to prominent barrister and tax lawyer Mark Robertson.
“The $17.6 million house is a big Hamptons-style mansion on over 4000 square metres of riverfront land that, if it was in Sydney, would fetch $70 million to $80 million,” says Jason Adcock of Adcock Prestige.
“That street is north-facing – and there’s not many of those in Brisbane – absolute riverfront, with views of the Indooroopilly golf course and city, and filled with super-luxury mansions on big blocks.
“The residents tend to be very wealthy people, titans of industry.”
Canberra’s equivalent is Mugga Way in Red Hill, with an $8 million sale for a five-bedroom home in 2020 smashing the record set a decade before by the house next door for $7.3 million.
A few doors down, a house sold for $7.2 million in 2013, and another for $5.85 million in 2019.
“The land sizes are the secret, with some blocks on the street 6000 to 7000 square metres,” says Sophie Luton of Luton Properties.
“Many of the houses are heritage homes and it’s close to the centre while the views are of the foreshore rather than of other homes.”
Perth’s top street is riverfront Jutland Parade in Dalkeith.
Last year it recorded a $16.5 million sale – the highest since 2007 when a house at the other end of the street was bought for $18 million by Kerry Stokes’ Australian Capital Equity, which also snapped up the house next door in 2021 for $14 million.
Billionaire Sultan Ibrahim Ismail of Johor is building a holiday mansion at the end of Jutland Parade, where it meets Iris Avenue, on a block he bought for $8.5 million in 2015.
“That will be worth $30 million-plus,” says Porteous Properties International director Peter Robertson. “But it’s such an exclusive riverfront street and it’s had more money spent on it than any other street in Perth.
“Kerry Stokes is building a new residence, the Hartono family [cigarette heirs from Indonesia] have built a substantial compound and the Franco family [owners of the Fero Group] have built three houses. It’s a street filled with raw horsepower.”
Far more modest is Adelaide’s front row – Victoria Avenue, Unley Park.
A beautiful street lined with plane trees and substantial mansions, it had a top sale of $5.125 million in 2014.
“I would say the median price there now would be around $6 million,” says Jamie Brown of Booth Real Estate. “The biggest homes would be worth $10 million-plus but not many of those have come up lately.
“CEOs live there, professionals, people with their own businesses, but they all tend to be very private people and stay under the radar.”
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