Mosman on track for record after 'phenomenal' first half for ultra-prestige house sales

Mosman’s ultra-prestige housing market is on track for its strongest performing year ever, with the first six months of 2018 recording almost as many high-end sales as the market’s peak of last year.

The bull run comes as local buyers dominate the high-end transactions, marking a distinct turnaround from the high number of foreign buyers of a few years ago.

In the first six months of this year there have been 13 sales in Mosman of more than $10 million – widely regarded as the ultra-prestige market – totalling more than $169 million in real estate.

In the preceding 12 months there were a total of 15 sales in that price range worth more than $178 million.

The previous peak for high-end transactions in Mosman was before the global financial crisis hit in 2007 when there were 12 sales worth $10 million or more, totalling $149 million.

Selling agent Kingsley Yates, of The Agency, said: “2007 was the pinnacle of the Mosman real estate market, but what we’ve seen in the last six months has just been phenomenal, and it’s been driven by locals and expat buyers.”

Geoff Smith, of Ray White Mosman, said the fact local buyers are overwhelmingly responsible for the high-end sales this year is a welcome development.

“That’s a good thing because it shows the market isn’t reliant on what rules the government is setting on foreign buyers and it isn’t reliant on what the Chinese government is doing by way of curbing its own capital outflows,” Mr Smith said.

All but one of this year’s high-end sales are confirmed to locals, with the only mystery buyer paying a lower north shore high of $23 million in February for the Balmoral slopes mansion of former Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein and his wife Jane.

It is a turnaround since 2014 when McGrath’s Michael Coombs said about 30 per cent of the suburb’s top sales were to buyers from China.

“Up until two years ago Chinese buyers were having a big impact on the local trophy market, but the restrictions on capital out of China has seen a pull back in foreign demand and locals have made up that shortfall in big way,” said Mr Coombs.

Foreign buyers were slugged with an extra 4 per cent stamp duty surcharge in last year’s state government budget and a 0.75 per cent land tax surcharge that rose to 2 per cent from this year as part of an affordability measure to help first-home buyers.

The extra charges follow China’s crackdown on capital outflows in early 2016 whereby state-owned banks were forced to delay or block large sums of money going overseas.

Mosman also recorded its first double-digit apartment sale in April when businessman John Kinghorn paid $10.22 million for an apartment in the boutique Watermarque building.

The Kinghorns then sold their waterfront home at Beauty Point for $12.5 million.

Two of this year’s top sales were courtesy of Arjen Lugtenburg, of Allan Gray Capital investment management company, and his marketing consultant wife Adriane, who paid $18 million for the Beauty Point home of RetireInvest founder John Blewitt and his wife Rana.

The purchase then prompted the Lugtenburgs to sell their waterfront home near Chinamans Beach for $11 million to fund manager James Simpson and his wife, Jane Baumann.

Another high result was the $13 million paid in February for the Clifton Gardens house of David and Vicki Albert, of the renowned music publishing and recording business family, by car dealer John Newell and his wife Maria.

Less than two weeks ago the house behind it owned by marketing industry boss and Stenmark Organisation founder Damien Stenmark and his wife, former model Susie, sold for between $10 million and $11 million through Brendan Warner, of Raine & Horne Mosman.

The eastern suburbs have been left in the shade of Mosman’s big ticket success this year. Most harbourfront suburbs have recorded only one to two double-digit deals in the past six months.

Bellevue Hill is the clear standout performer with nine ultra-prestige sales this year totalling $142.7 million.