'We're consistently seeing good interest': Multimillion-dollar off-the-plan sales continue across Australia

A swag of multimillion-dollar sales in Melbourne is easing any second-wave fears at the top end of the new homes market.

A $4 million off-the-plan deal at a boutique project in Brighton led the charge.

The penthouse at 10-12 Lindsay Street, which comes with its own private pool, sold last week. Marshall White agent Leonard Teplin says the sale is proof the market is still in good health despite tightening COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria.

“We’re consistently seeing good interest across the board for well-located properties,” he said.

In further big sales around the southern state, a professional in their 30s paid $2.186 million for an off-the-plan townhome at Immerse, a new residential development marketed by Eton Property Group on Church Street in Richmond.

And 18 land parcels and house-and-land packages valued at a total of $5.5 million sold out in one weekend at Resimax’s Eynesbury development west of Melbourne.

Demand for the lots, some of which front on to parkland, was so high that buyers didn’t mind that the lots didn’t qualify for the $25,000 HomeBuilder cash grant, said Resimax Group chief executive Steve Hooker.

“The HomeBuilder is a short-term stimulus and while we do have some lots in our estate that are applicable, everyone is looking for something different – some people are looking for location within the estate and they’ll prioritise that over getting access to that grant.

“This is the first new land release in Eynesbury in over five years, so there’s a lot of pent-up demand from people looking to get into the estate.”

While Victorian developers navigate second-wave jitters, their Queensland counterparts are battling the ongoing impacts of the state’s border closures.

CBRE Gold Coast agent Nick Clydsdale said he was confident all of the homes at the new Freedom Rainbow Bay development at Coolangatta would have sold out if buyers from southern states were granted access.

“We haven’t been able to penetrate the southern market because of the closure and I think if we did have that open, we’d have sold out,” he said.

As it was, 13 of the 16 off-the-plan free-standing homes, at prices between $1.5 million and $2 million, sold at the weekend.

“The southern Gold Coast has a real shortage of quality housing as opposed to apartments and high-density development,” Clydsdale said.

“Sherpa Property Group went in the complete opposite direction and brought a site that under council code you could put 157 units on, and they put 16 houses on it.”

In Sydney, a $1.06 million two-bedroom apartment sold at Crown Group’s Mastery development in Waterloo.