Penthouse yet to be built in Green Square sets $3.6 million neighbourhood record

A yet-to-be-built three-bedroom penthouse in what was once an undesirable industrial area has set a neighbourhood record after it sold for $3,598,650.

It topped the previous record in both Zetland and Waterloo by more than $1.4 million that was set last year by a penthouse at 8 Sam Sing Street, Waterloo that sold for $2.13 million.

The latest record-holder, which was the only unsold apartment left in the development, is one of four that will sit atop the 20-storey building designed by Koichi Takada Architects.

The development, which launched in 2015, saw 105 of the 326 apartments sell in the first hour. The building is due for completion in late 2019.

Green Square is in the midst of a rapid transformation from a rough and tumble industrial precinct to what will become the densest neighbourhood in Australia.

Green Square is estimated to have a population of approximately 53,000 by 2030, but there are some concerns about a lack of infrastructure needed to make the area liveable.

“Once all this residential comes in it’s going to be quite a bustling metropolis,” said selling agent Damien Back, from Raine and Horne Green Square.

“The prices are changing. I wouldn’t say it’s becoming like an eastern suburbs-type market,” Back says. “But the three-bedders and the penthouses in those new developments are pretty swish.

“Some of these new developments – you’re looking at $20,000 a square metre.”

The near-$3.6 million price tag for the Infinity penthouse also puts it above the record $3.2 million paid for an off-the-plan Phillip Street Penthouse in Parramatta in December 2016.

“The $8 million injection into that suburb has already captured a lot of people’s attention. It’s going to have the biggest swimming pool since the Olympics, the new library, and the new train station,” Crown Group sales and marketing director Roy Marcellus said.

​He says the Green Square area appealed to both investors and increasingly owner-occupiers, as demonstrated by the downsizing couple with a five-bedroom house who bought another of Infinity’s penthouses because of the “lock-and-leave” convenience.

“People want everything within 20 minutes of their home” he said.

Sydney’s current apartment record was set by a penthouse in the Sydney Opera residence that sold for $27 million.