Potts Point makes like London's Knightsbridge as terrace sells for $10 million

If there is a clear winner in Sydney’s property boom, it is the rarefied prestige housing market on the city’s doorstep in Potts Point, where terraces now trade in the double-digit millions.

Local Stella Doumanis, of McGrath Estate Agents, surely knows it given she sold her terrace on tree-lined Victoria Street this week for more than $10 million.

The grand, four-bedroom residence has been completely rebuilt since she purchased it five years ago for $2.7 million and was sold on the quiet by her McGrath colleague Imran Hamidi.

It is the third-most-expensive single terrace sold in Sydney, eclipsed by two Victorian Italianate terraces around the corner on Challis Avenue. The first sold five years ago for $13 million, and another two doors away sold late in 2018 for close to $14.7 million to corporate interests of Prue MacLeod, the eldest daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Ms Doumanis is not going far, having purchased another terrace across the road for $7 million from entrepreneur Daniel Hakim, founder of networking business CUB.

Hakim bought his Victorian terrace for $2.85 million in 2014, and seven years later, it was listed by local specialist Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench, for more than $6 million.

Boon has seen values skyrocket in the past 12 months whereby terraces on tree-lined Victoria Street that sold in the $5 million range a few short years ago are now being recalibrated for buyers with guides of $6 million to $6.5 million and then selling for more.

“The prices being achieved locally are more like what you would expect in Knightsbridge in London than what we used to think of as the backend of Kings Cross,” he said.

One of this year’s highest Potts Point sales was a row of three Victorian terraces that for years were the backpackers, Kanga House, which sold in March for $11 million – $1.4 million more than the auction reserve – to Fat Prophets founder and chief Angus Geddes, who plans to convert them into a private home.

Another former backpackers set to hit the market is one of two terraces that was previously known as Zing backpackers before they were sold for $3 million each.

Set next door to the recently sold Doumanis residence on 230 square metres, the terrace comes with architect-designed DA plans to be substantially rebuilt to feature a central, north-facing courtyard with three levels at either end connected by a glass corridor.

The approved floor plan includes five bedrooms, and an internal lift and internal access to the double garage.

Boon is expected to offer it to buyers with a $5.5 million guide in conjunction with BresicWhitney’s Shannan Whitney.

“There are 11,000 apartments and 150 houses in Potts Point, and it’s as close to the city as you could hope to live, so it’s a no-brainer that as the area is gentrified, the few houses left are going to soar in value just as they did in London and New York,” Boon said.

And if the houses on offer are already renovated, then all the better, Boon adds.

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Enter the Edwardian home of Asien Consulting director Mark Tough listed with Mr Boon for $11 million to $12 million.

Purchased as a three-bedroom terrace in 2012 for $2.75 million, it was partially demolished at the rear and rebuilt with a contemporary rear by Fox Johnston architecture firm in 2015.

It was a $4.5 million renovation, according to Boon, that records show more than doubled the internal living space to offer more than 400 square metres across four levels from a rooftop terrace to double garaging and a swimming pool in the basement.

The listing follows the release of bullish house price data in March, showing houses across inner-city Sydney have risen by 3.8 per cent in the year to March to a median of $1.66 million.