Million-dollar sales continue as investors turn to 'safe haven' in new apartment market

Million-dollar sales are continuing in the new-home market across Sydney and Melbourne, but agents are starting to feel the pinch of COVID-19 impacts.

The shattered sharemarket is pushing investors towards property with agents prepared to wheel and deal.

“We’ve started to see a small trickle of inquiries from seasoned investors who have turned to property as a safe haven,” said Dennis Vertzayias, director at Sydney’s Laver Residential Projects.

“We’re not talking about people coming and throwing money at us, but we are doing some minor adjustments on price, very minor, because both buyer and seller are happy and willing to commit to the transaction.”

With interest rates at an all-time low, sales have exceeded expectations across Sydney’s prestige market. Crown Group was in the process of sealing the deal on a $3.75 million penthouse at its Waterfall complex in Waterloo on Wednesday and developer Aqualand also sold a $7 million three-bedroom apartment at its Blue at Lavender Bay project at Milsons Point in the past week.

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61 Lavender Street, Milsons Point NSW 2061

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“We’ve seen quite a spike in sales in February at Mastery by Crown Group at Waterloo from local and overseas buyers, with $9 million worth of off-the-plan apartment sales,” said Prisca Edwards, Crown Group’s chief operating officer.

“So, we can see that buyers are out there and they are looking, they are just looking online rather than coming into one of our displays.”

In Melbourne, architect Rob Mills sold a $3 million luxury apartment at his new Armadale development Hampden last Friday just as coronavirus measures were on the verge of stepping up in Victoria and NSW.

“At first we thought, ‘Oh, these people are naive, they don’t know what’s going on in the world’, but they know full well,” he said.

“It’s strategic, they’ve made their minds up and what’s going on in the world isn’t influencing them.”

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1/2 Hampden Road, Armadale VIC 3143

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The long term nature of off-the-plan apartments is proving a bonus for developers, including Sydney-based Toga Group, which is due to start construction on two projects in August.

“The reality with residential is you’re not buying it overnight,” chief executive Fabrizio Perilli said.

“You’re putting down a small deposit today and settling in three years, so people have a lot of time and I think by then we’ll be well and truly back in business.”

$1,825,000

Victoria Road, Marrickville NSW 2204

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Despite the uncertainty caused by coronavirus, buyers went ahead with two apartment purchases at Toga’s Wicks Place development at Marrickville. Mr Perilli said they sold for between $800,000 and $1.2 million.

Sales also continued unabated at Mirvac’s Yarra’s Edge project at the Docklands, Melbourne, where the final two-bedroom apartment in the Forge tower was purchased.

$1,039,000

30.05/103 South Wharf Drive, Docklands VIC 3008

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The new-home market has the advantage of not relying as heavily on inspections as agents do in the residential markets. Most new developments are inspected at display suites, but can also be easily viewed with rendered images and plans.

Open-for-inspections were banned from March 25 by the federal government as part of new measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic.