Sydney's most expensive residence sold for more than $140 million

A deal worth more than $140 million for the most expensive residence in Australia has been inked for the top three floors of Lendlease’s yet-to-be-built Tower 1 development at Barangaroo South.

The off-the-plan sale includes the two-storey penthouse atop the Renzo Piano-designed building and a sub-penthouse directly below.

Independent sources say the two apartments were purchased in one line by a local who is expected to make the penthouse their home when completed in late 2023 and use the sub-penthouse as separate living quarters.

The result tops all of Australia’s previous house and apartment records, including the $100 million sale last year for the Point Piper estate Fairwater to tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and James Packer’s $60 million purchase of a two-storey apartment in 2017 in Crown Resorts’ One Barangaroo next door.

Plans for the 1600-square-metre mega-penthouse include nine bedrooms, a dramatic entry foyer, eight-metre-high ceilings, a rooftop swimming pool, spa, gymnasium and a vast main bedroom that is equal in size to many family homes.

Despite the vast internal footprint, the sale eclipses the $100,000 per square metre level, topping the previous per square metre record of $96,400 set in 2017 when a 280-square-metre penthouse in the Opera Residences development at Circular Quay sold off-the-plan to the Salteri family.

Tower 1 is the tallest of three buildings in the One Sydney Harbour development, all of which were designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, whose landmark contributions include The Shard building in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

Infrastructure giant Lendlease has commenced work on Tower 1 and the slightly smaller Tower 2 following approval in 2017. Planning records show Tower 1 is set to be 247 metres high with 317 apartments approved over 72 levels.

Tower 2 is planned to include 297 apartments and spread through 60 levels with a glazed pedestrian walkway connecting it to Tower 1.

Earlier this month, the state’s Independent Planning Commission approved the development application of the third, final building, a 30-storey residential and retail building with 210 apartments despite reservations by the City of Sydney.

Rumours of the record sale were confirmed only on Friday by a source who said there had been multiple whole-floor apartment sales in the building already.

Lendlease declined to comment for this story but confirmed the deal on Saturday morning, and released three artist’s impressions after this story was published.

The Barangaroo precinct’s newly approved towers have claimed a slew of residential records in recent years dwarfing sales by the tens of millions of dollars in established apartment and housing markets.

Last year, veteran venture capitalist Bob Blann exchanged more than $40 million for a whole-floor apartment a few levels above Packer’s two-storey apartment in Crown Resorts’ Barangaroo One.

It is a far cry from the previous long-held apartment record of $16.8 million set when the Moran family bought atop the Bennelong building at Circular Quay from car dealer Ray Lintott in 2008.

That record stood until 2013 when Will Vicars, chief investment officer of funds manager Caledonia Investments, bought adjoining penthouses in the Bondi Pacific building overlooking Bondi Beach for $21 million.

New and off-the-plan residences offer a greater appeal to international buyers because they are usually sold with an exemption certificate meaning foreigners do not require approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

The Tower 1 sale is expected to offer a much-needed boost to Sydney’s trophy home market, which has suffered from a distinct lack of high-end listings and sales this year compared with last year’s bull run of sales.

In the first half of this year, there were only a handful of sales in the $20-million-plus range, but in recent weeks three trophy houses have sold for more than $30 million.

Earlier this week, steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta exchanged about $35 million to buy the historic Potts Point mansion Bomera from Leanne Catelan, daughter of the late property data entrepreneur Ray Catelan.

Earlier this month, high-profile plastic surgeon Michael Miroshnik sold his Vaucluse property for more than $35 million to Sunny Ngai, the son of the late toilet paper king Henry Ngai. That came just days after Westpac board member Steve Harker sold his waterfront home in Point Piper for more than $40 million.