Minuscule apartment with no bedroom trades for a mammoth price

A tiny apartment with no bedroom in an elite suburb which was packed to the brim with possessions was the smallest sale in Sydney on the weekend,

However, it managed to score a third of the Aussie median house price, even with its petite configuration.

The Elizabeth Bay studio was used as storage for the past 20 years and was so full the door could not be opened.

However, after a major clean out, the apartment – at the axis of two premium postcodes – was auctioned on June 22 for $425,000.

SOLD - $425,000

23/7 Greenknowe Avenue, Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011

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Listing agent Renee Cross from Ray White The Woollahra Group said in the agency’s auction report that the property, of 33 square metres, was popular with investors.

It is at the axis of where Elizabeth Bay meets salubrious Potts Point and did not come with parking.

Two parties threw their hands in the air at the auction.

“The owner had owned it for more than 50 years and her three Brisbane-based beneficiaries, all in their mid-80s had to learn how to use Zoom to watch the live auction call with auctioneer Paul Menck,” Cross said in the report.

“We had to remove two trucks worth of storage boxes to empty it out.

“It was so full we couldn’t even open the door.”

The buyer lives in Dubbo and will keep it as a city bolthole, the agency said.

Both of the bidders had an identical profile – they were seeking an inner-city pad, which could be used by their teenage children when they were studying at university.

The pied-a-terre is on the second-floor of a refurnished 1930’s art deco building, which has an elegant, character-filled foyer.

“Enjoy an easterly aspect in light-filled interiors featuring a living/sleeping area, original kitchen and original bathroom with bath/shower and new toilet,” the listing explained.

Banks in Australia tend not to loan for properties under 50-square-metres internally, so it is not uncommon for these sorts of homes to be paid for in cash.

The littlie Elizabeth Bay address was not the cheapest sale in Sydney on the weekend, according to Domain results. That title belongs to a two-bedroom Liverpool apartment, which sold for $330,500. The deals contributed to the city’s 62.8 per cent clearance rate.

SOLD - $330,500

10/63 Castlereagh Street, Liverpool NSW 2170

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The national median house price is $1,112,575, according to Domain’s March 2024 House Price Report.

Elizabeth Bay is a premium suburb on the harbour, where the unit median price is $1,017,500 – an increase of more than 4 per cent over 12 months.

Properties in the suburb can fetch up to $80 million. That is the rumoured price of Boomerang, the Spanish Mission-style trophy mansion where Tom Cruise filmed one of his Mission Impossible movies.