Vaucluse's latest $30 million house sale makes it $220 million in three months

The ripple effect of the $100 million sale of the Fairwater estate in Point Piper is proving to be a windfall for Sydney’s trophy home owners, and agents expect the bull run of deals to keep coming in the closing weeks of 2018.

Fuelling the optimism among prestige agents is a perfect storm of a falling Aussie dollar and turmoil on the international trade stage.

In Vaucluse alone, there have been more than $220 million worth of sales in the $20 million-plus range since August. Bellevue Hill follows with more than $150 million worth of sales in the same price range.

The latest high-end sale is a Vaucluse waterfront residence on Wentworth Road, which sold late this week for about $30 million amid rumours it was bought by hotelier Marcus Levy and his wife, Vanessa Sanchez-Levy.

The five-bedroom mansion with gym, sauna, indoor spa, pool, boathouse and deepwater jetty last traded in 1992 for $3.25 million.

It was first listed in late 2015 with hopes of fetching $30 million and was on and off the market with different agents since until September when Alison Coopes, of her eponymous boutique agency, took the listing.

Ms Coopes declined to give the sale price, but sources revealed the buyer and said the vendors had long maintained they would not accept less than $30 million.

It follows last week’s $30 million sale of the waterfront residence Loch Maree, a $56 million deal for two waterfront houses on Carrara Road, the Teplitsky family’s mansion for $20 million and the Levy’s mansion up the hill for close to $21 million.

The almost $20 million sale of the Palm Springs-style house on Queens Avenue kicked off the sales run in August, followed by the $28.5 million sale of the Lewis family home on the waterfront and the Andrews family house sale for about $20 million.

One of the major factors fuelling the high-end market is the falling Aussie dollar, said Brad Pillinger, of Pillingers. The dollar is currently trading at 72 cents.

“Whether the buyer is an expat based overseas or a local whose business is overseas, either way their money is worth more or they’re making more,” Pillinger said.

As a case in point, the Fairwater estate sold by the Fairfax family for $100 million would translate to a $US72 million purchase if it settled now to the buyer Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-chief of Nasdaq-listed software giant Atlassian.

That deal, negotiated by Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International, not only broke through the nine-digit barrier in the Australian housing market, but also established trophy values in line with international markets. 

However, Mr Jacobs said, what is marring the market’s success are the foreign buyer surcharge and duty introduced by the state government in July last year, effectively doubling the stamp duty surcharge to 8 per cent.

While Mr Jacobs has long declined to comment on the specifics of the Fairwater sale, the purchase price would have incurred taxes totalling $14.5 million if bought by a foreigner, as opposed to the $5.5 million surcharge on the local buyer.