By Mark Browning, Head of Property Services Group at NAB

East coast luxury properties continue to be highly sought with record prices being achieved, according to our mid-year review.

Quality stock availability coupled with momentum swing continues to positively impact the upper end of the property market. The strong prices being achieved in the prestige market are underpinned by  a lack of supply, wider economic health, return of expats and the appeal of Australia as a destination.

Despite the prolonged increase in official interest rates during 2022 and persisting in 2023, the prestige buying cohort has been largely unaffected when compared to the broader market, which had eased until earlier this year before resuming a growth phase over the last quarter.

The record price to date in 2023 is circa $70M for a historic Queen Anne style trophy home and estate on 4,260sqm at Bellevue Hill, transacting at twice the price paid for it just eight years ago. This follows the new Australian price record set on Christmas Eve 2022 with the $130M purchase of Uig Lodge in Point Piper Sydney, a Scottish baronial-style estate on about 3,300sqm at the top of Wentworth Place.

This set a new benchmark in the nation’s most prestigious suburb of Point Piper, smashing the $100M previously recorded in 2018 for Fairwater. The $130M deal settled in February.

When it comes to Australia’s most expensive properties, Sydney’s eastern suburbs and northern beaches and Victoria’s Toorak lead the way. Here we take a closer look at the eastern states:

Sydney

Sydney again featured strongly in the nation’s top luxury property sales since the start of 2023, with the prestige market displaying signs of strength on the back of continued demand for quality property and limited stock.

Since the start of the year the most expensive sale was in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill where an eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion with six-car garage, tennis court, pool and Sydney Harbour views on a large 4,260 square metre parcel at 24 Victoria Road sold in June for circa $70 million.

Also in Bellevue Hill, and within a week of the Victoria Road sale, a four-bedroom, four-bathroom mansion with four-car garage on a 1,338 square metre parcel at 68-70 Kambala Road sold for $61.5 million.

A Spanish-Mission style landmark home at 49 Wunulla Road Point Piper sold for $69M in late-April, making it among Sydney’s top ten most expensive house sales of all time.

The most expensive apartment to sell so far in 2023 is a luxury unit in Crowns One Barangaroo complex which sold in mid-February for $26M.

Other top sales were the sale of “Lang Syne”, at 31 Gaerloch Avenue Tamarama, which sold in May after seven months on the market and set  an Australian oceanfront sale record. The purchaser and exact price remain undisclosed but is speculated to be around $45M. In Point Piper, a P&O-style mansion in Fitzwilliam Rd  on 1,270 square metres and known locally as “the wedding cake house” reportedly sold in May for about  $40 million. The mansions official name is “Point Seymour.”

The suburbs of Point Piper, Bondi, Mosman, Bellevue Hill, Darling Point, Woollahra, Double Bay, Avalon Beach, Centennial Park, Bronte, Drummoyne, Warrawee, Vaucluse and Birchgrove have  featured several  luxury property sales  this year.

Melbourne

The most expensive property to change hands was  the much-anticipated sale of the late Ron Walker’s five-bedroom family home known as ‘Huntingfield’ in Toorak. The property, in Albany Road on a 3,300 square metre lot, sold after being listed with a price guide of $55 million to $60, indicating  it’s the most expensive Victorian sale this year. However, the selling agent  declined to comment on the buyer or final price.

The second-highest sale  this year was an  iconic Victorian-era mansion, ‘Avon Court’, in Shakespeare Grove, Hawthorn. Comprising nine-bedrooms and  seven-bathrooms  on a 4,300 square metre allotment, it sold in May for $41 million. This was closely followed by a six-bedroom mansion known as ‘Carinya’ at 61 Clendon Road Toorak, selling for an undisclosed amount but understood to be in the vicinity of $40million.

A new unit benchmark was smashed in the Melbourne CBD in early-May with the purchase of a double-storey penthouse apartment across levels 57 and 58 in the “Sapphire by the Gardens” residential tower adjoining the proposed Shangri-La Hotel near Carlton Gardens for $39 million, making it Melbourne’s most expensive apartment.

Toorak features heavily in Victorian prestige sales to date including the off-market transaction of a contemporary style mansion in Whernside Avenue in mid-April for $34M; a six-bedroom mansion in Macquarie Road sold for $30M; the purchase of a five-bedroom, six-bathroom mansion in St Georges Road for circa $23 million; a six-bedroom 1930’s mansion at 26A Linlithgow Road sold for $20.7M; a home at 10 Irving Road transacted for $12.8M; a 5-bedroom home in Myrnong Crescent sold off-market for $12.35M; and a recent $10.54M sale in Glenbervie Road Toorak.

While Toorak remains the highest prestige suburb, other luxury suburbs such as East Melbourne, South Yarra, Armadale, Kew, Hawthorn East, and Brighton are also highly coveted.

Brisbane and Gold Coast

In Brisbane the sale of  a 130-year-old riverfront property in New Farm set a new record. ‘Amity’ sits on 2,127sqm, with the classic Queenslander, built in 1892, selling in late-April for $20.5M, making it the most expensive residential property to ever be sold in the city. The prior Brisbane record was a $18.48M Kangaroo Point purchase back in 2017. Further enhancing luxury market performance was a new apartment record  set in early February with the sale of a luxury unit in the “Luminare Residences” apartment complex in Newstead for $12.95M The sale price represented  $24,000 per square metre, the highest ever achieved for a Brisbane apartment.

Queensland’s highest sale price  this year was a tri-level Balinese-style mansion on a 2,197 square metre, including  52 metres of river frontage at 59 The Corso Isle of Capri, which sold at auction for $24 million.

Other notable sales this year  include a four-bedroom beachfront home in Albatross Avenue Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast  for $14.1 million; a five-bedroom tri-level home on a 2,303 square metre waterfront lot in Monaco Street Broadbeach Waters  for $13.5 million and a four-bedroom, whole floor 650 square metre sky-home apartment on level 42 of the recently completed 272 Hedges Avenue at Mermaid Beach  for $12 million.

Given the reported increasing level of enquiry in the prestige market sector supported by rebounding migration, agents and buyers’ agents anticipate further increase in activity for the remainder of the year and the prospect of new record prices being set, largely due to the lack of quality stock. Momentum in the  luxury segment continues and is anticipated to continue outperforming the broader housing market.

Important information

The information contained in this article is gathered from multiple sources believed to be reliable as at 22^nd August 2023 and is intended to be of a general nature only. It has been prepared without taking into account any person’s objectives, financial situation or needs. NAB recommends that you seek independent legal, property, financial and taxation advice before acting on any information in this article. ©2023 NAB Private Wealth is a division of National Australia Bank Limited ABN 12 004 044 937 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 230686