Sydney ranks 9th in world for $15m plus home sales

Sydney has ranked in the world’s top 10 for prestige property sales over $15m.

A new report has seen the Harbour City move up to 9th when it comes to eye-watering property sales across the globe over the past year.

Knight Frank has released its Global Super-Prime Intelligence report, finding that of the 12 global markets tracked there were 417 “super prime sales” – over US $10m – in the first quarter of 2023. That equates to $15.2m in Australian dollars.

Sydney had 10 of those sales, skipping ahead of Paris and Orange Country in the US, while the strongest market was Dubai with 88 sales followed by Hong Kong (67), New York (58), Los Angeles (46) and Singapore (37).

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Some of Sydney’s first quarter sales included F45’s co-founder Rob Deutsch’s dream home purchase in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in February for $36m.

Deutsch, who cashed out of the global F45 gym empire in June 2020, splurged on a stunning mansion, with five bedrooms and five bathrooms, in Bellevue Hill.

Plastic surgeon Robert Drielsma and his anaesthetist wife Debbie Hong sold their reconstructed Bellevue Hill mansion for $25m in March.

The home at 17 Drumalbyn Rd had five-bedroms and six-bathrooms with a four-car garage, and previously sold for $9.85m in 2011.

A month earlier a five bedroom Darling Point home, with Sydney Harbour views, sold $2m over its price guide at an auction in February for $17.15m.

Over the 12 months to the end of March, Sydney recorded 76 super-prime sales, putting

it in 9th place ahead of Geneva, Orange County and Paris.

The total value of Sydney’s super-prime sales over that period was US $1.23b.

Among the sales included a Mosman home selling for the exclusive suburb’s second highest price ever at $30.5m while two luxury harbourside sub-penthouses at Circular Quay sold off the plan for the 59-level tower One Circular Quay for $60m and $70m.

Two of the most lavish penthouses in Sydney’s east also broke records for Double Bay.

The highest apartment sale for the suburb was one of three penthouses in developer Top Spring’s $200m Ode project that sold for $24.9m in August 2022.

It was followed by the second highest sale, also a penthouse in Ode which sold off-the-plan for just under $21.5m before Christmas.

Meanwhile rich garbo turned yacht broker Ian Malouf bought a beachfront home, called Anakela, in Palm Beach for $40m in late 2022.

The 1948 sqm block overlooks Pittwater, with the sale breaking the Palm Beach record.

Knight Frank’s head of residential in Australia Erin van Tuil said that over the past five years Sydney’s super-prime market had matured and will be attracting more international buyers.

“In more affordable markets domestic buyers tend to dominate, while in more expensive markets the importance of international investment rises,” she said.

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“Unlike the US, Singapore, and the UK, international buyers have been slower to return to Australia’s prestige residential market since borders reopened but we have seen inquiry from international buyers intensify over the past few months, and this is likely to ramp up further as we move into the spring and summer months.”

Data from the report showed that since 2020 Sydney had overtaken Orange County for the number of super-prime properties sold each year, while the number of super-prime sales recorded in Sydney has been rising faster than in LA.

Knight Frank’s head of residential research in Australia Michelle Ciesielski said prestige property had retained its attraction for wealthy buyers.

“The data for the first quarter of this year confirms an ongoing desire for new $10 million plus purchases at a time when markets were clouded by peak uncertainty around global inflation and interest rates,” she said.

“These factors are less likely to impact upon buyers of super-prime property because they tend to be cash buyers, but it does have an impact on sentiment.

“The peak in 2021 occurred during Covid lockdowns when the super wealthy were looking to buy holiday homes in lieu of being able to travel.

“Another issue holding back transactions in recent months has been limited stock availability in most markets around the globe, so this limited supply issue isn’t just happening here in Sydney.

Ms Ciesielski said expectations were that 2023 would be more subdued compared to the 2021 peak.