Revealed: Sydney’s top 20 luxury property sales of 2024

As high interest rates and economic headwinds weigh on Sydney’s broader residential market, it seems the uber-rich have been living a very different reality this year, spending more than ever on luxury housing, and often using cash to do so.

Sydney’s trophy home market clocked up almost $1 billion worth of residential sales from the top 20 deals alone, making 2024 the best-performing year for the top end of the market.

The sale of the Elaine estate in Point Piper was this year’s highest residential sale at $130 million.

This year also sees a jump in the number of long settlements and cash buyers. Half of the top 20 sales are yet to settle, and of those that have settled, seven of them did so with no need for a mortgage.

It isn’t just the strength of the trophy market that distinguishes this year but also the predominance of local buyers.

“There are more locals shopping at this end of the market than there have been in many years,” said Simon Cohen, founder and chief executive of buyers agency Cohen Handler.

“Locals are not only cashed up from having sold, but they’re keen to reinvest back into property because of the growth they are seeing in that asset class year-on-year.”

Alcooringa in Bellevue Hill sold this year for about $80 million.

Deterring foreign buyers are higher land tax and stamp duty costs associated with Australian property, Cohen adds.

Foreign buyers incur an 8 per cent stamp duty surcharge and an annual land tax surcharge of 4 per cent, of which both are set to increase to 9 per cent and 5 per cent respectively next year.

Foreigners are also slugged with a one-off application fee that increases according to the cost of the property. A $20 million trophy home requires a $1.68 million fee.

But those foreign levies have not dampened the top-end sales. The top 20 residential sales of this year total $932.788 million, smashing the bull market of 2022 when there were $864 million worth of sales. Both this year and 2022 featured a top sale price of $130 million by billionaire Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar.

In late 2022, Farquhar bought his Point Piper home, Uig Lodge, for $130 million, and in October, he matched that national house price record selling his nearby Elaine estate.

“This year’s top 20 list puts the prestige spotlight firmly on those blue-chip eastern suburbs like Point Piper, where there have been a few sales on the waterfront, and Bellevue Hill, which is still rising on the back of last year’s bull results,” said Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger.

There were two sales in the $80 million range, including the Point Piper waterfront Rockleigh bought by shopping bag businessman Frank Qiang Geng.

The $80 million sale price was in Bellevue Hill for the Spanish Mission mansion Alcooringa sold by serial flipper Stephanie Conley-Buhre, who is named twice on the list, given she then paid $43.5 million for the Monkton residence, also in Bellevue Hill.

The Bellevue Hill residence Monkton sold last year for $30 million and resold this year for $43.5 million.Credit: Domain

Both Bellevue Hill sales showcase the soaring trophy home values of recent years: Monkton last traded early last year for $30 million, with few, if any, improvements since; Alcooringa had been renovated by Conley-Buhre during her ownership, but last traded for $28.5 million in 2021.

The Mosman house price record was reset by investment banker and Sydney Swans chairman Andrew Pridham when he sold his Federation home, Kia Lama, on a delayed settlement for about $40 million to Rosemary and Mark Mezrani, boss of Camperdown Cellars and kids retail chain Kidstuff.

Manly’s record was also reset at $34 million by the house purchase at Fairy Bower by Emma Maas, wife of former South Sydney Rabbitohs player turned Rich Lister Wes Maas.

Palm Beach home owners often dominate their local holiday home market, and this year was no different. Crownland Developments boss Andrew Wiesener bought on the Pittwater waterfront for about $32 million, a few doors from his Hibiscus Cottage. Palm Beach-based car dealer Paul Warren’s purchase for $26.25 million was one of a handful of sales for more than $26 million that did not make the top 20 list.

The highest apartment sale was an off-the-plan sale of a sub-penthouse in Lendlease’s One Circular Quay tower for $61.7 million.

Apartments in the tower do not settle until the building is complete in 2026, and is set to include the $37.4 million sale of a four-bedder bought last year to interests linked to Direct Freight Express founder Joe Catania.

Francesca Packer Barham sold her sub-penthouse in the Horizon building for close to $28 million.Credit: Domain

The further down the price chain, the more discounting there has been. Heiress Frances Packer Barham’s sub-penthouse in the Horizon building at Darlinghurst was listed last year with $35 million hopes, but sold for about $28 million.

The King Penthouse in the CBD’s Greenland Centre by the Chinese-backed developer Greenland Group was listed for $30 million but sold for $27 million, with no need for a mortgage, to a company owned by Dongyue Sun, a 40-year-old from Wahroonga.