Real estate agents’ reality check on apartment prices if Glebe Island port is closed for housing

This prized Sydney location has been flagged as a way to ease the city’s housing shortage. But local real estate agents have flagged one big concern.

Glebe Island looking east from Rozelle towards the city. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Apartments on Glebe Island would command prices starting at $2 million if the NSW Government shut down Sydney Harbour’s last working port to make way for high-density development, local real estate agents predict.

Property experts say the waterfront setting would create significant demand from buyers, with units boasting a prized north-east aspect likely to carry price tags of around $3 million.

The Daily Telegraph approached agents dealing in homes around the western harbour fringes and found consistency in their appraisal of what an average-sized two-bedroom apartment would cost if Glebe Island was freed up for housing.

Their responses support claims from industry and business leaders who say if Glebe Island port is closed for housing, the site will become a “millionaire’s enclave” and not relieve Sydney’s housing crisis.

Glebe Island. Picture: John Appleyard

“A two-bedroom apartment of around 100 square metres on that site, definitely $2.25m to $2.75m,” said Matthew Mifsud from Raine & Horne – City Living. “Maybe $3m plus for those with good views down the harbour to the bridge.

“Around Balmain now there’s not a lot under $2m and newish developments at Forest Lodge and the old Harold Park, which are not waterfront, are $1.8m to $2m.”

Scott Robertson of Balmain Realty added: “I would think in the early to mid-$2 million range, probably $2.5m for anything with water views. There’s definitely demand in the area at the moment.

“We’re seeing a real trend to apartment living with a lot of downsizers in the market. Their kids have gone and they want to live closer to the city. It’s a lifestyle choice and we’re seeing buyers heading here from the upper north shore and the Hills district.”

Larger two-bedroom apartments have been sold in waterfront blocks in Pyrmont for $3.5 million. But on a grander scale, a five-bedroom penthouse on Sydney Wharf in Pyrmont sold five years ago for around $20m.

Pyrmont penthouse that sold for around $20m in 2020.

Views from the Pyrmont penthouse sold in 2020 for $20m.

A four-bedroom waterfront apartment in Rozelle is currently on the market with an agent’s guide of $8m.

Property information and analytics company Cotality, formerly known as Core Logic, told this masthead: “Fair to say privately developed and sold units on Glebe Island would be very expensive.

“In Rozelle, where Glebe Island is located, the median value estimate of a 2-bedroom strata property is $1.6 million. This would likely attract an even higher value in the water front setting of Glebe Island.”

Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope said the threat to Glebe Island port and the prospect of government offloading a public asset smacked of a revenue-raising agenda.

Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope. Picture: Nikki Short

“We are absolutely on the same page as the Premier in relation to the need for housing,” Mr Tudehope told The Daily Telegraph this week. “But let’s be clear.

“These are harbour side developments we’re talking about, where the government will be selling off prime real estate and filling up its coffers with the proceeds of those sales under the guise of wanting to deliver housing.

“It will not deliver affordable housing for people trying to get into the market for the first time.”

Willoughby MP Tim James also told Parliament on Thursday plans to shut down Glebe Island port were “short-sighted” and would affect NSW “for generations to come”.

“Ports are not relics of the past,” he said. “They are the arteries of our economy and form one of the backbones of our national security.”

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Originally published as Real estate agents’ reality check on apartment prices if Glebe Island port is closed for housing