Record breaker: Brisbane’s most expensive home sells for $20.5m

One of Brisbane’s finest homes has made history as the most expensive residential property to ever be sold in the city, changing hands for a record $20.5m.

This property at 101 Welsby St, New Farm, has sold for a record $20.5m.

ONE of Brisbane’s finest homes has made history as the most expensive residential property to ever be sold in the city, changing hands for a record $20.5m.

An interstate buyer is understood to have paid the eyewatering price for the historic, 130-year-old riverfront property, ‘Amity’, at 101 Welsby St, New Farm.

The view of the river from the property at 101 Welsby Street, New Farm.

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Prestige sales agent Matt Lancashire of Ray White The Collective negotiated the off-market sale of the property on behalf of Brisbane architect Tony Dempsey and his wife, Poppy, who have called it home for the past 25 years.

Tony and Poppy Dempsey at the property they have sold in New Farm. Photo: Steve Pohlner.

Believed to be the last surviving riverfront home from the 19th century in Brisbane, ‘Amity’ sits on three elevated and terraced lots of land on the Brisbane River.

The buyer is understood to have been working exclusively with local buyer’s agent, Jamie Charman, for the past six months to secure a home.

‘Amity’ at 101 Welsby Street, New Farm, was built in 1892.

Mr Charman refused to comment about the sale or the identity of the buyer when contacted by the Sunday Mail.

Mr Lancashire has been chasing the new record since he last broke it back in 2017 with the sale of 1 Leopard St, Kangaroo Point, which fetched $18.48m at the time.

He also did not want to reveal the identity of the buyer to protect their privacy.

“I have said on numerous occasions since 2017 that there are plenty of properties in Brisbane that could rival the record but ‘Amity’ has always been a showstopper for its prime blue-chip location,” Mr Lancashire said.

This property at 1 Leopard Street, Kangaroo Point, sold for a previous record of $18.48m in 2017.

“Amity is in New Farm’s dress circle, with 2127 sqm of land and a spectacular 30m frontage to the Bulimba Reach.

“This was a rare opportunity for the buyer and the right time for our sellers.”

The classic Queenslander was built in 1892 by prominent Brisbane identity, historian, author, and sportsman, Thomas Welsby, and it remains original to this day.

Inside the home at 101 Welsby Street, New Farm.

That’s what the Dempseys, who are downsizing, fell in love with when they bought it back in 1997.

“I have had a long-standing fascination with Queenslanders and ‘Amity’ is an atypical Queenslander with its beautiful verandahs, outstanding view and ideal north-east orientation,” Mr Dempsey told The Courier-Mail when he first tried to sell the property in 2019.

The property is regarded as a landmark home in Brisbane.

“I instantly recognised Amity was a special house. This is actually the first time that I haven’t lived in a house that I didn’t design myself.”

When contacted for comment, Mr Dempsey would not confirm whether the property had sold or not.

‘Amity’ was first sold in 1952 to the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and subsequently purchased by the Commonwealth in 1980 for use as Queensland’s principal naval residence.

The property fronts the Bulimba Reach of the Brisbane River to the north-east and has dual access from Welsby St to the north-west.

Demand for prestige property in Brisbane has never been stronger — especially on the riverfront.

The single-storey residence has timber stumps and a hipped corrugated iron roof with cast iron ridge cresting called a ‘widow’s walk’.

There are verandahs on three sides fronting the river, and a later addition at the back, which has sub-floor office and car accommodation.

The entire property is 2127 sqm, which includes a vacant 672 sqm block of land.

The four-bedroom house retains many of the features you would expect of its era, including polished timber floors, 3.6m-high VJ ceilings, and double sided VJ boarding walls.

It comes as Brisbane’s prestige property market continues to outperform.

This property at 101 Welsby St, New Farm, has sold for a record $20.5m.

Ray White Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said extreme price growth and an influx of high-end home sellers, particularly downsizers, had pushed up the number of luxury home sales in recent years.

“The luxury market in Queensland is the most diverse in Australia,” Ms Conisbee said.

“The Brisbane suburbs of Teneriffe, New Farm and Ascot contain some of the most expensive homes in the river city.

Nerida Conisbee, chief economist for Ray White.

“This is a distinct change from less than two years ago when there were no $2 m-plus suburbs in Brisbane.”

The latest PropTrack figures show Teneriffe is just $150,000 away from becoming Brisbane’s first ever $4m median suburb.