Luxe Listings Sydney: Three agents set to reveal city’s prime real estate

When three of Sydney’s elite property agents go head-to-head for the cameras, viewers get unprecedented access to the hottest homes and biggest deals in the country in new show real estate show Luxe Listings Sydney.

It’s a front-row seat to the hottest deals in one of the hottest property markets in the world market – and you won’t be able to look away.

Luxe Listings Sydney premieres on Amazon Prime Video next week, taking viewers inside the city’s most spectacular homes, showing off real estate at a level you’ve never seen.

Following the lives of eastern Sydney agents Gavin Rubinstein, D’Leanne Lewis, and Simon Cohen, the show is Million Dollar Listings meets Sunset Selling with an Aussie twist – and it’s not all just champagne, fast cars and fancy watches.

It’s deals. Day in, day out. And with the market in the midst of its seemingly never-ending ‘ballistic’ boom – these three have never been busier.

“I love it because sometimes we’re the therapist – we do divorces, we do deaths, we do everything – it may be things we do for 12 hours all day, every day, but it’s new for a lot of people and we have to hold their hands through a pretty big decision and it’s an important process,” Lewis, the principal of Laing+Simmons Double Bay tells Insider.

Luxe Listings Sydney agents Simon Cohen and Gavin Rubinstein. Picture: Brook Rushton

“And not every property in Sydney is a $30 million property – we value our clients equally right through the different price ranges.

“Some of my best clients I sold $300,000 properties when I first started, and now they are in a $20 million property – we are on the journey with them.

“You get to build amazing relationships and you are constantly doing 100 different things and the challenge is to be mindful and present in every single thing you do, because it’s demanded of you.”

Lewis has been selling dreams for 30 years. In an industry grossly dominated by males, that’s something that she’s proud of – and as Cohen and Rubinstein are quick to point out, means they were just six and three when she started in the business they love.

“Well that puts things in perspective,” she laughs.

Real estate agent D’Leanne Lewis. Picture: Brook Rushton

The three have known each other for a long time, and are friends underneath the competitive bravado. Cohen and Rubinstein used to work together, and Rubinstein loved going to the Cohen family home in St Ives for Shabbat dinners on a Friday night after a big day in the office.

“He loves my mum’s cooking,” Cohen, founder of Cohen Handler in Double Bay, says.

“I was a real estate agent before I was a buyer’s agent and I was like 20 or 21 years old and I came from the north shore. I grew up in a very humble place where if you lived in a house for a million dollars it was a big house and you were very well off … and I listed and sold my first house for $9.8 million.

“You can imagine – that to me was the moment where I was like ‘damn, this is for me’.

“That was my moment.”

Rubinstein on the other hand, comes from a small family. His mother and father migrated to Australia from Zimbabwe before having him and his brother.

“We had no real extended family or cousins, it was really just the four of us,” the founder of Ray White The Rubinstein Group said.

“But my brother and I are best mates, he runs the business in the back end – all the important stuff like finance, which is not my forte but it’s his.

“We make a great team.”

The cast includes the biggest selling agents in Sydney real estate. Picture: Brook Rushton

For Rubinstein, real estate is more than a career. It’s everything.

“For me, it’s the art of the deal,” he explains.

“I’m not good at much at all – but this is probably the one and only thing that I have excelled at …”

“You’re a good dancer,” interrupts Lewis, who was brought up in South Africa.

“You’re doing a deal and every few minutes, with everyone – and not just a property transaction,” he continues.

“If you own a business you’re doing a deal with one of your agents around Australia, you’re trying to do a deal with a vendor to convince them why you’re the best person for the job, then you’re doing a deal with suppliers – every single second is a deal.

“I sickeningly enjoy that process and I never, ever switch off.”

While Cohen is quick to agree that he, like Rubinstein, lived for the game – Lewis says switching off is important, especially when she’s with her two young daughters at home.

“When I’m with my kids I am 100 per cent with them. I switch off when I meditate – I have learned over the years that balance is key,” she says proudly.

Cohen and Rubinstein love their jobs. Picture: Brook Rushton

The business of real estate in Sydney. Picture: Brook Rushton

So, how competitive are they really?

“There is no competition,” Rubinstein is quick to quip.

“We secretly love each other,” Cohen adds.

But ever the peacemaker, Lewis says there’s more than enough inventory for everyone.

“People like to think it’s this dog-eat-dog thing – but you don’t survive with that mentality,” she says.

“There are a lot of agents making really good money and you win some, you lose some, but you play the best at your game to be the best at your game, and that’s how you’re good at it. You don’t get to the top of your game constantly worrying about what other people are doing.”

In terms of the market, in her three decades she’s never seen it like this – and the one thing they all agree on is it’s not slowing down any time soon.

“There’s a backlog of buyers, and Sydney is where everyone wants to be,” says Cohen.

And with money cheaper than it has been in a very long time, if buyers have to spend a million or two more to get what they want, they will – and they are, says Lewis.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” she says.

“Everyone wants to come home – and it’s a sensible crazy because the insanity makes sense.”

And the insanity makes the show even better, says Cohen.

“I personally think the three of us have very exciting lives, but never thought it was worthy of a TV show, and seeing the TV show we were like ‘wow, this is actually really exciting’ – and everything that’s happened in the market in the last 12 months has added to that,” he says.

“I used to be the biggest fan of Million Dollar Listing … but I think Luxe Listings Sydney brings in a few more dimensions that makes it a lot more exciting. I also think Sydney aesthetically is far, far sexier place than LA and New York, so visually, this show looks a lot better.

“And if you’re international, you haven’t really seen a lot of Sydney – and this will make you want to come here the first time you can get on a plane.”

Luxe Listings Sydney premieres exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on July 9