Mosman tops the country with over $1 billion worth of house sales in the last 12 months

MOSMAN has beaten its well-to-do rivals in the eastern suburbs to be the richest suburb for property in Australia, turning over more than $1 billion in sales over the last year.

THERE may be talk of a property market slow down, but the heat clearly hasn’t escaped the Mosman market with the suburb recording more than $1 billion worth of house sales in the last year, outperforming every other suburb in the country.

In the last 12 months alone, Mosman recorded a total of 305 house sales, which amounted to a staggering combined sales value of $1.105 billion, according to CoreLogic RP Data.

The figure far eclipses that recorded by the affluent beachside suburb of Brighton in Melbourne, which recorded the second highest total value of sales in the period of $832.845 million.

It is also nearly double of the $570.386 million worth of house sales that Vaucluse in Sydney’s east recorded, which came in at ninth nationally.

And while the sheer value Mosman’s house sales is impressive in itself, the figure takes on more weight when you consider that only 305 houses transacted, compared to other areas of the country that saw over 1,000.

Mosman also recorded the fifth highest total volume of unit sales nationally over the year at $449.383 million, resulting in a combined total of more than $1.5 billion in property sales.

Although these figures might seem unbelievable to some, Richard Simeon, principal of Simeon Manners Mosman, said he was unsurprised given that historically low interest rates and a lack of stock are fuelling very strong results.

“What has definitely kept the market down is the lowest stock levels that we’ve seen over the last decade,” Mr Simeon said.

“The sales ratio from what has been listed has been extremely high. In tough times prestigious properties typically take a hell of a long time to sell but the transaction level has been very successful.

“In the last 12 months (our office) has done $240 million from 65 sales, and what we’ve noticed is that the days on the market is at one of the shortest periods of times.”

Indeed, despite the current strength of Mosman’s market, McGrath Mosman principal Michael Coombs maintains that the suburb is in fact “undervalued”.

“A suburb like Mosman has the water facilities, transport, is close to the city has the beaches sand the lifestyle but isn’t as busy (as the eastern suburbs) and that’s becoming more appealing of people,” he said.

No. 16 Clanalpine St, Mosman, was snapped up earlier this year for $6.8 million after 17 days on the market.

“For a lot of the clientele and highly wealthy people I deal with offshore, Mosman is becoming the go-to suburb in Sydney (and is attracting attention from) locals, expats, Chinese buyers and other offshore buyers.”

In terms of Mosman’s future potential, Mr Coombs noted that he expects prices to continue to climb particularly in the prestige section of the market, and that the highest sales in the suburb didn’t match those seen in Sydney’s east as a result of residents being reluctant to let go of their trophy listings.

“While Mosman is the top performing value wise, it’s still undervalued and I think you will see the flood gates open when you see a couple of properties go through at $30 million-plus,” he said, adding that he expected that to happen in the near future.

“Personally I’ve got genuine offers of $30 million from buyers interested in properties, but the owners aren’t interested in selling at any price because they feel the location of the suburb is irreplaceable.”