New twist for Opal Tower units after infamous cracking scandal

Units within a tower at the centre of one of the country’s biggest building disasters are being listed for jaw dropping prices after an unexpected market change.

More apartments within a notorious Sydney tower that had to be evacuated due to dangerous defects have flooded onto the market for sale after a buyer last week paid $1.72m for a penthouse.

The price paid on Friday was the highest for a unit within the Opal Tower in Sydney Olympic Park since remedial works were undertaken to fix cracking that forced residents to be evacuated in 2018.

New sales in the building include a four-bedroom unit listed Tuesday for $2.02m. Other Opal Tower homes now up for sale include units for sale from $670,000-$1.6m. Each comes with a 20-year builder warranty.

The $2.02m listing is for a four-bedroom unit on level 29 with panoramic views of Bicentennial Park and the Sydney CBD.

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The view from an Opal Tower unit listed for just over $2m.

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Records indicate the list price is marginally above what the current owner paid for the unit – then being sold off the plan – back in 2014.

The cracks appeared just four months after the building was completed in 2018 and works to rectify the problems finished in mid-2020.

Previous sellers have usually had to accept significant losses on their properties: typically about 10-15 per cent below the prices they paid nearly a decade ago.

Du Yang, director of SY Realty, which manages close to 100 units in the building and is tasked with selling many of the new listings, said the units were beginning to entice buyers.

“More and more buyers are beginning to show interest because you can potentially get the units for a lower price than the (owners) paid,” he said.

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Remediation works were commpleted in mid-2020. Picture: Tim Pascoe

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It comes on the heels of the weekend sale of a penthouse spread across floors 35 and 36.

That unit sold prior to auction for $1.72m, marginally above the $1.65m price guide but well below the $2.1m the seller paid back in 2016.

The apartment had been listed with different agency earlier this year with a $2.2m-$2.4m price guide.

The cracking incident stands as one of the country’s most costly building disasters, with 169 of the 392 units declared unfit for habitation when remedial works on the building began in 2019.

It’s understood that banks were not willing to finance loans for the block in the years immediately after the cracking was reported.

Banks have since changed their tune and have been offering loans against Opal Tower units for about a year, Mr Yang said.

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The 36-storey tower is one of the highest in Olympic Park.

Cracking was understood to have been found on 10th floor.

“From the point of view of many residents, the issues with the building are now fixed,” he said.

“A year ago, when we started to put properties on the market, it was really hard. People didn’t think it was good to buy in a building with issues.

“Gradually we started to sell one-bed and two-bed units … each buyer we have to tell them everything that happened to the building and let them know every details of the repair.

“If they have concerns, there is no push. Each sale takes a lot of time.”

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This penthouse on level 35 and 36 sold last week for $1.72m.

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Prior to last week’s sale, the highest price in the building over the last four years was the $1.11m paid for a three-bedroom unit on the 22nd floor in August 2023.

Owners had paid anywhere from $505,000 to about $2.5m for units in the building prior to the evacuations. Eleven units were sold for over $2m.

The sole apartment that has sold for anything close to those figures since the 2018 evacuation was a three-bedroom unit on level 30, which changed hands in March 2020 for $2.14m.

It remains the highest price to date since the cracking was discovered.

Most of the sales over recent years were in the range of $520,000-$750,000.

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This Opal Tower unit is currently for sale at $1.6m.

McGrath-Strathfield agent Ania Aquino, who sold the penthouse last week, said prospective buyers were usually happy with its features but were hesitant about the history of the building.

She added that a similar unit in the area would have sold for about $700,000 above the price paid last week if it had been in a different building.

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Originally published as New twist for Opal Tower units after infamous cracking scandal