2022’s priciest property sales: $1b splurged on top 30 homes

Wealthy home buyers went on an spending spree during 2022 that resulted in some jaw dropping property prices, despite an ongoing downturn. See the top sales

Aidan Devine

4 min read

December 17, 2022 - 5:00AM

News Corp Australia Network

Property

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Sydney’s priciest 30 home sales this year totalled nearly $1 billion as wealthy property buyers splurged on trophy homes.

The staggering spending spree resulted in one of the biggest years of top-end property sales on record.

And it flew in the face of the rest of the market, which was plunged into a downturn when the Reserve Bank began the biggest succession of interest rate hikes in 30 years.

A review of the year’s highest residential property sales showed six properties were snapped up for prices over $50 million.

Two of these mega sales occurred this month for undisclosed sums that industry insiders reported were about $60 million and $70 million, respectively.

An artist’s impression of the view from One Circular Quay, where they have been huge sales.

The circa $70 million property – a sub-penthouse bought off the plan in the under construction building One Circular Quay in the CBD – was the highest residential sale of the year.

It was followed by the $62.75 million sale of a 2400sqm luxury estate on Wentworth Rd in Vaucluse to the owners of China’s largest Toyota dealership.

A three-level house perched on the southern side of Manly Beach, allowing for uninterrupted ocean and beach views, was the highest sale by auction at $21.5 million.

There were an additional 26 sales above $20 million spread mostly across Sydney’s harbour enclaves, coastal suburbs and north shore.

Among the buyers behind some of the year’s top sales were fashion designer Nicky Zimmermann and partner Chris Olliver, who spent $60 million on a waterfront property on Coolong Rd in Vaucluse.

And in Point Piper, Sydney FC managing director Scott Barlow and wife Alina paid $45 million for the waterfront mansion Akuna, the previous home of musician Warren Daly and wife Karen, the author of popular fitness series Fats & Figures.

Medical entrepreneur Glenn Haifer snapped up Tirrikee, a Darling Point mansion, for $60 million, taking it off the hands of Lisa Allen, the wife of yachtie Matt Allen.

Included in the top Sydney sales of 2022 were multiple properties that changed hands for millions more than their already lofty 2021 and 2020 prices.

This Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse house sold for $62.75m

And on Coolong Rd in Vaucluse, this mansion sold for $60m.

Many of their buyers, who often made the purchases in cash, were reported to be content to pay these premiums due to the scarcity of homes on waterfront blocks or other coveted positions.

It’s come as prices in the Sydney market as a whole dropped nearly 6 per cent this year, with some regions such as the northern beaches recording even larger average falls of about 14 per cent, or $330,000.

Experts attributed the falls to a cocktail of interest rate hikes, declining buyer sentiment and record housing unaffordability reducing participation in the housing market.

SQM Research director Louis Christopher said the top-end of the housing market “outperformed” because it was largely immune to the forces pulling down prices in the rest of the market.

11 Collins Ave, Rose Bay sold for $29m.

He explained that the continued demand for high-end properties in Sydney highlighted the city’s robust economy, continued Covid recovery and enduring status as a global destination for the wealthy.

“The economy is running hot,” Mr Christopher said. “The RBA is lifting interest rates because the economy is actually overheated, which as a result, is stoking inflation.

“(Top end) buyers are more affected by the state of the economy … such buyers are normally business owners, CEOs and other high net worth individuals who do best when their businesses and other income earning assets do well.

“Such businesses and assets thrive under strong economic conditions, such as what we are having now … This is why the top end of the housing market has been outperforming in 2022.”

This Palm Beach sold for the highest price on the northern beaches at $27.5m.

Ray White economist William Clark said there was a drop in luxury sales this year and this kept the market for mansions elevated.

“There is nothing forcing owners at the top end to go to market,” he said. “It’s often the case that the wealthy don’t need to sell and there is hardly any of that kind of stock on the market.”

Sothebys Sydney director Michael Pallier, who sold many of this priciest properties, said the rise of highly profitable tech industries had created a larger wealthy class in Sydney than decades before.

This meant more buyers with the eye watering budgets to be able to afford prices over $20 million, Mr Pallier said.

Prestige agent Alison Coopes, another agent behind some of the biggest deals, told the Saturday Telegraph that some prospective buyers had budgets of $70m-$110m but were just waiting for the right property to come to market.

Fashion designer Nicky Zimmermann was one of the biggest real estate spenders this year.

Scott Barlow, Sydney FC chairman also spent big. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

Despite this year’s high sales, it was the first year in close to a decade that the nation’s priciest home sale was not in Sydney. Instead it was in Melbourne suburb Toorak, where crypto king Ed Craven paid $80 million for a large mansion. He was reported to be planning a knockdown-rebuild.

SYDNEY’S TOP RESIDENTIAL SALES FOR 2022

Sub-penthouse, One Circular Quay $70,000,000*

38A Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse $62,750,000

Tirrakee, 3 Lindsay Ave, Darling Point $60,000,000

Coolong Rd, Vaucluse $60,000,000

Sub-penthouse 2, One Circular Quay, $60,000,000*

Belhaven, Victoria Rd, Bellevue Hill $52,500,000

Akuna, Wolseley Rd, Point Piper $45,000,000

Rothesay, Cranbrook Rd, Bellevue Hill $37,000,000

Woodlands, Wallarong Rd, Woollahra $35,000,000

Stanley Ave, Mosman $33,000,000

Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse $31,000,000