Alexander Phillips NSW top-selling estate agent; Brisbane house sells for $6.571m

PPD’s Alexander Phillips is officially NSW’s top-selling agent with $973m to his name but it was a stunning home in Brisbane that was this weekend’s top sale.

Selling from his eastern coastal Sydney base, Alexander Phillips’ latest tally was down on his $1.07bn record from 267 sales in boomtime 2021

PPD’s Alexander Phillips has been officially crowned NSW’s top-selling estate agent for the ninth consecutive year, after selling 205 properties totalling $973m in 2023.

Averaging $4.75m a sale, his annual sales tally was up on $865m during 2022, according to the state-based rankings released last week by Real Estate Business (REB) industry website.

Selling from his eastern coastal Sydney base, Phillips’ latest tally was down on his $1.07bn record from 267 sales in boomtime 2021.

His latest listing is for Bob Easton, the former chairman of Accenture ANZ, on the Bronte dress circle with $12m guidance.

Phillips took the national top seller mantle in 2016 from the Melbourne agent James Tostevin who’d held the crown for the previous three years.

Alexander Phillips at Bronte Beach in Sydney which is in the heart of his patch.

Phillips entered the list in second place in 2014 with 108 sales totalling $200m, knocking out Melbourne agent Marcus Chiminello who’d typically run second to Tostevin.

Neither Tostevin nor Chiminello appear on the REB list anymore, with the top seller in Victoria last year being Helen Yan at Ray White Balwyn after 138 sales totalling $370m, averaging $2.6m a sale.

Displacing Matthew Pillios, the former top-selling Bayside agent, Yan has worked in the Balwyn area since she started her real estate career in 2010 speaking fluently in English and Mandarin.

It’s a self-nominating list, with leading agents from across five states willing to be ranked by REB, which is run by Momentum Media. Agents submit data on their settled residential sales.

Phillips’s nearest challenger was again Michael Clarke on Sydney’s northern beaches, who had $814m in sales at a $4m average, while Woollahra Sotheby’s agent Maclay Longhurst returned to third place after swapping places with Bondi agent Ric Serrao.

The top 10 agents in NSW sold 1402 properties for $4.8bn, down from the 1648 sold for $5.1bn in 2022, according to Momentum Media’s research arm Agile Market Intelligence.

The five state lists saw three changes in lead agents.

McGrath Brisbane agent Alex Jordan lost the top spot in Queensland to Michael Kollosche on the Gold Coast with 104 sales grossing $435m.

Anthony Fahey at Ray White Henley Beach lost the top spot in South Australia to Sally Cameron of Toop+Toop Real Estate with 89 sales grossing $221m.

Vivien Yap at Ray White Dalkeith was again the top agent in Western Australia for the fourth consecutive year with 98 sales grossing $225m.

REB’s national top 100 will be formalised later this week.

Brisbane bottler

The nation’s highest weekend sale was in Brisbane when $6.571m was paid for a five bedroom 2019 two-level Ascot house

It came with 500sq m space centred around courtyards, with pool and pool house It was sold through Ray White agent Matt Lancashire after the Bennison St offering attracted eight registered bidders after 10,945 page views on realestate.com.au.

The highest sale was this home at 16 Bennison Street, Ascot.

Auctioneer Haesley Cush took a $5m opening bid and called it on the market at $6.46m.

There were two buyers’ agents, with one of them securing it for a local family.

The home was designed by Shaun Lockyer and built by Tim Black, who Cush said have two year waiting lists.

“If you buy a finished product, you are four years ahead than if you planned to build and renovate a home of this calibre,” Cush said.

“We are finding that buyers tend to come out of the woodwork for very special properties in well-established streets.

“People have ‘favourite’ homes that they would be willing to sell their homes for if they ever come to market,” he said.

Brisbane had 176 scheduled auctions, returning a 69 per cent preliminary clearance rate, according to CoreLogic.

Auction pulled

Walter Burley Griffin’s last and largest Australian house, Coppins in Pymble, was the weekend’s priciest listing, but it was pulled from auction.

The recently-renovated house on its 5640sq m Telegraph Rd holding was built in 1935 in the Prairie School style for Eric and Sheila Pratten, from the printing business family.

The house at 29 Telegraph Rd, Pymble.

Alex Mintorn, of Pello, had first listed it for an expression of interest campaign last December.

“We’re working with a single standout buyer,” Mintorn said on auction eve.

The vendors are the former Bank of Queensland chief Stuart Grimshaw and his wife Anneliese who purchased the six-bedroom house for $13m from Telstra exec David Burns and his wife Edwina three years ago.

Back deck at 37 Glenview Street, Paddington,

Last year Ku-ring-gai Council secured Land and Environment Court orders to reinstate original features including doors, fireplaces and mantles and the windmill in the garden.

Sydney’s top advised result came pre-auction in Paddington when Ray White agent Jack Taylor secured $6.8m for the four bedroom, three bathroom terrace at 37 Glenview St. It last sold in 2014 for $2.36m.

Sydney’s 74.9 per cent preliminary rate was the lowest in four weeks, contributing to the national success rate sitting at its lowest level this year.

The prestige Sydney market is increasingly problematic with seven auctions cancelled and six pushed back into next month from its 22 scheduled $5m-plus weekend auctions.

Adelaide running hot

Adelaide was the hottest capital city with a 79.8 per cent preliminary success rate from 146 auctions. Its top result was $2.43m for a 1925 Westbourne Park bungalow through Anne Einarson at Harris Real Estate.

House at 7 Monmouth Road, Westbourne Park

Extended in 2005, the five bedroom house had two bathrooms with one featuring a double-insulated rolltop bath imported from France that stays hot for over an hour.

Canberra was the weakest with a preliminary clearance rate of 57 per cent, its lowest since the late February.

Melbourne busy

Melbourne hosted the most auctions last week, although the volume slipped to 967 homes, according to CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless.

The preliminary clearance rate rose to 68.4 per cent, up from last week’s 68 per cent which revised down to 60.4 per cent, the lowest finalised clearance rate since Easter.

Melbourne’s top advised result was in Middle Park when the modernised four bedroom, four bathroom house at 132 Page St fetched $5.76m with four bidders. It had come with $4.85m to $5.3m guidance from Warwick Gardiner at Jellis Craig who announced it on the market at $5.45m.

Melbourne’s priciest listing at 40 Grenville St, Hampton, which had $6.8m hopes was passed in on a $5.9m vendor bid.

PropTrack economist Anne Flaherty said Melbourne continued its “unseasonably high” auction run with close to 1200 homes this week and also next week.