Working at home? Hmm … we’re gonna need a bigger house

Times might be tough for many but things have never been better for top-end real estate, with mansion sales surging. What’s going on?

Hotelier Jerry Schwartz with son Dane and twin daughters Amber and Lara in front of the $65m Vaucluse mansion that he is renovating. Picture: John Feder

Times might be tough for many but things have never been better for top-end real estate, with mansion sales above $10m showing strong growth around the country during the pandemic.

A luxury mansion in Sydney’s Cremorne was sold this week at around the $18m mark, while former Nationals minister Peter McGauran’s historic 990ha family estate in Nambrok, a farming district in Victoria’s Central Gippsland, sold two day’s ago. Its asking price was $20m.

THE LIST — AUSTRALIA’S TOP 100 MANSIONS

92 Wolseley Road, Point Piper.

If there is a central theme running through the nation’s property sector this year, it’s that the prestige end of the market has well and truly weathered the COVID-19 downturn.

As the REA Group’s chief economist, Nerida Conisbee, writes in the second edition of The List: Australia’s 100 Best Mansions — inside The Weekend ­Australian — demand for luxury homes above $10m has jumped 150 per cent during COVID-19.

Ms Conisbee said the Melbourne suburbs of Brighton and Toorak and Sydney’s Vaucluse have enjoyed the biggest jumps in demand, given mortgage rates are at record low levels and the federal government has loosened up the responsible lending rules.

Pontons Valuations director Andrew Parkinson said there had been a 10 per cent increase in mansion sales in Sydney this year. There were 71 residential sales above the $10m mark during 2019, while so far this year there have been 77 sales at that level. Mr Parkinson is expecting more transactions before the year’s end.

“We still have some time and there are properties at that level on the market,” he said.

“There has been a surprising volume of sales this year. People are refocusing and spending good money on trophy homes and generational properties as there has been a flight to quality.

“COVID has refocused the importance of a great home and the security of a great home.”

A trophy home at 12 Bertha Road, Cremorne, on Sydney’s North Shore, sold overnight to a local. The buyer and price are undisclosed but it is understood the six-bedroom property fetched around its guide price of between $17m and $18m.

Alan Bond’s old house at 89 Watkins Road, Dalkeith.

Selling agent Knight Frank’s Oliver Stillman said the property had been on the market for about three months.

“People are definitely trying to get in before Christmas and secure themselves a home,” Mr Stillman said, adding there were lots of buyers at the $10m mark and above.

In Sydney’s blue-ribbon suburb of Vaucluse, multi-millionaire hotelier Jerry Schwartz is pressing ahead with a renovation of the waterfront spread he purchased for $65.25m two year’s ago, which includes the construction of a tunnel from the street to the water.

Dr Schwartz said the 10 per cent jump in Sydney property prices did not surprise him.

“There are so few prestige houses on the market, when they hit the market they are rushed by buyers; there are not enough of them,” he said.

12 Bertha Road, Cremorne, which sold this week for around $18m.

Elsewhere in The List we investigate the new generation of successful young entrepreneurs who are buying prestige real estate far earlier in their lives than their parents ever did.

Given that we are spending more time in our homes than ever before, we have also compiled a list of the best architects and interior designers in the country.