Hyde and seek

The Hyde Park precinct, in the heart of Sydney's CBD, is fast becoming the city's most exclusive address

The Hyde Park precinct, in the heart of Sydney's CBD, is fast becoming the city's most exclusive address. Buyers have decided the grass is greener here, with demand for new and opulent apartments easily outstripping supply

Strolling through Hyde Park at twilight is definitely one of the most beautiful things to do in Sydney. There’s the dreamy combination of wonderful Moreton Bay figs, the Archibald Fountain, war memorial and fairy lights in the trees, and then there’s the mix of people – city office workers, homeless people and well-dressed, elderly ladies returning from a David Jones shopping trip. It all makes for a high-emotion Sydney experience.

The park has always been special to me. I sat in an office on the corner of Park and Elizabeth streets for 11 years enjoying private views across the park and straight up William Street to the Coca-Cola sign on one side, and over Woolloomooloo and out to Manly on the other. Amazingly, no one seemed to know those breathtaking views existed from that vantage point and I suspect that if they had, that office may have been given to someone a little more impressive than me.

It’s this very vista that is the most valuable ingredient in Sydney’s newest luxury property boom. Previously hidden away inside private buildings on College, Liverpool and Elizabeth streets, the views were once owned by the types of businesses that don’t have many visitors: the NSW police department, government offices, Stockland headquarters and private clubs. But now the word is out. And those views are for sale.

Hyde Park is the nucleus of a residential development race pitting a cluster of multi-million dollar, exclusive apartment projects against each other in a frantic bid to procure remaining properties. With genteel, old-money names like The Hyde, The Residence and The Elizabeth, the buildings come with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous essentials such as 24-hour concierge, temperature controlled wine cellars, gravity-defying infinity pools on balconies, on-site but well-hidden industrial kitchens (in case a little catering is required), double-storey floors and appropriately discreet yet imposing facades. The proof of this park-focus frenzy is the sale of Australia’s most expensive apartment ever – former chairman of Fairfax Holdings and Brierley Investments Rodney Price paid $20.1 million for a three-level penthouse in The Elizabeth.

These apartments have done something probably never thought possible: drawn big-money residential focus away from Sydney Harbour … to a park. Moneyed Sydneysiders have always had an obsession with owning their little slice of waterfront. But the new Hyde Park properties have created a shift in the perception of residential luxury. Having Hyde Park as your address is now so desirable, a group of developers and residents is lobbying the Geographical Names Board to have the streets bordering the park renamed as a new suburb, Hyde Park, effectively drawing a curtain around this green square of wealth.

While London’s Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park are each city’s most prestigious green spaces, with the property surrounding them commanding highest-sale records, Sydney has been slow in appreciating the potential of its CBD park. The Connaught, however, recognised the prize of city proximity, Hyde Park and harbour views early in 1990, and the building still holds its value nearly 20 years later.

Remember the first, pioneering CBD dwellers of the late 1980s? High-rise residents stranded from Friday to Monday without a decent coffee or a place to buy toilet paper? Times have changed. These luxurious residences are still smack-bang in the city but are accessible to the best of Sydney life – you’re just a clip to Potts Point, Surry Hills, Paddington, Chinatown, Woolloomooloo, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Art Gallery of NSW, Opera House, Australian Museum and, of course, Hyde Park itself. And because the incoming residents will require good coffee and hairdressers, fruit and vegetables, meat and wine, flowers and magazines on their exclusive doorsteps, more buzzing amenities will undoubtedly soon follow. Plus, it’s interesting to wonder what the effect will be on the side streets: Stanley, Yurong, Liverpool and Francis – all equally ripe for gentrification.

Depending on who you ask, we are either already in a recession or just about to be, but that’s what makes the choice of marketing for these properties so contrary. In line with the old-money visuals, there’s a hush-hush, low-key, old-money marketing and sales campaign going on here too. When The Hyde released its first apartments it required a $10,000 bond from interested parties before granting an inspection appointment or the opportunity to make an offer. In one building, seven apartments have been sold to friends, or friends of friends, creating an instant community of the like-minded and the like-bank-accounted. This is neighbourhood networking at its best.

The insider-purchase strategy has left some buyers frustrated at missing out. With the first release of apartments in The Hyde, there was anger over VIP off-the-plan sales. The response was overwhelming and sales targets for first-release apartments were met on the first Saturday, leaving a furious bunch of would-be buyers – who had already deposited their $10K appointment guarantees – high, dry and apartment-less. And with demand exceeding supply, those waiting lists continue to grow.

The Elizabeth
141 Elizabeth Street
theelizabethsydney.com.au
Developer: Andrew Richardson
Architect: Andrew Andersons, PTW Architects
Interiors: George Freedman and Ralph Rembel of Freedman Rembel

Only seven residences make up this exclusive enclave on Elizabeth Street in what was once Philip Court. Snuggled next to the Sheraton On The Park, The Elizabeth has obvious exclusivity and Fifth Avenue appeal, a design point pushed by Freedman Rembel. Each residence has a lofty title –there’s The Moreton, for example, The James and The Macquarie – and the three-level penthouse, The Archibald (more than 500sqm), recently created a record for Australia’s most expensive apartment sale. It went for more than $20 million. Huge spaces in the apartments create breathtaking double-storey voids and give a feeling of absolute luxury, while making the most of the park views. Access to the Sheraton’s amenities is a plus. Developer Andrew Richardson also developed the Sheraton, hence the close association. He intends to live in one of these apartments himself and advises swift action if you want to take up residency in one of the others. “The penthouse is sold, we have contracts out on three more, and one future owner is flying in from Switzerland to sign papers,” says Richardson.

The Residence
18 College Street
theresidencehydepark.com
Developers: Pamada with AMP Capital Investors and Galileo
Exterior: Scott Carver Architects
Interiors: Marc Seifert and Neil Bradford

As Pamada developer Mark Sydney will tell you, it’s a Remington story – he loved the corner apartment of the former NSW police headquarters so much, he had to buy the whole building: “This is the best site in the best city in the world.” With an eye to French styling and influence, Sydney called on Parisian architect Marc Seifert and commissioned original furnishings by Christian Liaigre. The Residence’s interiors are undoubtedly stylish, yet very simple. “We need to have a point of difference if we are going to sell and we wanted a warm, non-noisy approach to the design; a quiet neighbour holding the edge of Hyde Park, not a noisy piece of architecture,” says Sydney. Ultimately the 87-apartment building will be a substantially different shape, extending west, east and north to take in park, city, harbour and urban Darlinghurst views. A two-bedroom park-view apartment at about 118sqm will start at around $1.35 million.

The Hyde
157 Liverpool Street
thehydesydney.com.au
Developer: Stockland
Architects: WOHA Singapore, including Australian architect Richard Hassell

With 34 storeys and a north-facing position, The Hyde has arguably the best vistas of all the new developments, supposedly being a 360-degree view that cannot be built out. There was an overwhelming rush at the first launch and the list of registered interest continues to grow, with prices starting at $610,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. Housed in the former Stockland headquarters, The Hyde advocates environmentally sustainable design. It will be the first residential development in the City of Sydney to provide co-generation and uses brise soleil to shade windows on the facade and incorporates green elements. The north facade of the 131-apartment building features a wall of windows and the north frontage of each apartment is devoted to balcony living. On the eighth storey is a glass-enclosed, infinity-edge swimming pool.