Australia’s most expensive streets are still climbing in value

Australia’s most expensive streets have continued to grow in price over the past 36 months, with water views and proximity to the best schools being the biggest drawcards | SEE THE LIST

69 Wolseley Rd in Point Piper in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Australia’s most expensive street has jumped in value by more than a third after a string of high-profile sales over the past year.

It is no surprise that many of the nation’s most expensive streets are in Sydney’s eastern suburb harbourside enclave, with Wolseley Road in Point Piper topping the list.

The median home price on the harbour-wrapping roadway is now $45m, representing a 36 per cent increase year-on-year.

Vaucluse’s Wentworth Road and Ginahgulla Road in Bellevue Hill rounded out the top three, with respective median prices of $23.8m and $22.15m

The analysis by real estate agency Ray White, which compared the median price of sales on any one street over the 36 months to November 2024, found just one street outside of Sydney muscled itself onto the list of the nation’s top 10 most expensive streets.

Luxury buyers agent Simon Cohen said Bellevue Hill is becoming increasingly popular with families, while the view keeps attracting cashed-up buyers to Point Piper. But no matter which city you go to, the Cohen Handler co-founder believes there are commonalities that connect prestige homebuyers.

“It’s the private schools, the proximity to the water and the exclusiveness of those suburbs that determine what people will spend in those areas to build, recreate and renovate,” he said

Despite prices in the Victorian capital falling 4.38 per cent from the market peak in early 2022 and becoming the third most affordable city to buy a home, the top end of the market still commands a hefty price tag.

The street widely considered Melbourne’s best, St Georges Road in Toorak, came in at No. 6 nationally, with a median house price of $16.93m. Neighbouring Hopetoun Rd ($15m) and Linlithgow Rd ($14.35m) rounded out the city’s top three.

Entrepreneur David Prior at his Toorak home. Picture: David Geraghty

Retail Apparel Group co-founder Stephen Leibowitz and his wife Pam are currently offering their property at 69 Wolseley Rd, Point Piper on the market for $65m. The four-bedroom Mediterranean-inspired mansion offers direct views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and CBD and was previously owned by James Packer’s “right-hand man” Ben Tilley, who sold it in 2004 for $12m.

In Melbourne, the founder of yoghurt brand five:am, David Prior, offloaded his St Georges Road property for $40m. While the five-bedroom home dubbed Karum fell shy of the initial asking price, it was a significant premium to the $23.3m he paid for the art-deco era property a decade earlier.

In August 2023, online gambling king Ed Craven, the co-founder of Stake.com, set a new capital city record when he snapped up the neighbouring so-called “ghost mansion” on the same strip for $80,000,088. He has since begun renovations. Kogan founder, Ruslan Kogan, is rumoured to have snapped up twin properties on St Georges Road for $8.9m.

Ray White senior data analyst Atom Go Tian said Sydney’s most expensive streets are almost six times pricier than the leading streets in Brisbane, Perth and Canberra.

“The absolute values of streets are increasing, which shouldn’t be a surprise,” he said. “For example, the range in 2021 was like $14m to $32m (in Sydney and Melbourne), but now it’s $15m to $45m.”

Glimpses of the Brisbane River remained part of the appeal for buyers in the Sunshine State capital. Macquarie Street in the city’s most expensive suburb of Teneriffe came out on top with a median of $6.9m. Brisbane’s other top streets were on the southside. The $11.38m sale of 102 Virginia Avenue, Hawthorne in February smashed the second most expensive street’s median of $4.905m, while Bulimba’s Quay Street came in third at $4.825m.

102 Virginia Avenue, Hawthorne, Brisbane.

In Adelaide, Walkersville’s Church and Gawler Terraces were the most expensive with respective medians of $3.42m and $3.297m. Perth’s western suburbs pulled ahead, led by Jutland Parade in Dalkeith at $6.35m and followed by Saunders Street ($5.8m) and Colonial Gardens ($5.7m) in Mosman Park.

Ray White senior data analyst Atom Go Tian said the inclusion of streets in Sydney’s Centennial Park and Northbridge, both of which are outside of the areas typically considered prestige, suggests demographics may be changing. “The eastern suburbs have dominantly been the most expensive areas and they’re generally also busier, whereas northern Sydney’s a bit more quiet,” he said. “There could be a shift in taste (and) there are fewer properties for sale in the eastern suburbs, so people are forced to shift up and look at different areas.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Darwin has all of the affordable street medians in Australia’s capital cities, with the cheapest 10 ranging from $100,000 to $216,000.