Revealed: The top 10 most expensive properties in Australia
Australia’s trophy homes are the endgame for the country’s elite, and these extraordinary properties transcend generations. As prices continue to tick up in this property market segment, Forbes Australia finds the gap between prestige and trophy is becoming more consistent with the rest of the world.
When Ken Jacobs, one of the country’s leading figures in real estate, sold the heritage-listed home, Boomerang, in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay in 2002 to art collector John Schaeffer during his time at Christie’s International Real Estate, he set a new Australian residential record at $20.7 million. It was the first Australian home to break the $20 million mark.
“It was like Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile,” Jacobs says.
The previous record was set 14 years earlier, in 1988, when property developer Geza Seidl paid Sir Frank Renouf $19.2 million for the Point Piper harbour-front mansion, Paradis sur Mer. It took 14 years to break $20 million but just 16 years to break $100 million when former Christie’s exec Jacobs, now a Forbes Global Properties director, sold Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes his Point Piper property, Fairwater.
Melbourne has certainly made headway, and if you compare Toorak prices with Bellevue Hill prices, there’s not much of a gap.
– Ken Jacobs, director, Forbes Global Properties
Australia’s record currently stands at $130 million after Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar purchased Uig Lodge in Point Piper, with the deal settled earlier this year. And while COVID and interest rates have put a damper on the property market, trophy homes continue to skyrocket.
“The gap [between prestige and trophy] has widened,” Jacobs says. “[Trophy] is a completely different market sector that does its own thing. It’s a fascinating market sector. You cannot get the statistics of residential activity and think it’s going to be the same for trophy activity.”
In the list, readers will note that nine of the top 10 most expensive properties sold in Australia sit in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Jacobs says this is due to the sheer number of waterfront properties available, and property analysts should regard the eastern Sydney suburbs as “their own country”.
“Unlike many major cities in the world, where it’s relatively flat, and there are a finite number of waterfront properties, here, you have the right climate, waterfront homes in one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, and there is the contour of the land.
“The house across the road still has the view, and so does the house up the hill. It’s an interesting dynamic.”
But an $80 million deal in 2022 for a Toorak home (sold to billionaire Edward Craven) shows Melbourne is beginning to bat above its weight.
“That was pretty much just land value,” Jacobs says. “Melbourne has certainly made headway, and if you compare Toorak prices with Bellevue Hill prices, there’s not much of a gap. Toorak now has a higher sale price than Bellevue Hill. But if you compare the best of Toorak with the best of Sydney waterfront… That’s where you see the difference.”
DISCLOSURE: Forbes Global Properties, is the exclusive worldwide real estate partner of Forbes.
The top 10 most expensive properties sold in Australia
Uig Lodge, 29 Wentworth Street, Point Piper
- Vendor/Previous owner: Steven and Carol Moss
- Agent: Private sale
- Buyer: Scott Farquhar
- Price: $130,000,000
- Year purchased: 2023
Fairwater, 560 New South Head Road, Point Piper
- Vendor/Previous owner: Estate of the Late Lady Mary Fairfax
- Agent: Ken Jacobs, Christie’s International Real Estate
- Buyer: Mike Cannon-Brookes
- Price: $100,000,000
- Year purchased: 2018
29-31 St Georges Road, Toorak
- Vendor/Previous owner: David Yu
- Agent: Marcus Chiminello, Marshall White
- Buyer: Edward Craven
- Price: $80,000,000
- Year purchased: 2022
Elaine, 550 New South Head Road, Point Piper
- Vendor/Previous owner: John B Fairfax
- Agent: Ken Jacobs, Christie’s International Real Estate
- Buyer: Scott Farquhar
- Price: $71,000,000
- Year purchased: 2017
La Mer, 40 Wentworth Road, Vaucluse
- Vendor/Previous owner: James Packer
- Agent: Ken Jacobs, Christie’s International Real Estate
- Buyer: Chau Chak Wing
- Price: $70,000,000
- Year purchased: 2015
Phoenix Acres, 38b The Crescent, Vaucluse
- Vendor/Previous owner: Chio Kait Ow
- Agent: Craig Pontey, Ray White Double Bay
- Buyer: Jerry Schwartz
- Price: $65,250,000
- Year purchased: 2017
Ganeden, 38a Wentworth Road, Vaucluse
- Vendor/Previous owner: John and Michelle Landerer
- Agent: Brad Pillinger
- Buyer: Helen Huang
- Price: $62,750,000
- Year purchased: 2022
Altona, 56 Wunulla Road, Point Piper
- Vendor/Previous owner: Wang Zhijun
- Agent: Ken Jacobs, Christie’s International Real Estate
- Buyer: Huang Family
- Price: $61,800,000
- Year purchased: 2016
3 Wingadal Place, Point Piper
- Vendor/Previous owner: Neville Crichton
- Agent: Brad Pillinger
- Buyer: Cao Yingping
- Price: $60,660,000
- Year purchased: 2016
21 Coolong Road, Vaucluse
- Vendor/Previous owner: Garrick Hawkins
- Agent: Ken Jacobs, Christie’s International Real Estate
- Buyer: Nikki Zimmerman
- Price: $60,000,000
- Year purchased: 2022
3 Lindsay Avenue, Darling Point
- Vendor/Previous owner: Lisa Allen
- Agent: Alison Coopes
- Buyer: Glenn Haifer
- Price: $60,000,000
- Year purchased: 2022
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