Point Piper price weakening within Sydney top 20 home sales in 2013-14: He Said/She Said
With 14 properties, the eastern suburbs dominate the top 20 Sydney house sales list for the 2013-2014 financial year.
Among these were four Point Piper mansions including a Wolseley Road harbourfront (pictured above) which tops the list at around $38 million. Point Piper retained top spot and had the four also in the 2012-2013 list.
But when we looked at the recent Savills analysis of the prestige market of the Sydney luxury residential resale prices its showed a significant drop in the high end Point Piper achieved prices between Q2 in 2013 and 2014.
Bellevue Hill and Vaucluse also fell back, while Mosman remained the same price wise on the harbour.
Source: Savills Research
Source: Savills Research
This week our property contrarians Jonathan Chancellor and Margie Blok discuss the trends they detect from the prestige sales list.
HE SAID:
While Chinese buyers have been increasingly active, they are certainly not throwing huge dollars around. Chinese buyers accounted for less than a handful of the Top 20 house sales during this financial year.
The four sales we have been able to spotlight were in Point Piper, Hunters Hill and two in Mosman. Maybe one more when settlements take place.
The challenge posed by land tax for second homes restrained the northern beaches market, especially Palm Beach which doesn't make an appearance. Clareville is the only representative of the northern beaches peninsula with a $12 million sale making this year’s cut. Last year the only northern beaches property on the list was a Whale Beach residence sold for $13.1 million. There had been a Palm Beach property heading the list in 2011/2012 with the sale of Kalua.
This year heralds the return of the local entrepreneur - apparent with the $38 million Peter Wohl purchase. He's into aged care homes.
There's also strong whispers that David Singh has bought the Simon house on Point Piper. He's into waste management at Global Renewables. There also appear to be a few more expatriate financial white collar buyers who went awol with the decline of the post-gfc big bonuses. Their re-emergence was evident when I wrote that Angela Fleming sold to Matthew Kodor at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Bellevue Hill.
SHE SAID:
After a lacklustre few years, Bellevue Hill bounced back during the past 12 months with five homes on the latest Top 20 list, while I recall last year’s list featured only one. And maybe another two sales could emerge once official settlements emerge.
It seems the hillside inland suburb experienced a reversal of activity levels while harbourside Vaucluse with seven last year, but just the three this year – and one's an apparent small loss maker.
Point Piper retains poll position for the second year in a row - but of the suburb’s four properties on the list, two homes had languished on the market for years.
It took time for vendors to realize where prices actually stood, even with the benchmark sale of Altona, the Wunulla Road trophy waterfront sold for $52 million in March 2013, atop the 2012/13 top 20 list. Altona’s price set the pace for Point Piper vendors (and their estate agents) to evaluate the worth of a property.
However, it must be noted the Lowy family offered $55 million for Altona in 2007, six years before last year’s sale. When the Medich property (which tops this year’s list at around $38 million) was quietly listed in February 2011, it had ambitious $55 million hopes. In May 2012, the price guide was revised down to offers of more than $40 million.
Sales activity saw Mosman improve on its presence on this year’s list to four properties featured this year, up from the two last year. There were the two Chinese buyers this year in Mosman in the top 20.