This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SYDNEY pulled into fourth place for super-prime residential sales activity in the last quarter of 2023, with 42 properties selling for a combined US$632 million.
According to Knight Frank’s Global Super-Prime Intelligence Q4 2023 report, which tracks residential sales over US$10 million across 12 key markets globally, Sydney doubled its Q3 sales volume of 21 and nearly doubled the 22 super-prime sales this time in 2022.
Sydney only trailed by Dubai with 108 sales, London with 52 and New York also with 52. While Geneva rounded out the top five with 38 sales and Hong Kong fell out of the top five for the first time to with just 15 sales.
Globally, the volume of super-prime sales was up 11% on a year-on-year basis to 411 across the tracked markets in the quarter, compared to 370 sales in the same period in 2022.
Over 2023, Sydney had a total of 113 super-prime residential sales, up from 108 in 2022. Putting it in sixth place globally this year.
For the year, the total value of super-prime residential sales in the NSW capital was US$1.932 billion.
“Wealth creation in Australia is also supporting the market – with a notable rise in cash transactions, which now represent over half of all prime property sales in Sydney,” said Erin van Tuil, partner at Knight Frank.
Knight Frank’s recent The Wealth Report 2024 found the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, those with a net worth of US$30 million or more, in Australia rose by 2.9% from 2022 to 2023 to reach 15,347 people and is expected to rise a further 27% by 2028.
Sydney has witnessed a number of high profile luxury residential sales this month. Last weekend, a five-bedroom house in Grenhills Beach sold under the hammer for $10.3 million. At the same time, Afterpay co-founder and FinClear chairman David Hancock and his wife, philanthropist Fee Hancock, have sold their Centennial Park mansion to billionaire and Shark Tank investor Robert Hervajec, and his, wife, Dancing With the Stars dancer and judge Kym Johnson for $23 million.
A week prior Chris Olliver, Zimmermann chief executive and husband of co-founder Nicky Zimmermann paid $20.5 million for a block of apartments in Tamarama.
Sydney’s high end property market shows little sign of slowing down, with a Point Piper estate listed with expectations of a $100 million record breaking sale price.
With the total value of super-prime sales across the 12 markets reaching US$31.9 billion, down 22% on 2021’s US$40.7 billion peak but substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
“2023 was a pivotal year for global super-prime markets,” he said. “While rates continued to climb in the first half of the year, wealth creation rebounded as asset prices surged on the back of the AI – fuelled equity boom, which was then supported in the final quarter by expectations of lower rates,” said Liam Bailey, global head of research at Knight Frank.
“2024 is likely to be defined by the eventual pivot to lower debt costs which will boost activity in key global super-prime markets.”
