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19 Bayview Hill Rd, Rose Bay was the highest home price for the financial year.
Sydney’s back in top spot nationally on the prestige property sales list for this financial year, but there’s no doubt the market’s hit the brakes.
Experts agree there’s been a slowdown over the past six months, and particularly over the past three.
This is reflected in the latest Dyson Austen Top 20 Prestige Residential Survey, with the director of the leading prestige property valuation firm, Simon Feilich, saying: “We have observed a clear pause in transactional activity in 2026.”
Sydney’s east dominates the top 20 list, but there are three entries from Mosman, No. 10, 15 and 19, and two from Toorak in Melbourne, No. 3 and No. 14.
The Harbour city is back on top for the financial year with an $83.5m sale in Rose Bay.
Melbourne had stolen the show the previous financial year, with last February’s sale to the Bastas family of the Toorak mansion Coonac and a block of apartments next door equating to $136.1m, a national record, beating two $130m sales in Point Piper.
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The biggest apartment sale of the year
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Vanessa Birkenstock, wife of billionaire Alex Birkenstock, now resides in the Rose Bay home with her husband.
Although the total value of sales for the financial year was similar over the financial year, with just over $1bn in sales for both years, there were just seven sales over $39.5m for the first six months of this year compared with 13 for the same period last year.
And over the past three months there have been just three big sales that made the list — one of them in Melbourne — half the number of last year. “This reflects heightened caution in this niche market,” Feilich said.
He attributes this year’s slowdown to higher interest rates, inflation, global instability, budgetary changes and sharemarket instability.
“This is a temporary pause, not a structural decline,” he added.
Veteran prestige agent Brad Pillinger, of Pillinger, who was behind the financial year’s top $83.5m sale in the days leading up to last Christmas, with his co-agent, Steven Chen of the Agency, agrees.
“Overall, this financial year — particularly the last quarter of last year — was very encouraging,” Pillinger said.
He also thinks the “pause” will be temporary, with the market improving in spring. “At this sector of the market, minor economic changes don’t affect people’s life decisions,” he added.
Chen was instrumental in two of the sales on the list, thanks to billionaire Alex Birkenstock, heir of the German leather sandal family fortune, buying two of them.
1. 19 Bayview Hill Rd, Rose Bay, $83.5m
Buyer’s agent Simon Cohen helped the Birkenstocks find the stunning residence.
Birkenstock, 57, and his former model wife Vanessa, had been living in Melbourne but Alex dreamt of living by Sydney harbour and, with a budget of up to $200m, enlisted top buyer’s agent Simon Cohen to help him find his dream mansion. They’d had their eye on the five-bedroom residence, Bayview Hill House in Bayview Hill Rd, owned by James Packer lieutenant Lawrence Myers and his wife, Sylvia, listed seven months earlier with Pillinger and Chen. The guide had been $90m, but Cohen helped him whittle it down …the billionaire heir didn’t want to blow the $200m all at once.
2. 14 Tivoli Ave, Rose Bay, $82.5m
The home is right next door to the grand Villa Florida, once owned by Barry Humphries.
Simon Cohen was buyer’s agent with this sale, too, last October, when John Angelis, 30, and Yianni Gourlas, 31, snapped up the grand waterfront, right next door to John’s dad’s house, trophy waterfront Villa Florida, once owned by Barry Humphries. Businessman Jim Angelis, was loaded, having sold Australia’s largest privately-owned insurance broker, for $411m in 2021, and had bought the iconic Spanish Mission style mansion $45m, and then rebuilt it for $20m. Suggestions the rich dad helped the lads buy the $80m house next door were denied — John and Yianni were best mates at The Scots College and were now highly successful businessmen, co-chief executive officers at Clearlake Insurance Brokers.
3. Lansell Rd, Toorak, circa $80m
The 6,340sq m Lansell Rd, Toorak property combines two houses and a tennis court.
Chemist Warehouse co-founder Jack Gance, cashed up after the firm’s $30bn merger with Sigma Healthcare, pounced on this 12-bedroom mansion with 10 bathrooms and parking for 10 cars last November. The 6,340 estate, owned by property developer Andy Zhang, who heads development firm V-Leader, had amalgamated two properties. He’d bought the first in 2015 for $17m and the neighbour in 2021 for $22m. He’d intended to knock both houses down to create a mega compound, but changed his mind, enlisting Kay & Burton’s Ross Savas and Nick Kenyon to sell it.
4. 11 Coolong Rd, Vaucluse, $61.8m
Back when this one sold at the start of last Spring, everyone thought the prestige market would just keep on booming.
The Vaucluse waterfront next door to Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenov sold last September. At the time, the huge deal was considered an indication that the trophy home market was “on fire” at the start of spring, coming in the same week as two other big deals in the east – Iona in Darlinghurst for $37.5m and Carmel in Edgecliff for $28m.. The Vaucluse sale was a five-bedroom, six-bathroom residence with three-car garage, the home of the late Magda Moss. It had a $60m guide via Ray White Double Bay principal Elliott Placks in conjunction with Sotheby’s principal Michael Pallier and several parties fought over it. The buyer was Xiaoyan Zhu, introduced by buyer’s agent Sean Huang.
5. 10-12A Victoria Rd, Bellevue Hill, $59m
The empty block and the house behind it are now owned by Gretel Packer, who resides in the grand mansion Winston immediately behind that, further along the road. Picture: Million Dollar Listing, Sydney.
An unrenovated pink house and a neighbouring vacant block sold last October to Gretel Packer, whose mansion, Winston, was right next door. It was a perfect opportunity to expand her luxury compound by an extra 2631sq m, to a whopping 5,122sq m. The property was owned by hardware tsar the late Graham Nock, of the Nock & Kirby family. Nock had been approached many times by agents wanting to sell the huge property before his death in May at the age of 96. Ken Jacobs of Forbes was behind the off-market deal.
6. 88 Wentworth Rd, Vaucluse, $57m
This home was very special, says the agent, TRG founder Gavin Rubinstein.
A consortium of expats bought Sydney’s most expensive house so far this calendar year, The Peninsula House owned by property magnate Steve Grant and his wife, Eliza, via TRG founder Gavin Rubinstein, in April. Rubinstein couldn’t name the buyers, but said they were
four separate Aussies residing in different locations — from within Asia and Dubai — who saw the three-storey designer mansion on a 700sqm block as a “safe haven” for their money. The property is yet to settle. The Grants had bought the Michael Suttor-designed home for $14m in 2013 and called in Stafford Architecture and Hare + Klein interior designers for a revamp. “What made it special — and it was very special — was the width of the waterfrontage, about 15m or 16m, so the whole house is connected to the water and you have views from every room,” Rubinstein said.
7. 83b/Watermans Quay, Barangaroo, $54.1m
This sale of this massive apartment with private pool only came to light last week.
This sale in tower 2 of the Renzo Piano-designed One Sydney Harbour, by Lendlease, is the highest apartment sale of the financial year. It occurred last October but was first reported just this week. The purchaser was former Queensland grazier Victoria Horne, wife of former army officer turned private contractor in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan Steven Horne, who wrote the thriller The Devil’s Tears. Horne has appeared on land title documents for a four-bedroom plus study, three-bathroom two-level sky home with four-car garage on levels 83 and 84 of the high-rise. The apartment spans a whopping 570sqm and has a private pool. James Hall of Savills did the deal.. Hall is the co-agent on the listing of Horne’s grand Southern Highlands Estate, whch has a $23m to $25m guide.
8. 7801/1A Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo, $51.5m
This huge apartment will be just a city bolthole or guest accommodation for the Birkenstocks, sources say.
He’d already bought the $83.5m Rose Bay mansion last December, and an $8m home in Melbourne’s Brighton that same month, but billionaire Alex Birkenstock was far from done yet. In February, he bought a whole-floor apartment on the 78th floor of Crown Residences in Barangaroo. The 525sqm pad had been owned by the late Robert Blann, Kerry Packer’s bookmaker. It would rent out for $20k a week, but no, this sources advised this was to be simply a city bolthole for the Birkenstocks and visiting family. The agent, Steven Chen, had no comment, nor did the buyer’s agent Simon Cohen, who also helped Birkenstock with yet another purchase, the Double Bay penthouse of the late Eileen Bond, for a mere $20m.
9. Ruby House Penthouse, $50m
The Ruby House penthouse doubled the previous record.
This sale in May doubled the previous $24.9m record for Double Bay, set when the co-founder of Retail Apparel Group, Stephen Leibowitz and his wife, Pam, bought the Ode penthouse on Cross St off the plan in 2023. Melbourne architect Pete Kennon designed the 550sq m internal space of the Ruby House penthouse, with four bedrooms and four bathrooms, set for completion early next year, for the developer of Ruby House, Fortis. The rumour is that the buyer is Point Piper car importer Neville Crichton and his wife Nadi. It comes with two north-facing terraces landscaped by Wyer & Co and a six-car garage with lift access. It’s located on the corner of New South Head Rd and Bay St.
10. 3 Kirkoswald Ave, Mosman, $50m
3 Kirkoswald Ave, Mosman was extremely popular.
Things were still going swimmingly last October when the North Shore hit a new price record with this sale after less than a week on the market to Andrew Cochineas, chief executive of precious metals group Pallion, and his wife, Lisette.
The contemporary Susan Rothwell-designed mansion with pool had potential buyers swarming long before it appeared online, according to selling agent Michael Coombs, who listed the home of philanthropist Diane Balnaves with then colleague Adrian Bridges from Atlas Lower North Shore.
More than a dozen parties had been shown through the residence in three days, adding that half of them had put forward solid offers. The campaign had launched with a guide of $45m to $50m. It last exchanged in 2001, before the full rebuild, for $6.525m.
11. 69 Victoria Rd, Bellevue Hill, $50m
The home, with a tennis court, is on a whopping 1714sqm block.
Scape student housing boss Stephen Gaitanos and his wife Emma bought this six-bedroom mansion last November, moving from Hunters Hill. The deal was done by Ray White Double Bay’s Elliott Placks and Ashley Bierman. The vendor was Paul Oppenheim, the chair and co-founder of Plenary Group, and his wife Cathie. The Oppenheims had bought it for $18.8m in 2017. The three-storey home with tennis court and pool is on a 1714sq m block. There’s also a gym, an office, a steam room, a library and a rumpus room. The Oppenheims had done a reno, including updating the kitchen, but retained period details such as the leadlight windows.
The gardens are by Will Dangar.
12. 12 Dumaresq Rd, Rose Bay, $45-$48m
The house was perfect! Except it didn’t have a tennis court.
Indulgence magazine owner Linge Dai had only bought the five-bedroom harbourfront residence in Dumaresq Rd for $54.6m last February.
But in March this year, a caveat on the title showed it had been bought by Australian entrepreneur Tony Denny, who was once a used car salesman in the Czech Republic but is now a property developer worth $780m.
It’s yet to settle, but multiple sources say it’s sold in the $45m-$48m range, so even if it’s the higher figure once the $3.8m stamp duty is included she’s lost in excess of $10m.
The most recent agents Black Diamondz’s Monika Tu and her husband Jad Khattar aren’t commenting. But it’s understood the motivation for the quick sale was that Dai and his family had bought another home with a tennis court — their child had recently taken up the sport. Indulgence indeed!
13. 19 Kent Rd, Rose Bay, $45.1m
Plenary chair Paul Oppenheim and his wife Cathie are planning a $6.5m revamp of their 1920s Rose Bay estate at 19 Kent Rd. Picture: Supplied
Last August, there was much excitement when this Rose Bay estate went under the hammer, setting a new national auction record.
Fittingly named due to its elevated position overlooking the Royal Sydney Golf Course, The Knoll at 19 Kent Rd – a deceased estate comprising a rare six-bedroom trophy home on a 2,536 sqm block was always going to be popular.
The agents were Richardson & Wrench Double Bay principal Michael Dunn and his son James Dunn, who has since moved to Sotheby’s.
The vendors were the Burns family, descendants of Sir James Burns who founded blue chip merchant company Burns Philp. They’d lived there for 60 years. The buyers were the Oppenheims, who were to later sell in Bellevue Hill for $50m. They’ve already lodged plans with council for a renovation.
14. Georges Rd, Toorak, circa $45m
6 This home has celebrity status.
This Mediterranean Revival style mansion, listed with a $45.5m-$50m range since last September, is thought to have been bought by the father of Australian-Taiwanese actor and model Hannah Quinlivan, who is married to superstar Jay Chou.
The circa-1920, seven-bedroom house on more than 3000 sq m sold in April. It comes with a pool, nine bathrooms and a reception hall.
The property was sold as the deceased estate of the late Zofia Kipen. Ms Kipen’s husband Sam was brother to philanthropist, author and academic Israel Kipen, who co-founded Australia’s first Jewish day school, Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne. The Kipens owned the grand residence for more than five decades.
Melbourne Sotheby’s International Realty Antoinette Nido and Max Ruttner, who had the listing, declined to comment on the sale.
But a caveat was placed on the abode under the name of Patrick Quinlivan, on April 22.
Hanna Quinlivan appeared in the action thriller Skyscraper, released in 2018, and the 2023 sci-fi action thriller Assassin co-starring Bruce Willis. She’s also been on the cover of Vogue Taiwan and Grazia Singapore.
Husband Jay has appeared in a range of Hollywood movies.
In 2024, harpersbazaar.com.au reported that Hannah and Chou had relocated from Taiwan “to a leafy suburb of Melbourne”.
15. 4 McLean Cres, Mosman, $43.5m
Thre buyers had been keen on this property when it sold last winter.
Last August, Louise Grinham and her fund manager husband, Richard, of Castlecrag snapped up this home on waterfront reserve at Chinaman’s Beach in August.
It was 1035sq m of land near the beach carpark, owned by property developer Vic Virgona and his wife Maria, who bought two neighbouring homes and combined them.
They owned the first one, then when the next-door home came up for sale in 2010 they bought that for $5.5m and joined them up.
The house had an indoor pool, a gym and four bedrooms, but its value was all in its position.
The Virgonas are moving to a Manly penthouse.
Rob Klaric, of The Property Expert International, said three buyers were after the property, and he represented the underbidder.
“You’ll never get that size of house anywhere so close to the water and it was presented beautifully,” he said.
The sale was negotiated by Glenn Curran of The Agency and Guido Scatizzi of BresicWhitney.
16. 2-4 Tarrant Ave, Bellevue Hill, $41m
This stunning home was originally built for the founder of Laing & Simmons real estate.
Last November, former investment banker and Jaybro director Paul Christie and his wife Nicola Mace, who co-founded offshoring consulting business OptiBPO, bought this compound complete with a 16-car basement garage with epoxy floors and LED lighting.
Christie and Mace have taken the keys from vendor Jing Wang, a property developer who heads up the Mayrin Group, which has a portfolio of Sydney and China-based apartment projects.
Wang paid about $26 million for the property in 2021 when she purchased it from Singapore’s Ho family.
The double-brick home was built for Spencer Simmons, the founder of the real estate firm Laing & Simmons.
Spanning almost 1800 square metres, the hilltop estate comes with a mosaic-tiled waterfall pool, tennis court, yoga room and harbour-view terraces.
Ray White’s Ashley Bierman and Elliott Placks did the deal..
17 and 18. LGE/81 and L2W/81 Yarranabbe Rd, Darling Point, $40m
Sm artist’s impression of one of the apartments at 81 Yarranabbe Rd, Darling Point that sold for $40m.
In March this year, these two luxury apartments sold off-the plan for $40m apiece.
The temptation may be to think one went to a wealthy expat, someone living overseas wanting a harbourfront bolthole. And maybe the other went to a foreign investor?
But no.
“Both buyers are local, mature empty nesters used to living on the harbourfront, one couple, one single,” says one of the 1st City principals, Brad Caldwell-Eyles, who sold both apartments in the exclusive 81 Yarranabbe development on the harbourfront in Darling Point alongside his colleague Julian Hasemer.
19. 28 Ruby St, Mosman, $40m
Apart from the pool, this Mosman home has a tennis court.
This luxurious spread was owned by Mengyao Ling, a former business partner with Olympic swimmer Michael Klim in his skincare brand Milk & Co.
Last December’s sale of the seven-bedroom home on a 1792sqm block almost doubled the $22m Ling paid for the five-storey home to dentist Daniel Adamo and his wife, former recruitment boss Katie, in 2020.
The latest deal was done by BresicWhitney’s Anna Chen and Guido Scatizzi. While the agents declined to comment on price or buyer at the time, Chen confirmed the sale and said the deal revealed the depth of buyers circling Mosman’s top end.
Updated land title records show the home was bought by Jinrui Wang.
Designed by architect Susan Rothwell, the sprawling home features a championship tennis court with Wimbledon-style hall entry, infinity pool, French oak herringbone floors and a cinema. There’s also a Calacatta marble main kitchen, with secondary caterer’s kitchen.
20. 29A Wentworth St, Point Piper, $39.5m
Iconic views proved a winner, with this home doubling in value over five years.
Rich lister Tony Denny’s doubled his money in just five years on this trophy home, bought for $19.5m from dentist Le Tran. The five-bedroom, six-bathroom property with gun barrel harbour views is on a 670sqm block and features a lavish marble spa, a granite kitchen, a bespoke dressing room, gym and guest retreat. It neighbours onto Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar’s $130m Uig Lodge. Sales agent Jad Khattar from Black Diamondz Property Concierge Sydney said the home generated a flurry of buyer interest and was snapped up in just 10 weeks. Records show the buyer was Jinglu Zhang.
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