4-bedroom Sydney penthouse off-plan sale of $27 million breaks Australia’s apartment record 2nd time in 1 week

An apartment buyer purchased on Friday off-the-plan a luxury penthouse unit in Sydney for $27 million, breaking Australia’s apartment record for the second time in just one day. Priced at more than $95,000 per square metre, the record-breaking flat is a four-bedroom unit measuring 280 square metres at the upcoming Opera Residences on Circular Quay.

On Thursday, an Australian woman acquired two three-bedroom units at a lower floor in the same residential project for a combined $31 million. She broke the country’s previous record of $25 million for a penthouse flat at Australia 108 in Melbourne, one of the tallest buildings in Australia, Daily Telegraph reports.

Opera Residences was officially launched on Nov 18. Despite the skyrocketing prices of its apartments, all 104 units were sold that day, bringing in $500 million sales to the developer. Tim Rees, sales agent for Opera Residences, says the sale of all 104 flats on launch day is phenomenal.

“There has been unprecedented demand for Opera Residences’ super premium apartments and this launch was the last opportunity to purchase a brand new apartment on Bennelong Point. Bennelong Point is regarded as the pinnacle of residential locations and with the neighbours being National icons and the harbour itself, it’s easy to understand why,” Rees explains.

The project would rise on the former site of the old Coca-Cola Amatil building in Circular Quay where the iconic Sydney Opera House is located. Construction of Opera Residences, designed by Tzannes Architects and developed by Macrolink and Landstream, would begin in April 2017. The luxury project is expected to be completed by December 2019.

In October, AMP Capital forecast a 5-10 percent drop in house prices in Sydney and Melbourne in 2018 when the Reserve Bank of Australia would begin to raise interest rates again. QBE, Australia’s insurance giant, agrees with AMP Capital that loan restrictions and apartment glut would end the housing boom in Sydney.

But George Frazis, consumer bank head of Westpac, disagrees that there would be a looming apartment glut in the two key Australian cities. He says even if thousands of units would be available in the market in 2017, neither Melbourne nor Sydney would suffer from oversupply of housing units, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Frazis says in Melbourne, house price increase would slow down but new units would balance out the previous housing shortage. Until 2018, Melbourne would have 16,000 more apartments, while Sydney would add 10,000 more flats.

“If you look at NSW and Sydney, we still have a structural shortage of housing in Sydney because of the population growth and the pent-up demand … Even if we look at what's coming online over the next year or two, we'll still have structural under supply,” BusinessDay quotes the Westpac official.