Australia's most expensive home sells for A$140m

An off the plan apartment has smashed the record for Australia's most expensive home.

The top three floors of One Sydney Harbour tower in Sydney's exclusive Barangaroo South development precinct has been sold for A$140 million (NZ$150m).

The sale - which workks out at more than $100,000 per sqm - includes the two-storey penthouse and a sub-penthouse below. The property was bought by an Australian, according to Sydney media.

The previous record holder was the A$100 million sale last year for the Sydney estate Fairwater. The previous highest sale for an apartment was the A$60 million two-storey apartment in 2017 in Crown Resorts’ One Barangaroo.

According to plans for One Sydney Harbour, the 1600sqm penthouse include nine bedrooms, eight-metre-high ceilings, a swimming pool, spa and gym.

The sale will be a boost to the luxury apartment market in Australia, and Auckland too - but New Zealand agents warn it'll be some time before Auckland's market sees such sky-high prices.

Auckland’s skyline is set to change with new prestige apartment buildings due to come on stream.

The emerging silhouettes of new builds indicate a new level of luxury high rise living is arriving in the country’s biggest city.

Pete Evans, of Colliers International, describes the 57 storey The Pacifica and the 57 storey The Seascape, both under construction in the CBD, as a first wave of prestigious apartment buildings being delivered over the next few years.

An artist impression of One Sydney Harbour. Photo / Supplied

They represent a major jump in the luxury apartment market, he says: “It means that Auckland can do these large-scale projects.”

It’s unlikely, however, Auckland will see anywhere a $140m price achieved for an apartment any time soon. “Is Auckland Sydney? Probably not,” he says.

“I guess what we’re talking about is the very top end of the market - but that’s an amazing sale for Sydney even.”

The A$100,000-plus price per square metre for the Sydney build is at least three times Auckland’s top price per square metre for an apartment, he says.

“I mean, $30,000 a square metre has been achieved here in Auckland but nothing really above that at this stage.”

The view from One Sydney Harbour is one of the development's strongest selling points. Photo / Supplied

While that’s a huge price difference, Evans points out people in Sydney are a lot more used to paying big money for apartments.

“To a degree they’d rather have an apartment in a special, special location whereas Auckland is not used to paying that money for an apartment.”

Evans wasn’t sure what extras the owner would get for the extra square meterage cost in the Sydney apartment but said the big price really came down to the fantastic location.

“Money wants to be on the harbour in Sydney now.”

In Auckland, money still likes to be in beautiful houses more than apartments, he says.

While there are some lovely houses in Sydney on the harbour, to get to really scenic properties you have to travel three hours out of the city.

“Australia just doesn’t have the coastline and scenery and Waiheke Island and other places that Auckland does, so I guess the money in Auckland goes to different places.”

Auckland is definitely an international city, however, and is chasing hard at counterparts across the ditch in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and further afield in the apartment scene.

The Pacifica and The Seascape are competing to be Auckland’s tallest residential towers and each also promises to redefine luxury city living.

Each have two storey penthouse suites which will bring apartment luxury into a new stratosphere for the city, but Evans says while Auckland is carving out milestones in the high end apartment scene it still has a way to go to catch the rest of the world.

In Sydney, more than 50 per cent of all sales are now for apartments whereas in Auckland the figure is only around the five per cent mark.

That’s low, but that will change, Evans says.

“It will grow from five to 10 to 15 to 20 per cent over time.”

Gavin Lloyd, of real estate specialists CBRE, says the likes of The Pacifica, which is being developed by Hengyi Pacific, an affiliate of mainland Chinese company Shandong HYI, is just the start.

“More and more of these types of buildings will come up on our skyline in the next 20 years.”

The Pacifica, he says, goes at least part of the way towards bringing Auckland up to date.

“Absolutely top-end luxury” facilities at the Pacifica include the swimming pool, spa and sauna, the cinema, the library, and various resident lounges throughout the building.

An artist impression of the Seascape, on Customs St East, Auckland.

But more than facilities and fit outs, luxury is about the user experience, Lloyd says.

At The Pacifica that will include a true concierge service, which is common in New York. Residents will be able to toss over their keys, have the car parked and the groceries brought up.

And the buyers are there, Lloyd says. Around eight or nine sub penthouse apartments in the building have been sold for around $18m apiece.

These apartments have huge floor spaces but at around 650sq m they nothing on the “super penthouse” which is two stories and covers 1188sq m.

That has yet to sell but at $35m has the most expensive price tag for a New Zealand apartment.

It features a guest suite, a chef’s kitchen and a butler’s pantry, a wine cellar and a tasting room, a gym, a sky garden, a board room and parking for 12.

If all that sounds like luxury that’s because it is luxury - yet the price is still small bickies compared to Sydney and New York.

The Seascape, on Customs St East, is expected to ask $20m-plus for its master penthouse which will also occupy two floors and which will also have wraparound views of the city and harbour.

This tower is being built by Shundi Customs, a subsidiary of an international development company based in China.

The Pacifica is set to dominate the Auckland skyline.

Shundi has said the building’s diamond-shaped architecture will become one of those landmark residences, like New York which has 432 Park Avenue Tower, or London which has One Hyde Park.

“If you move around the major cities of the world you find skyscrapers which not only offer beautiful places to live, they make a major statement about the style and substance of the city that houses them,” Shundi Customs general manager Harrison Shao has said.

And then there’s The International, in Princes St. Developers Sanctuary Group is converting the ex- Fonterra headquarters into a 17-level residential build offering apartments bigger than many homes.

It has been reported New Zealand businessman and White House aide Chris Liddell paid a $15m deposit for the penthouse apartment, and that sports stars, business and creative industry leaders are buying there.

But where such luxury might still be relatively rare in New Zealand, across the ditch you might almost call it common.

An artist impression of The International.

Auckland real estate agent to the wealthy, Michael Boulgaris, is the New Zealand agent for River Isles, an exclusive Gold Coast development.

Here, he says, you get not only absolute waterfront and views of Surfer’s Paradise, but your own infinity pool.