Mansion sales around the country have risen threefold over five years with more than 130 homes selling above $10 million in the year to the end of August, driven by the surge of Chinese buyers, low interest rates and economic resurgence in NSW and Victoria.
Demand for premium homes should remain strong compared with the overall market which was easing back from last year’s peak, CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless said.
“We are seeing signs of the very top-end homes, like John Symond’s mansion (at Sydney’s Point Piper) coming onto the market which are likely to keep the sales figures high,” Mr Lawless said.
As Australia emerged from the global financial crisis, the sales of $10m-plus homes totalled $586m in the year to August 2011, with 41 residences changing hands, according to CoreLogic research exclusively for The Weekend Australian.
Five years later demand at the “uber end of the market” has surged, Mr Lawless said. In the year to August, 135 mansions sold for more than $10m, their prices totalling $1.89 billion.
Sydney’s harbourside mansions dominated among 101 big- ticket NSW sales, totalling $1.45bn.
But comparatively few prestige homes were on the market, with listings well down on last year, said Christies International managing director Ken Jacobs, who is jointly marketing the four-level Symonds harbourfront home.
Chinese buyers were now more conscious of taxes on foreigners and Australian banks’ lending restrictions, while the Chinese government had clamped down on funds flowing out of the mainland, Mr Jacobs said.
“Australia is not the only place to invest,” Mr Jacobs said, though noting Australia’s safe haven status was attracting global buyers.
Prestige agent Alison Coopes said the $5m-$10m bracket in Sydney had seen increased demand since the GFC, underpinned by couples downsizing from even bigger homes and a new conservatism about debt levels. “The GFC put a lot of things in perspective for a lot of people.”
Mr Lawless noted top-end sales also reflected the faded resources boom, with West Australian sales in the $5m-plus price bracket largely static over the past five years compared with a threefold rise in NSW.
In Queensland, Mr Lawless said, the past five years had seen the Gold Coast property market rebound with four of the top five sales in the year to August. Brisbane had previously dominated high-end sales.
Chinese buyers previously powered big-ticket sales but local buyers were now catching up as tighter outflow restrictions in China made it harder for offshore buyers to transact, said Sydney-based prestige agent Michael Pallier.
Local buyers now account for about 50 per cent of high-grossing transactions, from 30 per cent a year ago.
Mr Pallier, operating out of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, has sold 32 homes priced above $10m since the start of 2013, averaging one sale a month.
His best month ever was June 2015 when he generated more than $122m in sales from five homes, starting in price at $10m.
“We’re seeing a ripple effect,” Mr Pallier said.
“Capital growth over the past years means the lower-priced homes are now priced into the millions, and that has a flow-on effect to larger homes.
“Properties that used to be valued at $8m are now fetching $10m, and it means that there’s more stock available in that bracket.”
Original article published at www.theaustralian.com.au by The Australian 08/10/16