Australian Prime Property Market Continues To Surge
After a steady year, even greater growth is predicted across cities in 2021.
By Terry Christodoulou
Wed, Feb 24, 2021 5:27am
2 min
2 min
Luxury residential price growth was consistent across Australia in 2020, but strongest in smaller cities, with greater growth forecast for 2021, according to the results of the Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100) in the forthcoming edition of Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report 2021.
The PIRI 100, which tracks luxury residential prices across the world’s top 100 residential markets found five Australian cities – Perth, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne – were ranked in the top 65 for luxury residential market performance over the past year.
It’s smaller cities that shone in 2020, with Perth coming in as the top performer at number 24 with 3.6% annual growth, the Gold Coast following at 36 with 3.2% annual growth and Brisbane at 44 with 2.5% growth. Sydney and Melbourne both held up well in what was a tumultuous year for the global market, with the Harbour city coming in 56 (1.1%) and Melbourne 63 at (0.9%).
“In 2020, 29 per cent of locations saw prices decline year-on-year, up from 21 per cent in 2019, however, five markets also registered double-digit price growth in 2020, compared with just two the previous year,” said Knight Frank’s head of residential research Australia, Michelle Ciesielski.
“Australia’s luxury residential property market fared well, with three of the five cities included in the PIRI 100 recording growth greater than the global average, and in the case of Perth, nearly doubling it,” Ciesielski added.
The future of the prime market looks bright with the Knight Frank report forecasting luxury residential property prices in Perth, the Gold Coast and Sydney to rise by three per cent over 2021, while Brisbane is predicted for a two per cent rise and Melbourne to grow at a slower one per cent.
The forecast comes off the back of demand for luxury property in Australia continuing to be strong, boosted by the ongoing pandemic and the continuing return of expats.
“Property prices in Perth are coming off the back of several years of price decline, but recently population growth has improved with prospering mining activity and resilient commodity prices, and this has led to a strong rebound in the residential market,” said Shayne Harris, national head of residential, Knight Frank.
“In Sydney, it’s the super-prime property market – those sales exceeding $10 million – which is driving up the overall prime performance as we see our ultra-wealthy clients upgrading the family’s main residence and buying new holiday homes as international travel is likely to remain subdued in the coming years.”
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So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
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Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
