
Inside the jaw-dropping Aussie apartment that just sold for national record of $141million
A new benchmark has been set for Australia's most expensive home, with a stunning Sydney Harbour penthouse fetching for an eyewatering $141.55 million.
Yan Zhang on Thursday settled on the property, consisting of the top three floors of Lendlease's One Sydney Harbour development in Barangaroo.
Purchased off-the-plan in 2019, the property combines a two-storey penthouse and a sub-penthouse below for friends and family.
The deal was widely publicised at the time but the buyer had remained a secret until Sydney Morning Herald revealed Mr Zhang was the mystery buyer.
It overtakes the estimated $130-million-plus sale of a Toorak mansion earlier this year as Australia's most expensive residential purchase.
The combined Barangaroo penthouses cover more than 1600sqm and include nine bedrooms, a rooftop swimming pool, spa, gymnasium and is complete with eight-metre-high ceilings.
Kylie Rampa, Lendlease's property chief executive previously described the jaw-dropping purchase as a landmark moment in Australian property sales.
'The sale of the penthouse at One Sydney Harbour is a paradigm shift for the Australian property market with an apartment claiming the title of Australia's most valuable residential property for the first time, a title historically reserved for significant houses,' Ms Rampa said.
'The record-breaking penthouse sale is confirmation that the Barangaroo South precinct is a world-leading location where people aspire to live, work and visit.'
Valued at more than $100,000 per square metre, the property crowns the 72-floor building, the tallest of three in the One Sydney Harbour development.
The three towers were designed by Pritzker-prize winning Italian architect Renzo Piano whose other works include The Shard in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
The One Sydney Harbour project was developed by Lendlease as part of a wider urban renewal project in Barangaroo alongside the Crown Sydney and the International Towers Sydney.
All three towers have now been completed, with most buyers having settled and moved in to the development.
Lendlease told the Australian Financial Review last year 99 per cent of the pre-sold apartments across the three towers had already settled.
The three-storey mega penthouse purchased by Mr Zhang more than tripled the next most valuable purchase in the Barangaroo development.
Prolific property investor Qing Zhong paid a reported $38.95million for an entire storey of the same tower last year, combining three apartments.
Surgeon Dr Franklin Yee and his wife Gloria also purchased a unit above Mr Zhong's floor-wide purchase for $21million, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
It also exceeded the roughly $80million purchase of a two-storey, six-bedroom penthouse in the neighbouring Crown Tower earlier this month.
That penthouse was rumoured by Domain to have been nabbed by James Packer's lieutenant, accountant Lawrence Myers and his wife Sylvia.
If confirmed, Myers will be in good company with Packer himself having purchased a two-storey apartment in the same building for $72.23million a few years earlier in 2021.
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Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: What are the highest paid Aussie jobs and where the big earners live
Surgeons have once again ranked as Australia's top-paid professionals, as the country's wealthiest jobs and postcodes are revealed. On Friday, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released its annual report, breaking down the country's wealth trends for the 2022-23 financial year. Australia's 4,247 surgeons earned an average taxable income of $472,475 over the year, retaining the top spot for the 12th consecutive year since reporting began. In line with last year, they took home roughly six times more than the average Australian who earned $74,240 over the same period. Anaesthetists ranked in second place, earning $447,193. In third position came financial dealers, the top non-medical role, whose 5,147-strong cohort earned an average of $355,233. The order of the top-10 paying roles was unchanged compared with last year. Average incomes increased for all 10 roles except for financial dealers, mining engineers and CEOs and managing directors, which all went backwards. Medical professionals accounted for the next three most lucrative professions, namely: internal medicine specialists ($342,457), psychiatrists ($286,146) and other medical practitioners ($259,802). Mining engineers placed seventh with an average income of $206,423 followed by judicial and legal professionals on $206,408. CEOs and managing directors ranked ninth with $194,987 followed by financial investment advisors/managers who rounded out the top-10 at $191,986. The report also broke down the country's top 10 postcodes by average taxable incomes, with New South Wales dominating the list. Seven of the top-10 earning postcodes were in NSW, with the top three all in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Australia's top-earning postcode was 2027 which consists of Darling Point, Edgecliff, HMAS Rushcutters and Point Piper with an average income of $279,712. For a comparison, if every taxpayer in those suburbs was employed as a psychiatrist, the average income would have been only $7,000 higher. According to the median house price in Point Piper is more than $4million, whose Wolseley Road boasted a median house price of nearly $45million last year according to Ray White. The neighbouring suburb of Double Bay placed second with an average income of $255,901, followed by Woollahra at $242,267. Victoria's 3142 postcode, representing Hawksburn and Toorak placed fourth with an average income of $241,511. It was one of two mentions for the Garden State whose seaside Mornington Peninsula suburb of Portsea came in at seventh place with $222,254. The rest went to NSW with the exception of 6011 in Western Australia representing Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove with an average income of $213,621 in ninth. The remaining NSW postcodes were 2030 which ranked fourth at $263,750 (Dover Heights, HMAS Watson, Rose Bay North, Vaucluse and Watsons Bay), 2108 at $223,433 (Coasters Retreat, Currawong Beach, Great Mackerel Beach and Palm Beach) Bellevue Hills at $216,363 and 2110 at $208,902 (Hunters Hill and Woolwich). The ATO's total tax take in the 2022-23 financial year was $577.4billion, up from $530.1 billion the previous financial year. Just over half the revenues came from individual incomes (about $298billion) while roughly a quarter came from companies (about $140billion). GST contributed 14.2 per cent of the country's tax revenues while excise accounted for 4.4 per cent. Work-related expenses accounted for half the total deductions claimed by individuals while the average super account balance increased from $164,000 to $173,000.


Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
‘I bought a dilapidated former cowshed at auction, now it's worth £1.1m'
When Mathilde Case-Hogestijn moved to the UK from France in 2006, she thought she had plenty of time to buy a home here. Originally from the Netherlands, her first husband had passed away and, in a bid to set herself up for the future, she used the proceeds from selling her French property to bolster her business, which imports home accessories and furniture. What she hadn't bargained for was the speed of rocketing UK house prices. 'Life has a funny way of pulling the rug from under you,' says Case-Hogestijn, 65. 'I rented on a farm in Alfriston, East Sussex. I loved where I lived in the cottage, but to be a tenant isn't certain. Anything could happen; you could be told to leave in two months' time.' She met her now-husband, Paul, 64, in 2012. He didn't own a property either, and moved in with her. Even with two incomes, the couple found it difficult to find somewhere they wanted to buy within their budget. 'From around 2013, the property market just kept going upwards and Paul thought we wouldn't own again… I kept looking for five years. We had an extensive wish list, but not very much money,' she says. The couple decided to consider less common routes to home ownership and, in 2018, a house came up for auction in the nearby village of Herstmonceux, with a guide price of £200,000. It was unusual, to put it mildly. The property was a former cowshed that had been converted into a house. Not only had it become dilapidated since then, but it had an agricultural tie, meaning only those working in farming or forestry, or their dependents, could live there. 'You stood at the entrance to the garden but that was as far as you could go in. There were wild cherries and brambles everywhere – Snow White would have been happy here – but the view [of the South Downs] was unbelievable,' says Case-Hogestijn. The house sat in a garden that covered a third of an acre and had two bedrooms, a small sitting room and a kitchen, but there was no electricity or water. 'It had sycamores growing in the living room and you couldn't get into the toilet because of the ivy.' At this point, most people would turn and run the other way, but not Case-Hogestijn. Despite the property being, in her words, 'a ruin in a bramble thicket', and with no option to get a mortgage on it, the couple decided to borrow money from friends in order to bid. 'We had £100,000 and borrowed £150,000… We thought it would go for over £300,000,' she says. Buying at auction can be risky, but the couple were careful to do their due diligence beforehand, sending the legal pack to a solicitor, and speaking with a planning consultant about the likelihood of the agricultural tie being removed. 'Because they are quite wise to [people buying agricultural ties], you can't just have 10 chickens… [But] I thought we could remove it.' Case-Hogestijn hadn't bid for a property at auction before, but she'd seen it done on TV plenty of times. 'I'd watched Homes Under The Hammer and had a game plan: I decided that, if it was still within budget, I'd wait till the auctioneer said: 'Going once, going twice…' and then I would bid. It got to £250,000 and I raised my paddle, and then it went quiet... and I got it.' The rise of property auctions Buying a home at auction is not the norm, but an increasing number of properties are being bought and sold this way. Last year, around 39,000 properties were listed by auctioneers, of which approximately 27,700 were sold, according to Essential Information Group Property Auctions. This has already ramped up this year – to the end of April, 12,384 properties have been offered and 8,585 sold. Elsewhere, 2024 was a record-breaking year for Savills Auctions, with over £810m raised – the highest in the department's history, and a 42pc increase on 2023. 'The UK property auction market has seen significant growth in the number of lots offered, lots sold, and the total funds raised, indicating a continued buoyancy to the market. There's a sense that more properties are coming to the fore, and an appetite to match,' says Jeremy Lamb, a director within Savills Auctions. While Lamb can't confirm if the purchase prices of properties at auction are less than if they were sold via traditional means, he says: 'Ultimately, lots are priced to sell, with the aim of achieving market price on the day with competitive bidding.' Like Case-Hogestijn's former cowshed, some properties are sold this way because they're unmortgageable, although this isn't always the case. 'Thorough due diligence is essential before bidding. If you're unsure about a property's condition, commissioning a survey or specialist inspection – and obtaining any relevant reports – is strongly recommended,' says Lamb. 'It's also advisable to appoint a solicitor as early as possible. They can review the legal pack for any property you're considering, as well as advise on searches, planning permissions and other critical legal details.' Be aware that buying at auction comes with much tighter deadlines than a standard property purchase. Auction purchasers must pay a non-refundable 10pc deposit when they secure the winning bid and then need to complete within 28 days. 'Ultimately, auctions provide a level playing field and a fantastic opportunity to purchase a wide variety of property in a swift and transparent way,' says Lamb. 'There's also the opportunity to pick up a good deal.' 'We had six maxed-out credit cards and two personal loans' For Case-Hogestijn, securing the house was only the start of the journey. As the couple's priority was to pay back their friends, they couldn't start work straight away. Instead they had to prioritise saving hard so they could repay the loan in a year. 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To finance these initial renovations, the couple pushed their borrowing to the limit. 'We had six maxed-out credit cards and two personal loans that came to well over £150,000,' Case-Hogestijn says. Then, unfortunately, Covid hit and her husband's business suffered – 'Most of our clients dropped off and the business dropped away,' she says. Fortunately, the couple had already managed to get the house into a state that would allow them to borrow against it, so they took out a mortgage for a little over £150,000 and paid off their debts, leaving a little extra with which to continue work. It was July 2021 when they finally moved in, by which time they'd transformed the former cowshed into a four-bedroom house with two en-suites, a family bathroom, double garage, home office and a huge vaulted sitting room. 'We doubled the square footage,' says Case-Hogestijn. 'I knew it when I saw the view, I knew what you could do with it.' The house is now valued at £1.1m. 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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The top towns Aussies are fleeing to in droves and the surprising group that's leaving the big cities for a lifestyle change
Aussies fleeing the housing affordability crisis in Sydney and Melbourne are choosing to settle in more affordable regional centres that are still within reach of capital cities. Those making a sea or tree change from a major city are choosing destinations like Newcastle, Geelong, and the Sunshine Coast as their new home, based on Commonwealth Bank customer data shared with the Regional Australia Institute. These three towns are within two hours of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane respectively and share some of the delights of Australia's biggest cities - just without the same prohibitive cost. 'They're bigger centres ... they come with the amenity that can sometimes be a barrier for other regional locations,' said Liz Ritchie, CEO of the Regional Australia Institute. 'It's a big decision to move and so (they have) closer proximity, where they know that they can drive within a couple of hours back to see family or friends back in that capital city. 'It makes sense that your first move might just be dipping your toe in the water.' It is clear that many Australians are moving - with New South Wales reporting an exodus of 28,000 residents this year, while cheaper south east Queensland gained 26,000 residents. However, just over 3,200 people leave Victoria every year, suggesting many leaving Melbourne are heading to a regional area a short drive away rather than another state with warmer weather. In Victoria, Geelong received the largest share of migration from another part of Australia with a generous 9.3 per cent share, Regional Australia Institute data showed. The neighbouring Moorabool council area, north of Geelong, gets 3.7 per cent of interstate migration while Ballarat attracts 2.4 per cent of Australians relocating. Queensland gets the biggest number of Australians moving from another state with the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane getting an 8.9 per cent of movers. Surprisingly, the Gold Coast is no longer the hotspot for interstate migration it once was, attracting just one per cent of Aussie movers. 'Having spoken to many people who live there, it was very popular in the Covid period, then we felt that it was starting to experience some of the growing pains,' Ms Ritchie said. 'Even just getting around, driving regular sort of errands, became quite difficult. 'As price rises increase, places become too hot.' Instead, the Fraser Coast - which includes Hervey Bay - was the second most popular place to move to, getting 3.3 per cent of relocators. Nearby Gympie is the third most popular tree change destination, with a two per cent share. In New South Wales, areas near Newcastle are the magnets for those moving to a regional area. Lake Macquarie attracted 5.3 per cent of people moving from another part of Australia while nearby Maitland took in 3.5 per cent of movers. The Shoalhaven council area - covering Nowra and Ulladulla on the south coast - was the third most popular place to resettle in NSW, getting 2.6 per cent of interstate migration. When it came to making the move to a regional area, Millennials born from 1981 to 1996 were the most enthusiastic about change. More than half or 57 per cent of Millennials are considering such a move, a YouGov poll of 1,028 people for the Regional Australia Institute found. In a break with recent decades, those in their thirties and forties raising children are now actively considering a regional area, where they could afford a house with a backyard and be close to nature. 'What was once not happening is now happening and so they're taking over,' Ms Ritchie said. 'The housing's more affordable, cheaper cost of living and you don't have the commute. 'Because of the hip pocket, high inflation, high interest rates - the issues we've been reading about daily for the last two years, this is driving these decisions.' Moving to a regional area also gives young people the chance to be more involved with the community they live in. 'Not only do they want to buy a house, they also want to coach the local football team or be part of the local community group, whatever it is that makes them tick,' she said. 'So you do have more time and more space and more connection to each other and more connection to the environment.' Generation Z adults - born from 1997 onwards - were also open minded about moving, with 40 per cent inclined to make the move, putting it well ahead of the 25 per cent of boomers considering a change. The e61 Institute think tank noted Millennial and Gen Z Australians - aged 25 to 34 - were particularly struggling to buy a home, like their parents were able to do at the same age 'with this disparity greater in capital cities'. 'Regardless of occupation, Millennials are leaving Sydney and, more recently, Melbourne, as traditional milestones like owning a home may no longer be seen as attainable to many young Australians living in these major cities,' it said. 'Whether home ownership rates will converge with age remains to be seen.' The ability of white collar professionals to work from home is also accelerating the move to regional areas among younger people. Some 47 per cent of those able to work from home say they would consider moving and continuing in their current role on a remote or hybrid basis. Ms Ritchie suggested working from home was now embedded in Australia's workplace culture, and could accelerate the shift to regional areas among the young. 'It tells us that this is here to stay,' she said. 'They're moving because they want to bring the job that they're in, they want to work remotely. 'Look at how our technology and connectivity has emerged and the pace of change - with that technology uplift, younger people are taking advantage of those opportunities.' The number of Millennials moving to a regional area grew by 54,000 between the 2016 and 2021 Census surveys, a Regional Australia Institute analysis showed. Even before Covid, a major shift was underway. 'Probably you have to go back to the mid-1950s - so a massive change really in a short period.' To illustrate this point, house prices in regional areas rose by 5.4 per cent over the year to May, CoreLogic data showed. This outpaced the three per cent growth pace of capital cities.