How should I put this? 2023 was a good year for the top end of the property market, it didn’t necessarily create any spectacular records, but it was a solid innings, to use a cricket term.
Top 25 - Sydney House Sales
I’ll let you ponder the Top 25 House sales below, then I’ll offer some commentary with further data.
| Top 25 Sydney House Sales 2023 | ||||||
| 1 | Bellevue Hill | $76,000,000 | 14 | Bellevue Hill | $35,000,000 | |
| 2 | Point Piper | $68,000,000 | 15 | Bellevue Hill | $33,500,000 | |
| 3 | Bellevue Hill | $61,500,000 | 16 | Bellevue Hill | $33,000,000 | |
| 4 | Point Piper | $60,000,000 | 17 | Watsons Bay | $33,000,000 | |
| 5 | Tamarama | $45,000,000 | 18 | Vaucluse | $32,500,000 | |
| 6 | Vaucluse | $40,500,000 | 19 | Clontarf | $32,180,000 | |
| 7 | Avalon Beach | $40,000,000 | 20 | Bellevue Hill | $30,000,000 | |
| 8 | Bellevue Hill | $39,350,000 | 21 | Potts Point | $30,350,000 | |
| 9 | Vaucluse | $39,000,000 | 22 | Bellevue Hill | $30,000,000 | |
| 10 | Bellevue Hill | $38,000,000 | 23 | Vaucluse | $30,000,000 | |
| 11 | Vaucluse | $37,000,000 | 24 | Vaucluse | $30,000,000 | |
| 12 | Vaucluse | $36,200,000 | 25 | Bronte | $29,250,000 | |
| 13 | Double Bay | $35,000,000 | ||||
There wasn’t anything particularly surprising in the Top 25 table, except for the extraordinary $40M sale at Avalon Beach, setting a record for the Northern Beaches, Lower North Shore, and Upper Norther Shore. The other “big” result was the $45M sale at Tamarama, which well and truly eclipsed the previous suburb record.
Bellevue Hill appeared nine times in the Top 25 list, with Vaucluse following closely with six appearances. So, two suburbs accounted for 67% of the positions in the Top 25. In the last few years Bellevue Hill has really surged along with strong prices. It wasn’t that long ago that there were very few sales in the suburb above $30M. A lot of money is now being invested in the suburb, renovations of $2M - $5M are not uncommon for many properties.
You now need almost $30M to appear in the Top 25, a substantial increase from previous years: $14.8M (2017), $18.5M (2018), $14.3M (2019), $17.5M (2020), $24.5M (2021) & $24M (2022).
Of the Top 25 sales, 23 were in the Eastern Suburbs, marking the best- performing year since 2017. Previous years recorded 19 sales in 2022, 22 in 2021, 18 in 2020, 17 in 2019, 21 in 2018, and 19 in 2017.
What does that mean?
Well, you can expect the Lower North Shore, Upper Northern and Northern Beaches to play catch up in the next few years. These three regions are likely to surge in value as they look “cheap” compared to the Eastern Suburbs.
Top 25 - Total Sydney House Sale Prices
| Top 25 Total Sale Prices Per Year | % Change | |
| 2017 | $658,278,400 | |
| 2018 | $728,586,800 | 10.7% |
| 2019 | $524,773,000 | -28.0% |
| 2020 | $702,050,000 | 33.8% |
| 2021 | $782,925,000 | 11.5% |
| 2022 | $993,090,000 | 26.8% |
| 2023 | $994,330,000 | 0.1% |
Amazing growth in the last few years in terms of Total Sale Prices. Sydney’s Top 25 nearly cracked $1B worth of sales. That’s a great year for real estate commission if you play in this price range. That said, it was interesting to see how 2023 levelled off from the previous year. Another interesting observation is that it was almost double to that of 2019 in just 4 years. As for the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 -2022, obviously nil.
Top 25 - Median Sydney House Price
| Top 25 Media Price Per Year | % Change | |
| 2017 | $21,000,000 | |
| 2018 | $23,733,800 | 13.0% |
| 2019 | $18,000,000 | -24.2% |
| 2020 | $22,650,000 | 25.8% |
| 2021 | $28,500,000 | 25.8% |
| 2022 | $33,000,000 | 15.8% |
| 2023 | $35,000,000 | 6.1% |
Not the best-performing year in recent times in respect of Median Price Growth, but I’ll take $2M in a year for doing nothing. So, if in 2017, you bought the Median property for $21M, it's now worth $35M. that’s an increase of 67%, or $14M. Now if I can just find a way to buy one of these properties.
Top 10 - Sydney House Prices
| Top 10 Sydney House Prices Per Year | |||||||
| RANK | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| 1 | 71.00 | 100.00 | 40.00 | 95.00 | 45.00 | 130.00 | 76.00 |
| 2 | 65.25 | 58.00 | 36.50 | 51.00 | 45.00 | 62.75 | 68.00 |
| 3 | 39.00 | 44.00 | 34.00 | 36.00 | 40.00 | 60.00 | 61.50 |
| 4 | 36.00 | 38.80 | 33.00 | 34.00 | 38.50 | 59.50 | 60.00 |
| 5 | 31.80 | 31.00 | 23.56 | 33.00 | 38.00 | 52.25 | 45.00 |
| 6 | 30.26 | 30.50 | 23.00 | 32.50 | 37.50 | 45.00 | 40.50 |
| 7 | 30.00 | 30.00 | 22.60 | 32.00 | 35.00 | 42.20 | 40.00 |
| 8 | 28.00 | 29.50 | 22.00 | 30.00 | 35.00 | 40.00 | 39.35 |
| 9 | 26.50 | 28.52 | 21.80 | 29.00 | 34.50 | 37.50 | 39.00 |
| 10 | 22.45 | 28.00 | 20.50 | 24.60 | 32.50 | 37.00 | 38.00 |
| Total | 380.3 | 418.3 | 277.0 | 397.1 | 381.0 | 566.2 | 507.4 |
| Lowest | 22.5 | 28.0 | 20.5 | 24.6 | 32.5 | 37.0 | 38.0 |
| Highest | 71.0 | 100.0 | 40.0 | 95.0 | 45.0 | 130.0 | 76.0 |
| Median | 31.0 | 30.8 | 23.3 | 32.8 | 37.8 | 48.6 | 42.8 |
All Amounts in $M AUD
Finally, let's zoom into the Top 10 for a bit of fun. You now need at least $38M for a place. That is almost double from 2019 when it was $20.5M. 2022 was obviously a great year, but a bit skewed because of the $130M sale. Anyway, that’s the year that was 2023. Overall, a good solid year after spectacular growth from 2020 -2022. As for 2024, I’ll make a bold prediction, maybe not that bold; a repeat of 2023. There will still be new suburb records, particularly on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the rich and famous will continue to pour their money into property, including major renovations and new construction. I also have a gut feeling that we will see another $100M sale in the Eastern Suburbs, probably in Point Piper.
Data Sources: Pricefinder, Corelogic, Domain, Acumentis Research