The record sale price fetched by a bungalow in Sydney's eastern suburbs suggests the Harbour City's market has some way to climb according to property experts.
Perched on its own small peninsular along the famed Bondi to Bronte walk, the original 1920s bungalow has set a staggering new record.
Known as 'Lang Syne', the home is understood to have sold at around $45 million on Wednesday, after hitting the market in November last year at a $47-52 million listing price.
The exact sale price is under strict confidentiality orders until settlement and selling agent Ken Jacobs from Forbes Global Properties declined to comment.
Owned by the late radio star Harry Griffiths and held in the family for over six decades, the headland 1,100 square metre block has panoramic 180-degree views right up and down the coast.
It sits across three titles and is one of the largest privately held parcels of oceanfront land in the area, where zoning does not allow for apartments.
The sale eclipses Tamarama's previous record of just over $29 million in 2021 and defied a 19 per cent plunge in property values in the suburb over the last 12 months, according to RP data.
Shift in the market on the horizon
The record sale also comes a day after the federal budget was handed down targeting cost-of-living pressures and follows months of soaring interest rates increasing mortgage stress, including in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
But head of residential research at independent property insight group CoreLogic Australia, Eliza Owen, said Lang Syne reflects an upswing in the property market.
"At the moment, we're getting more data flows that suggest the market is moving into the next phase of the cycle," she told ABC News.
"Sydney home values overall have increased three per cent since bottoming out in January this year, but the highest rate of growth at the moment are really concentrated in the high end of the market."
The upper quartile of Sydney properties is outperforming the rest of the market by an additional 1.1 per cent.
Ms Owen said the high end of the scale usually acts as an indicator of what will happen in the rest of the market.
"I guess it's another data point that just reaffirms the Sydney market is going back up," she said.
Blank canvas for eastern suburbs
As of April, the median property price in Sydney continues to sit around the $1 million mark.
"Sydney home values are extremely high and obviously this is a really high price sale as well," said Ms Owen of Lang Syne's sale, signalling some confidence that the market still has further to go.
"We might see some savvy investors or owner occupiers being attracted to the market at the moment because they perceive we could be at a peak in the rate hiking cycle."
In other words, when interest rates eventually come back down, it will put pressure on house values.
"People who are able to buy in are doing so at the moment because they see that we've just passed the trough," said Ms Owen.
Geographically, she says the eastern suburbs location makes sense for the vast selling price as affluent areas in the city are the first to show signs of recovery.
"I'm sure it would be an opportune place for a development," said Ms Owen.
Architect Bruce Stafford said the property could be a clean slate for redevelopment or renovation.
"You could break it into little pavilions, you could have a big, sweeping facade, there's so many options open to whoever designs the house," he said in a video for Forbes.
"It has every potential to become the most iconic house in Australia."
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