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2015 Property Overview
According to media reports for the past couple of years you would be led to believe that every property across
Sydney has surged in value. There’s no doubt that the market has experienced a one of most prolonged periods
of growth but growth is never evenly distributed and there are always exceptions, here are just a couple of
examples:
An apartment that traded in Portico in 2002 for $752,400 sold in August 2014 for $720,000.
An apartment within the highly prized The Hyde sold direct from the developer in April 2009 for $3.7 million
traded for $50,000 less in September 2014 for $3.65 million.
In late 2014 and early 2015 I remember several phone calls from vendors quite mystified. The media were
reporting substantial capital gains but in reality this was not being translated. One particular owner had tried to
sell his apartment with several different agents for 12 months prior to appointing me, the asking price was in line
with previous sales of this type a couple of years earlier. The bottom line was there were limited buyers looking
in this price bracket in the city. So the constant media feed of rising prices was certainly lost on some vendors.
There are other examples however all of these apartments would have made capital gains in 2015. Suffice to say
that property is about all about timing and you cannot label an entire market.
In order to undertake this report I have reviewed every apartment sale in 2014 and 2015 for each development
that includes the following information:
• Configuration.
• Bedrooms.
• Bathrooms.
• Number of Car Spaces.
• Apartment size.
• Parking size.
• Storage size.
• Last Sale Price and Date.
• Last Square Metre Rate.
• Off Plan Sale Price and Date.
• Compound Annual Growth Rates.
As with all information it is only as good as what is put in. I have cross referenced this information against as
many property platforms as possible in order to mitigate the risk of mistakes. Some data is missing as no
information was found, this is especially true for older developments. Due to the size these spreadsheets are not
included with the body of this report but are a valuable office resource.
Generally speaking when it comes to property transactions vendors quite naturally want to maximise their asset
and buyers want to pay the minimum and both can cherry pick information to justify their standpoint. It is worth
noting that a property sale price is merely a price that a buyer was prepared to pay and a vendor was prepared
to accept. On occasions this can be quite different to what I would describe a property’s real market value.
An extreme but true example; in 2010 an agent sold two identical apartments in Sydney Wharf for a price
differential of circa $850,000 or 30% within a 17 week period. They were identical neighbouring apartments,
same floor plans, size and aspect. Sold in the same market the only difference was owner motivation; one vendor
was highly motivated to sell, marketed with multiple agents and took one of the few offers around at the time.
Next door was owned by someone who had no intention of selling, wasn’t on the market but another neighbour
wanted to purchase it in order to combine them. So with no choice this buyer had to pay a large premium price
to make it enticing enough to sell.