Ray White Upper North Shore

of the financial year four bidders battled for a five-bedroom family home on the beautiful peninsula, selling for $7.4 million – more than $1.4 million over reserve. Many Lower North Shore locals took advantage of surging house prices to sell their large homes and relocate to townhouses and spacious apartments in surrounding suburbs. Add those downsizers, who want to stay local while capitalising on selling their property for a grand profit in this market, into the mix and you’ve got rampant buyer demand. Community remained key for downsizers and local buyers alike. New developments, such as Akoya in Greenwich, are being built with a post- pandemic focus on neighbours and community in mind. The 24-7 parable The pandemic made the appeal of proximity to CBD office locations moot, galvanizing swarms of young professionals to upgrade to luxury apartments as they re-evaluated what was important, or should we say, necessary in their home. Professionals now prize dedicated workspaces. A desk stuck in a corner of a spare room no longer suffices. In the midst of a pandemic, some call the need to upgrade “sanity-saving upsizing”. When searching for a new home, we found buyers often asked for spacious luxury apartments in good neighbourhoods and proximity to retail services. Are nearby neighbours young professional parents too? Is there a separate study? Is there ample light throughout the day? This meant two-bedrooms, three-bedrooms and house-sized apartments became (and still are) incredibly competitive among buyers, further driving property prices to new heights. In some markets, apartment prices in premium locations began growing faster than houses. North Sydney apartment prices, for example, have experienced 6.7% growth and now have a $1,120,000 median unit price. This change in buyer behaviour away from pokey apartments saw a plethora of one-bedroom apartments up for sale and also for lease as their popularity dwindled. Short, Sharp Campaigns Auction campaigns dramatically shortened over the financial year as potential buyers became impatient. Their offers became decisive and compelling for sellers. Buyers no longer wanted to wait the standard four weeks to see if they were going to be outbid, again. The shortage of stock across the Lower North Shore and the fear of missing out (FOMO) among buyers induced battles at auctions. A sought after two-bedroom apartment in the well located Ben Boyd Rd, positioned less than 400 metres from the heart of Neutral Bay, catapulted $220,000 above reserve on auction day. Launched online with an auction guide of $1.05 million the property attracted 110 groups of potential buyers as they walked through the spacious two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment, with 31 contracts being issued. After being open for only two Saturdays and two Wednesdays, it hit the auction floor two weeks early with the reserve set at $1.2 million. Fastforward 18 bids later, at an average increment of $13,000 per bid, and the property sold to a first home buyer at $1,420,000. Staycations and Renovations Summer holidays in Europe and ski trips to Aspen were replaced by staycations and annual overseas travel budgets were diverted to upgrading the family home. Australia became a renovation nation. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the value of home renovation-related lending in January was up a massive 47.4% compared with the same time last year.