In Watsons Bay, a doer-upper on the beachfront sold for $27 million in November, while an original-condition four-bedroom house around the corner sold for $12.38 million.
A three-bedroom waterfront home in Birchgrove, with a private jetty, sold for $8,115,000 in April. The four-bedroom terrace across the street on a slightly smaller block sold for $3.9 million.
A three-bedroom waterfront home on Birchgrove’s Wharf Road, with a private jetty, sold for $8,115,000. A three-bedroom home across the street sold for $3.9 million.Credit:
Buyer’s agent Simon Cohen, chief executive of Cohen Handler, said waterfront homes in the eastern suburbs could be at least twice the price of non-waterfront properties on the same street.
“On Wolseley Road [in Point Piper]The Crescent, Coolong Road and Fitzwilliam Road [in Vaucluse]you definitely see a doubling of the prices … on The Crescent it could be three or four times higher to get something on the waterfront,” he said.
Tightly held harbor homes, particularly those with deep waterfront jetties, were the most desirable, Cohen said, and interest mostly came from locals looking to upgrade. Demand was holding up in the cooling market, but there were a few waterfronts “hanging around”.
A waterfront five-bedroom house in Point Piper, on Wolseley Road, sold for $45 million earlier this year.
A non-waterfront home on Wolseley Road sold for $15.01 million in 2021.Credit:
“I think they’re probably hard to sell because they may have some warts on them, but the good stuff will sell very quickly.”
Most in the eastern suburbs were undeterred by the threat of rising sea levels, he said, but buyers were more wary when looking at beachfront homes in areas such as the Central Coast.
Nigel Mukhi, of Di Jones Neutral Bay, has noticed an influx of buyers shopping for waterfront homes, but properties were in short supply.
“Convincing people to sell them is hard. Buyers understand a lot of these properties are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s a matter of getting something, not how much they pay.”
Homes on the waterfront side of Elamang Avenue and Kirribilli Avenue in Kirribilli, and Bay View Street in McMahons Point, could fetch at least twice the price of similar homes on the high side of the street, I have noted.
Waterfront apartments were also in strong demand. Units with views of the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House commanded the greatest premiums, and were particularly popular with overseas buyers.
“They all have a water view, but if it’s a view of the icons, that can easily add $1 million-plus [to the price of an apartment],” he said.
Danny Cobden, of Cobden Hayson, said premium properties in Balmain and Birchgrove had outperformed other price points.
A waterfront home in Cronulla sold for $7.4 million last year, while the home across the street sold for $4.65 million.Credit:
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I have noted a waterfront Louisa Road home with a mooring and Harbor Bridge views recently sold for $9.75 million, up about 60 per cent from its 2018 sale price. Other properties in the area had seen price lift of 30 to 40 per cent over that time.
While waterfront homes were more valuable, the premiums were smaller when comparing them with non-waterfront homes on desirable streets. However, they could be more than twice the price of equivalent homes in other parts of the suburb.