Green Is Good: Prices Higher in Sydney’s Leafy Suburbs

Sometimes the grass is, in fact, greener.

The value of parks, trees and backyards is bolstering property prices in a number of “green suburbs” in Sydney according to data from Corelogic.

It comes as the post-COVID-19 world shifts towards a renewed focus on healthy, urban living with many cities nationally increasing parkland, cycle lanes and more.

Greenspace refers to public or private land that is completely or partly covered with grass, trees, shrubs or other vegetation. In Sydney, that looks like parks, community gardens, cemeteries, school yards, playground and vacant lots.

New findings from Corelogic suggest that there has been a direct increase in housing value premiums in suburbs across Sydney where the average of green or open space is higher.

Highest proportion of public greenspace

	Average house sale price 2019	Average unit sale price 2019	Average % public greenspace
Heathcote – Waterfall	$912,937	$622,500	80.50%
Berowra – Brooklyn – Cowan	$1,007,297	$738,500	78.10%
Terrey Hills – Duffys Forest	$2,185,206	$585,000	75.00%
Asquith – mount Colah	$1,065,767	$660,995	66.30%
Menai – Lucas Heights – Woronora	$998,368	$738,072	64.10%
Bayview – Elanora Heights	$1,871,173	$1,718,333	57.80%
Woronora Heights	$1,095,702	$976,250	57.40%
Turramurra	$1,924,818	$993,229	57.00%
Helensburgh	$941,500	$726,368	56.20%
Manly Vale – Allamie Heights	$1,795,322	$722,182	52.70%

^Source: Corelogic

“Our case study has revealed a positive correlation between housing values and greenspace,” Corelogic head of research Tim Lawless said.

“As Australia’s climate change strategies and domestic policy evolve over the years ahead, the market’s readiness to value ‘greenness’ as a tangible property feature may strengthen.”

“In areas where greenspace was scarce, such as the Eastern Suburbs and Inner City, private greenspace had a far stronger relationship with price,” Lawless added.

However, when compared to European cities, the correlation between greenspace and housing prices was low due to Sydney’s larger volume of greenspace.

For example, Sydney currently has 46% public greenspace while Amsterdam has 13% and London 33%.

Many luxury hotels only build on their gilded reputations with each passing decade. But others are less fortunate. Here are five long-gone grandes dames that fell from grace—and one that persists, but in a significantly diminished form.

The Proto-Marmont |

The Garden of Allah, Los Angeles

A magnet for celebrities, the Garden of Allah was once the scene-making equivalent of today’s Chateau Marmont. Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner’s affair allegedly started there and Humphrey Bogart lived in one of its bungalows for a time.

Crimean expat Alla Nazimova leased a grand home in Hollywood after World War I, but soon turned it into a hotel, where she prioritised glamorous clientele. Others risked being ejected by guards and a fearsome dog dubbed the Hound of the Baskervilles. Demolished in the 1950s, the site’s now a parking lot.

The Failed Follow-Up |

Hotel Astor, New York City

The Astor family hoped to repeat their success when they opened this sequel to their megahit Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1904. It became an anchor of the nascent Theater District, buzzy (and naughty) enough to inspire Cole Porter to write in “High Society”: “Have you heard that Mimsie Starr…got pinched in the Astor Bar?”

That bar soon gained another reputation. “Gentlemen who preferred the company of other gentlemen would meet in a certain section of the bar,” said travel expert Henry Harteveldt of consulting firm Atmosphere Research. By the 1960s, the hotel had lost its lustre and was demolished; the 54-storey One Astor Plaza skyscraper was built in its place.

The Island Playground |

Santa Carolina Hotel, Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique

In the 1950s, colonial officers around Africa treated Mozambique as an off-duty playground. They flocked, in particular, to the Santa Carolina, a five-star hotel on a gorgeous archipelago off the country’s southern coast.

Run by a Portuguese businessman and his wife, the resort included an airstrip that ferried visitors in and out. Ask locals why the place was eventually reduced to rubble, and some whisper that the couple were cursed—and that’s why no one wanted to take over when the business collapsed in the ’70s. Today, seeing the abandoned, crumbled ruins and murals bleached by the sun, it’s hard to dismiss their superstitions entirely.

The Tourism Gimmick |

Bali Hai Raiatea, French Polynesia

The overwater bungalow, a shorthand for barefoot luxury around the world, began in French Polynesia—but not with the locals. Instead, it was a marketing gimmick cooked up by a trio of rascally Americans. They moved to French Polynesia in the late 1950s, and soon tried to capitalise on the newly built international airport and a looming tourism boom.

That proved difficult because their five-room hotel on the island of Raiatea lacked a beach. They devised a fix: building rooms on pontoons above the water. They were an instant phenomenon, spreading around the islands and the world—per fan site OverwaterBungalows.net , there are now more than 9,000 worldwide, from the Maldives to Mexico. That first property, though, is no more.

The New England Holdout |

Poland Springs Resort, Poland, Maine

The Ricker family started out as innkeepers, running a stagecoach stop in Maine in the 1790s. When Hiram Ricker took over the operation, the family expanded into the business by which it would make its fortune: water. Thanks to savvy marketing, by the 1870s, doctors were prescribing Poland Spring mineral water and die-hards were making pilgrimages to the source.

The Rickers opened the Poland Spring House in 1876, and eventually expanded it to include one of the earliest resort-based golf courses in the country, a barber shop, dance studio and music hall. By the turn of the century, it was among the most glamorous resort complexes in New England.

Mismanagement eventually forced its sale in 1962, and both the water operation and hospitality holdings went through several owners and operators. While the water venture retains its prominence, the hotel has weathered less well, becoming a pleasant—but far from luxurious—mid-market resort. Former NYU hospitality professor Bjorn Hanson says attempts at upgrading over the decades have been futile. “I was a consultant to a developer in the 1970s to return the resort to its ‘former glory,’ but it never happened.”