Home Sellers Can Get Carried Away When It Comes to Greenery

Q: Has a houseplant ever upstaged a showing?

Mercedes Menocal Gregoire

Senior global real-estate adviser and associate broker

Sotheby’s International Realty, NYC

It was an estate sale, a duplex apartment in a prewar building on the Upper East Side. There was a humongous cactus in the living room, the kind you see in the desert in California. It was like a gigantic Christmas tree, at least 10 feet tall, with tentacles coming out and big, big spines all over the place. When you walked in, the only thing you saw was that monstrosity. There isn’t a word to describe this thing. It was like “Little Shop of Horrors.”

I got pricked the first day I went to see the apartment. It was the summer and I was wearing linen pants and a Tory Burch tunic shirt. I went too close to the thing while I was talking to someone and got caught in one of the branches. It ruined my blouse.

The owners had died, and their children didn’t want to stage the apartment. The first week I said, “We at least have to move the cactus,” and they were like, “Oh no, we don’t want to pay for it.”

So I volunteered to move the cactus. I really wanted to sell this apartment.

It took three guys in protective gear with a chain saw. They started cutting the branches, cutting the branches. It took three hours. They filled 30 or 40 bags—big industrial ones. It cost like $600. I gave the super $100 in cash and he called someone to remove the bags.

We sold the duplex for US$3.5 million. Of course, the children weren’t happy with the price.

David Mazujian

Real-estate agent

The Corcoran Group, East Hampton, N.Y.

The listing in the Hamptons was very pastoral, very private, priced $1 million to $2 million. I would say the owner was a bit of a horticulturalist. There were huge plants that in the summertime would go outside but which came inside in October. I was showing the house in the fall. When I came into the house, I was overwhelmed. There were huge pots on the floor. They were beautiful plants, but it just blocked the view.

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID BAMUNDO/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

It was a huge challenge navigating the living space during showings. I was concerned with liability. You don’t want anybody tripping over the plants.

One potential buyer couldn’t get through the door, literally. It was a back door, and there was a very large terra-cotta pot with these large banana leaves coming out.

Apparently, one time a buyer did move the pot and one of the big leaves was damaged. That became an issue with the owner.

So I learned early on that we have to do our best to walk around the plants and not move them and not touch them. I would say, “Oh, I’m really sorry, the owner is a horticulturalist and let’s just be careful as we walk around this plant and slightly move the leaves.”

I love plants, but if I were trying to sell a house, those things would be gone yesterday.

Alexandria Ludlow

Sales associate

Summit Sotheby’s International Realty, Southern Utah

The house was 11,000 square feet and very old-fashioned. It would be a great place to host a murder mystery situation—marble floors, candelabras everywhere, a knight in shining armor. And on every surface and in every corner, there was a fake plant of some kind. There was fake ivy everywhere—over the tops of the windows, on top of the cabinets in the kitchen. In the master bathroom, they had a 4-foot vase with another 4 feet of fake pink lilies. In the kitchen, there were lots of gerbera daisy-type silk flowers and a wreath that was 4 or 5 feet in diameter. It took two of us to move it for the photos. They could have filmed “Jumanji” in that house.

I gave the owners my feedback for how to spruce up the place for staging. They did everything I asked them to. They had to hire a junk-removal service. They said they filled two dumpsters full of the fake plants—the ones they were willing to get rid of. They filled all the walk-in closets with all the other ones. They were so attached to some of these floral arrangements.

The weirder part is that the house was being sold fully furnished, except for the fake plants. When we were in negotiations, I’d say, “Everything except the family heirloom piano and the fake greenery are included.” The buyer was like, “Are you joking?”

Sydney is well and truly on the world map when it comes to luxury residential property, rivalling—and even beating—the likes of Tokyo and Dubai in terms of price per square metre.

The harbour capital has also proven itself to be a powerhouse for luxury residential rental growth. Knight Frank’s Prime Global Rental Index Q4 2024 showed prime rents across Sydney grew 4.7 per cent over 2024, the fifth-highest growth globally.

This has pushed several of Sydney’s top suburbs over the $2,000 per week median rent mark for a house, with surrounding areas fast approaching the milestone.

We’ve wrapped up the most expensive suburbs to live in across Sydney, with data sourced from property data analytics firm CoreLogic.

1. Vaucluse: Median purchase: $8.69m; Median rent: $2,198

Vaucluse has consistently ranked as Sydney’s most expensive suburb for rental properties over the past few years, even with annual rents contracting by over 14 per cent. What sets it apart is its unique geography—it’s the only suburb in the Eastern Suburbs that stretches from the harbour to the ocean. Homes in Vaucluse top the price charts because most either boast Sydney Harbour views or enjoy uninterrupted outlooks over the Pacific Ocean.

The Neighbourhood

While most Eastern Suburbs have one main beach, Vaucluse is dotted with several secluded spots, such as Parsley Bay, Milk Beach, and the recently reopened Shark Beach, which had been closed for several years due to retaining wall repairs.

2. Dover Heights: Median purchase: $6.38m; Median rent: $2,024

Vaucluse’s immediate southern neighbour, Dover Heights, is the only other suburb in Sydney with a median house rental over $2,000. Dover Heights hugs the cliffs and is well known as one of the most tightly held house markets in the Eastern Suburbs. The homes are perched on the cliffside, and the majority of houses in the area have at least four bedrooms, pushing up prices.

The Neighbourhood

While there are no beaches to speak of, its elevated position provides some of the highest views of Sydney Harbour. It is also home to the Federation Cliff Walk, a five-kilometre clifftop walk with postcard views of the Pacific Ocean from Dover Heights to Watsons Bay.

3. Bronte: Median purchase: $5.64m, Median rent: $1,963

Bronte takes out the title of the most expensive of the ‘typical’ Eastern Suburbs beachside suburbs. Just 30 per cent of homes in Bronte are separate houses, with nearly half being apartments. Houses in the rental pool are typically original homes dating back to the 1960s that have been renovated over the last decade or so.

The Neighbourhood
Bronte has long been a favourite due to its more relaxed beachside lifestyle compared to the busier Bondi, although Bronte is no longer a ‘hidden gem’ anymore. It offers numerous lifestyle perks, from a small high street lined with shops and cafés to several eateries located by the beach, which also features one of the best natural ocean pools in the Eastern Suburbs.

4. North Bondi: Median purchase: $4.81m; Median rent: $1,932

North Bondi has become a hotbed of new homes, with frequent sales of either original houses or older apartment complexes being bought to be demolished and replaced by brand-new contemporary builds. There’s a mix of original cottages and new homes in the rental pool, the latter fetching over $7,000 a week.

The Neighbourhood
North Bondi is situated in a small pocket, just south of Dover Heights and north of Bondi Beach. Starting at the Ben Buckler Peninsula, near where Campbell Parade transitions into Military Road, North Bondi is one of the most secluded areas on the coastline, with Hastings Parade, Brighton Boulevard, and Ramsgate Avenue all offering a southward view over the sand.

5. Balgowlah Heights: Median purchase: $4.13m; Median rent: $1,930

Balgowlah Heights is the most expensive suburb to rent a house in the Northern Beaches. Land sizes tend to be much larger, and you get more for your money in the area compared to the East.

The Neighbourhood
Balgowlah Heights is the harbourside southern neighbour of Balgowlah. The Sydney Harbour National Park occupies half of the leafy suburb, part of the Manly to Spit Bridge Walk, and is home to Tania Park, with a children’s playground and sporting facilities overlooking Manly Cove. Nestled on the northern shores of Sydney Harbour, it offers a serene and leafy environment.

6. Bellevue Hill: Median purchase: $10.63m; Median rent: $1,917

Bellevue Hill stands as one of Sydney’s most prestigious suburbs and has some of the largest houses by median land size.

Given the large gap between median purchase price and median rental price, it is no wonder renters want to live among $10m homes and pay under $2,000 a week, when a $10m purchase means $2m deposit, over $500k in stamp duty, and roughly $12,000 a week in repayments.

Most mansions will never make it to public rental sites and are often snapped up by Hollywood stars, musicians, or even royalty when they visit Australia.

The Neighbourhood
One of the biggest drawcards for those living in Bellevue Hill is the proximity to two of the country’s top schools. While there are no catchment areas for private schools, Cranbrook School and Scots College will always draw affluent families to the suburb. Scots fees start at around $30,000 per annum from Year One and reach nearly $50,000 by Year 12.

Sydney’s Cheapest Suburb: Tregear; Median purchase: $782,000; Median rent: $544

The cheapest suburb to rent in Sydney is Tregear, located on the outskirts of Mt Druitt, approximately 50 km west of the CBD. The median house rental is $544, which is four times cheaper than renting a house in Vaucluse. The median house price in Tregear is $782,000, around 12 times less than Vaucluse.

Sydney’s Best Suburb: Point Piper

If money were no object, it’s hard to look past Sydney’s most affluent suburb as the top pick for the best place to live in the city, in my opinion.

It doesn’t even have an actual median house price, simply because so few properties change hands. Last year, just five houses sold, ranging from $8 million to $51.5 million. Homes on the best streets offer gun-barrel views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, while the cosmopolitan Double Bay next door provides all the lifestyle conveniences.