Hugh Jackman Lists Sprawling West Village Triplex For $54.7 Million

The Music Man is making moves: Actor Hugh Jackman has listed his longtime West Village apartment for approx. $54.7 million. The Australian-born “X-Men” and “Les Miserables” actor, 53, and wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 66, purchased the five-bedroom triplex for $29.5 million in 2008, according to records.

“They’ve been there for over 14 years, and they love the apartment and the building, but felt at this point they needed something new,” said Corcoran’s Deborah Grubman, who is representing the listing along with David Adler and Paul Albano, also of Corcoran. “They’re committed New Yorkers, and they will not just be staying in New York City, but will be staying in the immediate area.” (Mr. Jackman is currently starring alongside Sutton Foster in a Broadway revival of “The Music Man.”)

Located in boutique condo building Meier South Tower, the 11,000-square-foot home occupies the eighth, ninth and 10th floors of the building, and is the only individual apartment to have also been designed by the building’s architect, Richard Meier, Ms. Grubman told Mansion Global.

The apartment is designed with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Hudson River, with views maximized by an enormous double-height great room, per listing photos.

“The apartment obviously has huge square footage, but also a huge volume of space because you have the double height living room,” Ms. Grubman said. “When you walk into that entertainment floor, it’s just a wow, with floor-to-ceiling glass. Having the [unit] facing west means those views are of the Statue of Liberty, the boats, remarkable sunsets.

“It’s really kind of a postcard for New York,” Ms. Grubman added.

Four bedrooms with en-suite baths are located on the eighth floor along with a recreation room, a library/guest bedroom, and a terrace overlooking the Hudson River, according to the listing. The great room, which includes a fireplace and space for a large dining area, is located on the ninth floor, as is a home office area and a professional gourmet kitchen with marble counters, breakfast bar seating and wall-to-wall views.

The 10th floor is configured as a primary bedroom suite, which includes a studio or exercise area, as well as a bathroom with dual sinks and a soaking tub with views of the river. The home centers around a sleek white spiral staircase that connects each floor.

Amenities in the building include a fitness centre, full-time doorman and concierge, as well as Jean-George Vongerichten’s Perry Street Restaurant.

“It’s a boutique building, not too big, very congenial and quite intimate,” Ms. Grubman said. “It’s incredibly well-staffed and well run. [Mr. Jackman and Ms. Furness] have absolutely loved and enjoyed the apartment, and raised two children here.”

The listing came on the market on Monday, according to records. Mr. Jackman was not immediately available for comment.

There has been a substantial increase in the number of Australians earning high incomes who are renting their homes instead of owning them, and this may be another element contributing to higher market demand and continually rising rents, according to new research.

The portion of households with an annual income of $140,000 per year (in 2021 dollars), went from 8 percent of the private rental market in 1996 to 24 percent in 2021, according to research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). The AHURI study highlights that longer-term declines in the rate of home ownership in Australia are likely the cause of this trend.

The biggest challenge this creates is the flow-on effect on lower-income households because they may face stronger competition for a limited supply of rental stock, and they also have less capacity to cope with rising rents that look likely to keep going up due to the entrenched undersupply.

The 2024 ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report notes that weekly rents have been rising strongly since the pandemic and are currently re-accelerating. “Nationally, annual rent growth has lifted from a recent low of 8.1 percent year-on-year in October 2023, to 8.6 percent year-on-year in March 2024,” according to the report. “The re-acceleration was particularly evident in house rents, where annual growth bottomed out at 6.8 percent in the year to September, and rose to 8.4 percent in the year to March 2024.”

Rents are also rising in markets that have experienced recent declines. “In Hobart, rent values saw a downturn of -6 percent between March and October 2023. Since bottoming out in October, rents have now moved 5 percent higher to the end of March, and are just 1 percent off the record highs in March 2023. The Canberra rental market was the only other capital city to see a decline in rents in recent years, where rent values fell -3.8 percent between June 2022 and September 2023. Since then, Canberra rents have risen 3.5 percent, and are 1 percent from the record high.”

The Productivity Commission’s review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement points out that high-income earners also have more capacity to relocate to cheaper markets when rents rise, which creates more competition for lower-income households competing for homes in those same areas.

ANZ CoreLogic notes that rents in lower-cost markets have risen the most in recent years, so much so that the portion of earnings that lower-income households have to dedicate to rent has reached a record high 54.3 percent. For middle-income households, it’s 32.2 percent and for high-income households, it’s just 22.9 percent. ‘Housing stress’ has long been defined as requiring more than 30 percent of income to put a roof over your head.

While some high-income households may aspire to own their own homes, rising property values have made that a difficult and long process given the years it takes to save a deposit. ANZ CoreLogic data shows it now takes a median 10.1 years in the capital cities and 9.9 years in regional areas to save a 20 percent deposit to buy a property.

It also takes 48.3 percent of income in the cities and 47.1 percent in the regions to cover mortgage repayments at today’s home loan interest rates, which is far greater than the portion of income required to service rents at a median 30.4 percent in cities and 33.3 percent in the regions.

Hugh Jackman Lists Sprawling West Village Triplex For $54.7 Million

The actor and wife Deborra-Lee Furness purchased the Manhattan apartment for around $29 million in 2008

This may be contributing to continually rising weekly rents