Prestige Property: 10 Wentworth Street, Dover Heights, NSW
A cliffside architectural masterwork heads to auction.
2 min
Welcome to the ‘Lighthouse’ — a landmark home by acclaimed architect Peter Stutchbury and winner of the Wilkinson Award for residential property.
Showcasing a site-specific design that complements its clifftop location in Sydney’s coveted Dover Heights, the four-bedroom residence — complete with large double lock-up garage and three bathrooms — is a heady combination of modern glamour, raw materials and elevated finishes.
Throughout the home, themes of raw concrete on the ceiling, floors and coordinating columns are paired with timber finishes in the kitchen, central staircase and panelled details dotted within the property.
It’s a theme that extends to the home’s outer, offering sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and Sydney Heads with its curved, concrete exterior mimicking the shape of the cliffs upon which it is set.
The two-level home sees a lower living, dining and kitchen space that is glass on all sides bringing in plenty of light and ocean views. The home features multiple sliding doors that allow seamless access to the ocean-view lawn, inner pool courtyard and further wide terrace.
Within the residence comes the kitchen, fitted with marble benches, Mile gas and induction cooking plus timber flooring underfoot.
Accommodation is located on the upper level, where a lavish main bedroom gazes across the ocean and features large built in/walk-in robes and opens to a private terrace.
Elsewhere a secluded second bedroom offers privacy with an adjoining norther-east facing sitting room or additional bedroom.
A third bedroom could be used as a large bedroom or relaxed living/study space with views across to the surf at Bondi Beach.
Further highlights include the upper double bathroom — a vast space with separate amenities and featuring a central skylight that skewers the centre of the room down to the lower courtyard pool.
The aforementioned pool, courtyard and outdoor entertaining areas further elevate the home’s functionality.
The listing is with Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty’s Michael Pallier (+61 4127 371 522) and is headed to auction on Wednesday 16 February. Sydneysothebysrealty.com
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Ray White’s chief economist outlines her predictions for housing market trends in 2024
2 min
Ray White’s chief economist, Nerida Conisbee says property price growth will continue next year and mortgage holders will need to “survive until 2025” amid expectations of higher interest rates for longer.
Ms Conisbee said strong population growth and a housing supply shortage combatted the impact of rising interest rates in 2023, leading to unusually strong price growth during a rate hiking cycle. The latest CoreLogic data shows home values have increased by more than 10 percent in the year to date in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Among the regional markets, price growth has been strongest in regional South Australia with 8.6 percent growth and regional Queensland at 6.9 percent growth.
“As interest rates head close to peak, it is expected that price growth will continue. At this point, housing supply remains extremely low and many people that would be new home buyers are being pushed into the established market,” Ms Conisbee said. “Big jumps in rents are pushing more first home buyers into the market and population growth is continuing to be strong.”
Ms Conisbee said interest rates will be higher for longer due to sticky inflation. “… we are unlikely to see a rate cut until late 2024 or early 2025. This means mortgage holders need to survive until 2025, paying far more on their home loans than they did two years ago.”
Buyers in coastal areas currently have a window of opportunity to take advantage of softer prices, Ms Conisbee said. “Look out for beach house bargains over summer but you need to move quick. In many beachside holiday destinations, we saw a sharp rise in properties for sale and a corresponding fall in prices. This was driven by many pandemic driven holiday home purchases coming back on to the market.”
3 key housing market trends for 2024
Here are three of Ms Conisbee’s predictions for the key housing market trends of 2024.
Luxury apartment market to soar
Ms Conisbee said the types of apartments being built have changed dramatically amid more people choosing to live in apartments longer-term and Australia’s ageing population downsizing. “Demand is increasing for much larger, higher quality, more expensive developments. This has resulted in the most expensive apartments in Australia seeing price increases more than double those of an average priced apartment. This year, fewer apartments being built, growing population and a desire to live in some of Australia’s most sought-after inner urban areas will lead to a boom in luxury apartment demand.”
Homes to become even greener
The rising costs of energy and the health impacts of heat are two new factors driving interest in green homes, Ms Conisbee said. “Having a greener home utilising solar and batteries makes it cheaper to run air conditioning, heaters and pool pumps. We are heading into a particularly hot summer and having homes that are difficult to cool down makes them far more dangerous for the elderly and very young.”
More people living alone
For some time now, long-term social changes such as delayed marriage and an ageing population have led to more people living alone. However, Ms Conisbee points out that the pandemic also showed that many people prefer to live alone for lifestyle reasons. “Shorter term, the pandemic has shown that given the chance, many people prefer to live alone with a record increase in single-person households during the time. This trend may influence housing preferences, with a potential rise in demand for smaller dwellings and properties catering to individuals rather than traditional family units.”
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
