RARE CBD CAR SPACES NEAR OPERA HOUSE COULD FETCH $2 MILLION
Six ultra-rare car spaces near Circular Quay are set to fetch millions at auction in one of Sydney’s tightest property plays.
2 min
It’s the real estate unicorn of Sydney – an inner city car space. Having a private place to park in the CBD is almost as rare as gold dust, but a current listing is offering a sextuplet of scarce spaces with multimillion-dollar potential.
The unusual sale is for six secure car spaces on a single title at 2 Phillip St, Sydney, adjacent to bustling Circular Quay.
Positioned within metres of the Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Bennelong Apartments and Opera Residences, the parking is also beside a sea of elite harbour front eateries in the popular precinct, including Matt Moran’s Aria, and Peter Gilmore’s Quay as well as Bennelong.
Located under The Quay, a 29-storey residential building beside Circular Quay train station and ferries, the spaces have direct street access and measure a total of 85 sq m on title.
The parking spots will go under the hammer all in one line on May 16 at an on-site auction, which could generate interest of more than $2 million, says listing agent James Cowan, head of NSW investment services at Colliers.
“This is a tightly held and undersupplied asset class in the CBD,” he says.
“Reduced on-street parking, coupled with construction, rezoning, and conversions, has all contributed to a critical shortage of car spaces. This scarcity is expected to drive strong interest during the auction campaign.”
Despite the princely sum, if the spaces meet price expectations, each spot would still cost less than the current record for an individual space in Sydney.
That crown goes to a 30 sq m lock-up garage on Roslyndale Ave in Woollahra. It reportedly sold for a head-turning $500,000 in June of last year to a family that had spent $6 million on a nearby house without an enclosed parking garage.
Other pricey sales include a Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach car space, which was snapped up for $304,700 in January last year, and an undercover single-car park on Onslow Avenue in Elizabeth Bay that fetched $249,000 in February 2019.
Cowan and his co-agent Cameron Colquhoun believe the prime location is behind the already high level of inquiry and conversations with potential buyers, pointing to the $2 million figure.
“The prestige and amenity of the surrounding precinct enhances the appeal to both investors and owner-occupiers,” Colquhoun says.
In addition to the dress circle position beside some of Sydney’s most iconic landmarks and fine dining venues, the spaces are also next to the historic Royal Automobile Club of Australia on Macquarie St, making it a dream destination for car connoisseurs and collectors who want to secure their vehicles in the heart of the city.
Six inner city parking spaces at lot 51, 2 Phillip St, Sydney will go to auction on-site on Friday, May 16 at 10.30am with Colliers.
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A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
3 min
For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
Two coming 2027 models – the first of the “Neue Klasse” cars coming to the U.S. early next year – have been revealed.
The grand harbourside residence combines sweeping Sydney Heads views, resort-style entertaining and refined designer finishes with a reported $36 million price guide.
