Rose Bay House: Sydney’s newest waterfront mansion
A $20 million rebuild is set to reshape Rose Bay’s dress circle, with Tribe Studio proposing a sustainable, sculptural mansion to replace the existing trophy home and reclaim its coveted harbour views.
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What happens in one of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs when a neighbour’s trees block your panoramic views of the Harbour? You build a new $20 million house.
That’s the reality in Rose Bay, where there are plans for a knockdown rebuild of the trophy home Indah on the dress circle Bayview Hill Road. That last sold for just over $27 million in 2015 when it was bought by barrister Georgina Black.
Two years ago, Black sought to have four recently planted palm trees on her neighbour’s property removed because they obstructed her view of the Sydney Opera House.
Council rejected the application, so Black took the matter to the Land and Environment Court. They also sided with her neighbour.
Now a new four-level home is planned for the prime 888 sqm block. The documents suggest it will be more in keeping with its location than the existing five-bedroom, glass-swathed mansion.
In its Design Statement submitted to Woollahra Council, Tribe Studio Architects described Rose Bay House as an “ambitious project.” They said they aim to set a high watermark for sustainable and Country-centred design.
Ironically, the report notes that, in a traditional sense, they are “being a good neighbour to the surrounding sites.”
“We are honouring shared views, we are creating landscape buffers, and we have liaised closely with neighbours where possible to secure their support for the proposal,” the report states.
They also say they are driven by being a “good neighbour” to the Harbour.
“In this prominent location, the house is a shared foreshore for everyone using the Harbour. The design reinstates a sandstone, bushy foreshore and reduces the sense of highly reflective, large glass spans that dominate the existing dwelling.”
“We hope to inspire a new generation of luxury that is not reliant on imports and extraction, but rather is inventive, crafted and responsible.”
The elements of the home are categorised for longevity to manage maintenance, upgrades, and overall durability. Permanent elements are designed to last for hundreds of years.
The new home will span four levels. The entry level will feature an open-plan kitchen, living, and dining area opening to gun-barrel views of the Harbour.
Two levels will sit below ground. The lowest level includes a natural pool and a quarry-like, double-height outdoor dining area and undercroft pool zone. Tribe drew inspiration from the Ca’n Terra House by Ensamble Studio in Menorca, Spain, converted in 2020 from an abandoned limestone quarry.
The entire top level will be a dedicated master suite with a dressing room and ensuite. In total, six bedrooms are proposed, along with several home office spaces and lounge areas.
It would be realistic that given the purchase price of the home a decade ago, and a $20 million rebuild, the new trophy residence would become one of the priciest in Rose Bay.
The current Rose Bay record was set earlier this year when a harbourfront home on Tivoli Avenue, with three separate residences on the 1,138 sqm block, sold for a reported $82.5 million.
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The typically busy spring season for the housing market was a dud, and the summer isn’t looking much brighter.
Housing services companies like Zillow Group and Rocket RKT +3.78% were loud and clear last week on earnings calls: Rocket CEO Varun Krishna called the quarter through June “one of the toughest spring housing markets in years.”
Jeremy Hofmann, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call that the company predicted earlier this year that the market for mortgages would be flat. “We actually now think it’s going to be down low-to-mid-single digits,” he said.
The rest of 2026 will remain challenging for mortgage origination volume, says KBW analyst Bose George. The question now is what happens in 2027. “If mortgage rates remain [around] 6.75%, I think that’s going to be challenging even for next year,” he says.
But what’s bad news for mortgage companies could be a positive for bargain hunters. Buyers can expect prices to grow more slowly—or mildly decline—with less competition as long as mortgage rates remain unpredictable.
Mortgage rates at the beginning of the year were solidly below year-ago levels, notes Zillow senior economist Kara Ng. But they surpassed last year’s levels recently, she adds, referencing Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of 30-year fixed mortgage rates. Last week’s reading, at 6.69%, was higher than year-ago levels for the first time in 2026.
“From the affordability point of view, it’s going to get more challenging in the second half of the year,” she says. “And when affordability gets more challenging, that impacts sales and home price appreciation.”
Mortgage application data tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association has cooled since the beginning of the year. The trade group expects that the number of mortgage originations in the remaining two quarters will lag behind last year’s levels, after exceeding 2025 levels in the first half.
Rocket’s early-stage data—which the company told Barron’s it derives from its brokerage Redfin, demand for its mortgage products, and signs in its servicing portfolio that a homeowner is preparing to refinance or move—“leads us to expect the third quarter mortgage market to be smaller than the second,” Chief Financial Officer Brian Brown, said on the company’s call. He added that such an occurrence is “something the industry has not seen since 2022.”
Prices will be about flat nationally, Ng says. Zillow’s most recent forecast, which shows how values are expected to change in the year ending June 2027, show them dropping in roughly half of the 100 largest U.S. metros for which data is available.
Buyers aren’t rushing in at a time when mortgage costs are rising and unpredictable. But those with the right combination of patience and cash could stand to benefit. “If you are financially qualified to buy a starter home, you are facing less competition and you’re more likely to get a price cut,” Ng says.
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