Shaping Australia’s Next Generation of Luxury Developments

Sydney’s ultra-luxury property market continues to move to its own rhythm.

Scarcity, lifestyle appeal and a new generation of high-net-worth buyers are reshaping how prestige projects are designed, marketed and sold.

We asked Abadeen’s Executive Chairman and Founder Justin Brown to unpack what’s driving demand, where he sees opportunity and how the definition of luxury living is changing.

Q: Sydney’s ultra-luxury property market has remained remarkably resilient. Why?

Supply is structurally tight, and the best sites are almost impossible to replicate. Planning is slow, construction costs are high, and true blue-chip land rarely changes hands. That keeps premium stock scarce.

Much of the demand at this level is from owner-occupiers, and their numbers are increasing exponentially. With long horizons, they help stabilise values through cycles.

As a developer, we manage release strategies carefully. Private placements and staged launches absorb volatility and protect pricing integrity. Sydney’s quality of life, stability, and the international desire to live here do the rest.

Q: Off-market transactions are a hallmark of prestige property sales. What advantages do they offer buyers and sellers?

Both channels have a role. On market provides full exposure, public benchmarking and visible competitive tension. It’s useful when we want to set a new reference price or showcase a precinct at scale.

Off-market delivers privacy, precision and control. There is a smaller pool of qualified buyers who set the tempo and negotiate the terms that actually matter.

It protects residents’ privacy, reduces disruption on site, and keeps the brand experience consistent. Buyers gain early access to irreplaceable products and the ability to tailor outcomes quietly.

For true trophy assets and pre-release allocations, I prefer off-market. We are able to customise and personalise the outcome.

Q: Luxury buyers expect more than location. What must-have features and amenities drive demand?

Views and villages is simplistic but precise. Long, protected outlooks, correct orientation, and a connected neighbourhood that offers vibrancy seven days a week.

Then privacy and a sense of arrival. Generous indoor–outdoor living, a primary kitchen plus a catering space for real entertaining, serious wellness facilities, secure multi-car garaging with EV infrastructure, and building services that feel five-star without fuss.

Technology should disappear into the experience and be reliable. Acoustic and thermal performance matter as much as marble. Designing homes is our craft. We obsess over those details because they determine how a home actually lives and breathes.

Q: Beyond Sydney, are there emerging luxury markets in Australia that high-net-worth investors should watch?

We have further expanded in Melbourne, Perth and Queensland. That is where we see sustained depth for the premium owner-occupier product in the right areas, targeting similar demographics to the Sydney market.

Think Melbourne’s inner bayside and east, Perth’s western suburbs and river precincts, and select Brisbane and Gold Coast locations where scarcity is real and community amenity is maturing.

Q: What has been your most remarkable sale, and what made it unique?

I have been fortunate over the last 30 years to be involved in Australia’s premium apartment revival from Bennelong, Hyde Park precinct and Barangaroo in Sydney, to HMAS in Melbourne, and the waterfront precincts of South-East Queensland and Perth, amounting to more than $200 million in property sales. We have also transacted a high proportion of development opportunities, up to $750 million.

Q: What is one piece of advice you always give high-net-worth buyers?

Choose the developer first. At this level, counterpart risk matters as much as postcode. Buy in the best village with the best views you can, but make your first filter the team delivering it: if you trust the people and the product, move early and buy with confidence.

This interview appeared in the Spring issue of Kanebridge Quarterly magazine. You can buy your copy here.

In Sydney’s Northern Beaches, there are plenty of homes with a multimillion-dollar view and an enviable position close to the sand.

This unique listing has all that, but it has also earned its page in the local history books.

After 50 years in the same hands, The Palladium in Palm Beach—once a famed dance hall, then a restaurant, a private residence, and an artists’ studio—is now back on the market with a price hopes of $13.5 million through BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach.

Positioned in a rare corner spot where Ocean Rd meets Palm Beach Rd, The Palladium has been front and centre observing the famous sandy stretch for almost a century.

Built in the early 1930s, the Art Deco building was originally conceived as a vibrant community dance hall; the “it” place to be for young folk during Sydney’s thriving interwar period.

Often the dances were held to raise money for the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, and newspaper reports of the time told of rowdy parties lasting until the early hours, bootleg liquor arrests, and where shorts and sandals—or even pyjamas—were scandalously worn by “both sexes”.

Over the decades, The Palladium has worn many hats.

By 1943, the original owner, Joseph Henry Graham, had defaulted on his loan, and a mortgagee sale reportedly sold the building for £1550, which translates to about $137,000 today. It later became a dining space and a general store run by the Milton family. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the property was also home to the Blue Pacific Restaurant.

The current owners acquired the keys in 1976 when it began its next chapter as a creative hub. One of today’s vendors, filmmaker David Elfick, who has been a filmmaker and producer on such films as Newsfront and Rabbit-Proof Fence, has told stories of a free-spirited creative hub that has been used for film sets, to store numerous movie props, as editing rooms, to hold countless parties and has even hosted visiting members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

From its famed beachside soirees to its grassroots film club nights, the venue has become woven into the cultural fabric of Palm Beach.

Today, that rich history has been reimagined into a coastal home that honours its past while embracing contemporary beachside living.

Built in a unique architectural style known as streamline moderne, the aeroplane hangar-like building reflects the era’s fascination with air travel, mass transport, and modernity. The facade is defined by a sweeping curved roofline and subtle nautical cues.

The main residence features a vast central living space framed by a number of bedrooms and sunrooms, as well as a front dining room and kitchen. In total, there are four to five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a powder room adjoining an upstairs loft space.

Big, broad windows draw in loads of natural light and provide iconic views, plus the sounds of the beach just across the road.

Many of the original elements remain, most fittingly the polished floors of the former dance hall. In the additional building at the back of the block, there is a separate, self-contained studio with its own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and laundry. From its elevated deck, the outlook stretches across the full sweep of Palm Beach.

Outside, the expansive 1151sq m land parcel also features established gardens with veggie patches and standalone decks for quiet contemplation.

Sitting just across the road from the beach, the property is also within walking distance of local cafes and the surf club. Palm Beach Rock Pool is at one end of the beach, with the Palm Beach Golf Club and the water airport at the other end of the peninsula.

The Palladium and Palm Beach Studio at 16 Ocean Rd, Palm Beach are listed with BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach via a private treaty campaign with a price guide of $13.5 million.

Shaping Australia’s Next Generation of Luxury Developments

Abadeen Executive Chairman & Founder Justin Brown shares his insights on the resilience of Sydney’s ultra-luxury property market and the future of premium living.

After half a century in the same hands, The Palladium blends Art Deco heritage, cinematic history and beachfront living in one extraordinary offering.