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.
3 min
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.
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Office rents in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are climbing at their fastest pace since the pandemic as tenants compete for premium CBD space amid tightening supply.
2 min
Australia’s major CBD office markets are recording some of their strongest rental growth since the pandemic, with businesses increasingly prioritising premium office space despite elevated geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Knight Frank’s Australian Office Indicators Q1 2026 report found net effective rents in Sydney and Melbourne CBDs rose at their fastest annual pace since COVID-19, increasing 10.2 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively over the 12 months to March.
Brisbane posted the strongest growth nationally, with net effective rents climbing 11.7 per cent over the same period.
The report points to a widening divide between prime CBD office towers and secondary office stock, as occupiers increasingly focus on quality, location and workplace amenity when making leasing decisions.
Knight Frank Senior Economist, Research & Consulting Alistair Read said demand remained heavily concentrated in premium assets within core CBD precincts, helping drive stronger rental growth in top-tier buildings.
“Occupier demand continues to be heavily concentrated in the most desirable CBD precincts and the highest-quality buildings, accelerating a sharp divergence between core and non-core markets,” Mr Read said.
According to the report, Sydney’s Core precinct and Melbourne’s Eastern Core significantly outperformed broader CBD markets over the past year.
“In Sydney’s Core precinct and Melbourne’s Eastern Core, net effective rents surged 14.3% and 16.1% over the past year, significantly outperforming the rest-of-CBD precincts,” Mr Read said.
The rental gap between prime and non-prime office locations has also continued to widen sharply.
“As a result, core CBD rents are now 54% higher than non-core locations in Sydney and 93% higher in Melbourne, highlighting the growing premium placed on amenity, accessibility and workplace quality,” he said.
Knight Frank said the strong rental growth across the major CBDs was being underpinned by a limited supply pipeline, with few new office developments expected to be delivered in the near term.
Mr Read said subdued construction activity was likely to support ongoing rental growth and tighter vacancy rates over the medium term, particularly for premium office towers.
“The combination of sustained demand and declining levels of new development will aid ongoing prime rental growth and lower vacancy rates over the medium term, particularly for best-in-class assets,” he said.
The report noted that current economic conditions were making new office developments increasingly difficult to justify financially.
“Economic rents remain well above expected market rents, making the construction of new office towers largely unviable, and concentrating tenant demand into existing buildings,” Mr Read said.
While suburban office markets generally remained subdued compared with CBDs, Melbourne’s Southbank precinct was identified as a relative outperformer, recording annual net effective rental growth of 2.7 per cent.
The report comes as broader Asia-Pacific office markets continue to stabilise following several years of disruption linked to hybrid work trends, inflation and rising interest rates.
Knight Frank’s separate Asia-Pacific Q1 2026 Office Highlights report found Sydney and Brisbane were among the strongest-performing office rental markets in the region, behind only Bengaluru and Tokyo for annual prime net face rental growth.
The Asia-Pacific report also found 18 of the 24 cities monitored across the region recorded stable or increasing rents in the first quarter of 2026, even as geopolitical uncertainty intensified following escalating conflict in the Middle East.
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