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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A vibrant 1954 Palm Springs home featuring eight colorful murals by late artist Shawn Savage is on the market for $2.295 million. The 2,237-square-foot property features bold hot-pink doors, three bedrooms, a pool, mountain views and playful interiors blending modern glamour with classic Palm Springs style.
3 min
A bold 1950s home in Palm Springs, California, adorned with eight colorful murals by the late artist Shawn Savage, is coming to market ahead of the city’s annual Modernism Week.
The white stucco home on El Camino Way, built in 1954 and recently renovated, has an asking price of $2.295 million. Its staggered facade features three playfully abstract murals on either side of double-height hot pink doors.
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The sellers are Los Angeles-based partners John Freeman and Mathieu Faure, who knew it was “the one” when they saw it after several months of searching in the winter of 2023. “It’s a happy house,” Freeman said. “We really liked the feel of the house: the uniqueness, the openness, the brightness—and the art.”
Located in the Mesa neighborhood of Palm Springs, which backs up to the San Jacinto Mountains, the 2,237-square-foot house features three bedrooms, an angled bonus room and a yard with a pool, desert mountain views and another colorful mural running alongside the pool.
“I never thought in my life I would have a house with pink doors,” said Faure, a producer at Apple TV who is originally from Paris. “It’s so colorful, it’s so different. And so Palm Springs.”
The layout of the home creates a smooth flow from the front doors through the open-plan common area—a foyer, bar, and living and dining room—into the kitchen around a fireplace wall and out to the yard. A corridor leads to a private bedroom wing, where the primary suite has floor-to-ceiling windows and the primary bath is only a tad smaller than the bedroom.
Faure has filled the home with Jonathan Adler furniture, rugs and accessories, riffing on the energetic California vibes of the house to create an aesthetic of “modern American glamour,” he said.
“It was enjoyable for me to play with different types of furniture and make this house ‘happy chic,’ as I describe it,” he said.
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“He did a fantastic job,” said Freeman, who is an attorney and consultant. “It does kind of bring a smile to my face whenever I walk into the house.”
Since the furniture and decor were chosen for the particularities of the space, the couple is open to selling them with the home. Their West Hollywood house is already furnished; the collection doesn’t match the vibes of a Houston loft they bought near family; and Faure can’t imagine these pieces in New York—where he’s lived in the past—he said.
The duo bought the Palm Springs house for $1.925 million in 2024, according to property records, and will list the home Monday. They are represented by Stewart Smith, Patrick Jordan and Kevin Stanley of Bennion Deville Homes/Luxury Portfolio International.
The previous owners had purchased the home in 2021 for $975,000 and then spent more than two years and $700,000 on the renovation, according to Realtor.com. They commissioned Savage, a local Palm Springs artist and painter known for his joyful abstract work, to decorate the home.
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Savage, who died in 2024, lived in the Coachella Valley from 2003, and his work can be found in various local institutions and is on exhibit at the Illumine Gallery in Palm Springs. “Some artists pass through a place. Shawn Savage became a part of it,” the gallery’s description states.
Unsurprisingly, the murals invite lots of friendly conversations, as well as guided tours and interested lookers, but never to a degree that it disturbed the peacefulness of their home or the neighborhood, the sellers said. “It felt like living in an art gallery, and you have the exterior that you would share with the world,” Faure explained.
The neighborhood also played a role in their decision to buy, because of its access to the hiking trails of the San Jacinto Mountains, the lack of through-roads and the neighborly environment.
“It’s a very friendly place,” Faure said.
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