Sydney Sees Surge In New Listings

New home listings in Sydney have soared by 41% while Melbourne saw an 82% increase over the last month.

The rush comes as vendors scurry back into the market after lockdowns ended hoping to sell their property before the higher mortgage buffers come into effect, according to the latest SQM Research data.

The total listings jumped by 25.5% in Sydney during October to 29,183 – the largest monthly percentage increase on record. Melbourne lifted 25.1% to 41,265.

While October is traditionally strong for listings, SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said this year vendors are looking to get ahead of any further slowdown in the market.

“This could be an indicator that sellers are looking to get out of the market before further macro-prudential tightening kicks in, and before we get an interest rate rise,” he said.

“I think buyer demand is still relatively strong, but perhaps it’s starting to come off a little, so if we were to see November recording a similar level of listings then I would be a little bit concerned.”

There is already an indication that listings are building momentum with SQM Research recording 1266 homes listed for auction in Sydney for the coming week and 1600 homes in Melbourne.

That figure builds off the 1144 homes taken to auction in Sydney and 1739 in Melbourne last week, according to CoreLogic.

A 110-year-old Colorado estate that has hosted Frank Sinatra and Lyndon B. Johnson just slashed $10 million off its price tag.

The 12,000-square-foot manor house—with 25 rooms—and its five accessory dwelling in the alpines of Evergreen was relisted on Friday asking $16.8 million, down from its initial $26.8 million price in 2023.

The sellers, Richard and Pamela Bard, who paid $1.3 million for the “legacy property” named Greystone Estate in 1992, have shopped it around on and off for the past 20 years, according to agent Jessica Northrop at Compass Real Estate.

Richard Bard, CEO of his own private equity firm, has “hosted many corporate events and retreats where important business is discussed but they are also able to relax,” Northrop said. “Greystone has a special way of making people feel at ease.”

Bard said “it’s not a casual effort” to sell. He said it’s difficult to find a buyer with the facilities to “take care of it.”

The Bards intend to move closer to their children in Denver.

Before the Bards, Greystone Estate had several eras—as a summer house, a guest ranch and a business base—since it was built in 1915 by Genevieve Phipps, an industrialist’s daughter.

Phipps, who spent her inheritance on the land, built the 54-acre summer escape with the “elegance and feel of a fine Adirondack mansion combined with a mountain rustic style,” according to an online record of the estate’s history.

Its heyday, arguably in the 1940s to 1980s, saw Sinatra, Johnson and Groucho Marx come through its doors, when its owner William Sandifer, a socialite and one the Empire State Building’s architects, operated a guest ranch out of the place.

The Bards, who used a carriage house on the property as their company headquarters, completed Greystone’s full modernization in 1997. They also opened up the living and dining areas to receive more light, raised the ceiling on the upper level and combined several rooms to create a primary suite.

They replaced an outdoor pavilion and its helipad with something more suitable for their daughter’s wedding in 2001, according to Northrop.

The main 25-room manor includes a wine cellar, bar, gym and library.

The additional structures, which include a cottage, a log cabin, a pool house, a carriage house and a pavilion and guest house, surround the pool area and overlook acres of aspen groves and mountains.

Sydney Sees Surge In New Listings

Vendors push to sell homes before the higher mortgage buffer.

The 25-room mansion was built for an heiress and later belonged to a socialite and architect on the Empire State Building.