Three Of Sydney CBD’s Most Luxurious Penthouses
Sydney’s prestige market is looking up, here’s three of the best on the market right now.
3 min
The last few years has seen a considerable uptake in apartment living across Sydney, notably in the prime market as driven by a slew of new luxury developments.
It’s meant recent Australian sales records – cue Crown’s One Barangaroo and its waterside neighbour, One Sydney Harbour – as purchasers look to secure a standout property and also embrace the benefits of expansive inner-city living.
While the penthouses of the aforementioned towers are now gone, there remains some unique, cloud-catching CBD abodes available.
Here, three of the best to purchase now.
3303/203 Castlereagh Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
The Castle Penthouse, located in Castle Residences and designed by Candelepas & Associates architects, sees a 4-bedroom, 4- bathroom, 2-car parking residence delivered in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.
Here a rooftop terrace boasts breathtaking views over Hyde Park and the city skyline, with an extensive and undoubtedly luxurious finish by Studio Aria ensuring it is one of the finest properties in Australia.
The penthouse is reached via a private lift, through a double door entrance and sees opulent finishes including the use of stone benchtops, large porcelain tiles and bespoke joinery.
Expect an open-plan design, leading outwards to the buildings highly desirable winter gardens. It’s here you’ll find an opulent kitchen, complete with Gaggenau appliances.
The penthouse is also offers a master bedroom that spans the top floor, and opens out to a sky garden with decked spa.
Those fortunate to call Castle Residences home will also enjoy various hotel amenities – such as pool and gym access as well as desirable in-house dining sourced via local restaurants such as Henry’s Bread and Wine, Dixon & Sons and Spice Trader. Meanwhile, housekeeping, concierge, valet parking and 24-hour security are all accessible via in-house app.
The property is expected to welcome residents from end of August 2021.
The listing is with McGrath Pyrmont’s Robert Alfeldi (+61 418 982 688); mcgrath.com.au
Level 43/163 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000
Much has already been written about the Boyd Residence. The grand, lavish, award-winning penthouse sits some 180-metres above street level offering. 2395sqm in the heart of the CBD.
Spread across three levels comes 4-bedroom, 5-bathrooms and 2 car parking. Inside sees unprecedented levels of privacy and opulence, with 24-hour security.
Accessed via private lift, it opens to a glass wall with built-in champagne storage. Elsewhere a sleek fireplace, multiple seating groupings and walls of glass take in the panorama of the city.
Each bedroom suite arrives with a marble bathroom, while the rest of the residence is framed by double-height ceiling and dramatic walls of glass.
Also, a resort-style private rooftop pool tops the living space, adding further luxury to the pad.
The listing is with Christie’s International’s Ken Jacobs (+61 407 190 152) and LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf (0411 428 354); theboydresidence.com.au
83.01/115 Bathurst Street, Sydney, NSW 2000
Known as the ‘King’ Penthouse, comes this luxurious pad inspired by the global cities of New York and London.
Here, at the very pinnacle of the Greenland Centre tower comes panoramic views of the CBD, Blue Mountains, Hyde Park and Sydney Harbour.
The 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 4-car parking penthouses offers sophisticated details, with glamorous stone island benchtops in the kitchen and concealed scullery, to towering balconies overlooking Sydney.
The master bedroom features an opulent dressing room that opens to reveal handsome timber-panelled interiors with wide drawers and open display shelving for all your finery, handbags, watches, belts and scarves
The master bathroom is cloaked in emerald green marble and features high-quality fixtures, a free-standing bath and heated towel rack bringing minimalist glamour while a soaring skylight adds luminous radiance.
Further amenities include a 30-metre outdoor pool, gym, spa, sun deck, and multi-function residents’ room.
Contact Ben Stewart (+61 412753740) of CBRE for more information; thegreenlandcentre.com.au
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You’ll never guess where they found a little extra room when renovating this west coast house
4 min
There was a time, not too long ago, when the most important must-have for would-be renovators was space. It was all about space to be together and space to be apart.
But as house prices increase across the country, the conversation has started to shift from size for the sake of it towards more flexible, well-designed spaces better suited to contemporary living.
For the owners of this 1920s weatherboard workers’ cottage in Fremantle, the emphasis was less on having an abundance of room and more about creating cohesive environments that could still maintain their own distinct moods. Key to achieving this was manipulating the floorplan in such a way that it could draw in light, giving the impression at least of a larger footprint.
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Positioned on a site that fell three metres from street level, the humble four-room residence had been added to over the years. First order of business for local architect Philip Stejskal was to strip the house back to its original state.
“In this case, they were not quality additions,” Stejskal says. “Sometimes it is important to make sure later additions are not lean-tos.”
The decision to demolish was not taken lightly.
“Sometimes they can be as historically significant as the original building and need to be considered — I wouldn’t want people to demolish our addition in 50 years’ time.”
Northern light hits the site diagonally, so the design solution was to open up the side of the house via a spacious courtyard to maximise opportunities to draw natural light in. However, this had a knock-on effect.
“We had to make space in the middle of the site to get light in,” Stejskal says. “That was one of the first moves, but that created another issue because we would be looking onto the back of the neighbouring building at less appealing things, like their aircon unit.”
To draw attention away from the undesirable view, Stejskal designed a modern-day ‘folly’.
“It’s a chimney and lookout and it was created to give us something nice to look at in the living space and in the kitchen,” Stejskal says.
“With a growing family, the idea was to create a space where people could find a bit of solitude. It does have views to the wider locality but you can also see the port and you can connect to the street as well.”
A garden tap has also been installed to allow for a herb garden at the top of the steps.
“That’s the plan anyway,” he says.
Conjuring up space has been at the core of this project, from the basement-style garaging to the use of the central courtyard to create a pavilion-like addition.
The original cottage now consists of two bedrooms, with a central hallway leading onto a spacious reception and living area. Here, the large kitchen and dining spaces wrap around the courtyard, offering easy access to outdoor spaces via large sliding doors.
Moments of solitude and privacy have been secreted throughout the floorplan, with clever placement of built-in window seats and the crow’s nest lookout on the roof, ideal for morning coffee and sunset drinks.
The house has three bedrooms, including a spacious master suite with walk-in robe and ensuite overlooking the back garden. Adjustable blades on the bedroom windows allow for the control of light, as well as privacy. Although the house was designed pre COVID, it offers the sensibility so many sought through that time — sanctuary, comfort and retreat.
“When the clients came to us, they wanted a house that was flexible enough to cater for the unknown and changes in the family into the future,” Stejskal says. “We gave the owners a series of spaces and a certain variety or moods, regardless of the occasion. We wanted it to be a space that would support that.”
Mood has also been manipulated through the choice of materials. Stejskal has used common materials such as timber and brick, but in unexpected ways to create spaces that are at once sumptuous but also in keeping with the origins of the existing building.
Externally, the brickwork has been finished in beaded pointing, a style of bricklaying that has a softening effect on the varied colours of bricks. For the flooring, crazy paving in the courtyard contrasts with the controlled lines of tiles laid in a stack bond pattern. Close attention has also been paid to the use of veneer on select joinery in the house, championing the beauty of Australian timbers with a lustrous finish.
“The joinery is finished in spotted gum veneer that has been rotary cut,” says Stejskal. “It is peeled off the log like you peel an apple to give you this different grain.”
Even the laundry has been carefully considered.
“The laundry is like a zen space with bare stone,” he says. “We wanted these different moods and the landscape of rooms. We wanted to create a rich tapestry in this house.”
The owners now each experience the house differently, highlighting separate aspects of the building as their favourite parts. It’s quite an achievement when the site is not enormous. Maybe it’s not size that matters so much after all.
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