Sydney Penthouse Discounted as Chinese Buyers Dry Up

A Sydney apartment described as the most luxurious penthouse in the southern hemisphere has just about everything except a buyer. After three years on the market, the price tag has just been cut by 10% to steal an eye watering 59 million U.S. dollars. Bloomberg’s Buddy Panty has more on this, and so you got access to this incredible property. So why has it been so hard to find a buyer? Look, the property was completed in late 2021, which was post pandemic period. We saw Chinese buyers had kind of moved out of Australian luxury property market around 2018-2019 because of pressure from China on capital flows. And China used to be the number one source country for Australia as far as foreign investment was concerned. And this was everything. But residential real estate was a huge power of their investment. Now they are #4 or #5. So we can see that that amount has dropped drastically. So it’s it’s probably the timing, it’s probably the fact that we don’t have as many rich Chinese people who are willing to make that big bet. And also we only have got Monica to doing this deal the past five months, four or five months now. So they have kind of started doing more of a selling only off late. Yeah, sorry, stay with us because you mentioned Monica, we’re going to bring her in. This is of course going to give us a bit more insight in terms of this market and the dynamics that are a play here. Monica too is the founder and director of the Black Diamonds Group and she joins us now from Los Angeles. Monica, always great to see you. And you know I guess the question is to you why has this really in a lot of ways extraordinary property been on the market for so long, why has it been hard to find the right buyer. I I think it’s being in the market actually not a true, it’s not a really on the market. It would just open up for the international buyers to come to experience this incredible penthouse. The in the past few probably years and the property is not really property marketed, it’s only purely through the database. You are the first action media to be honest to expose this property to the world. That’s probably the reason but mainly due to the pandemic. So people are not able to come to enjoying the lifestyle of the crown and the crown. We’re sending this amazing penthouse not just by square meters, it’s about lifestyle. If you are not able to travel to experience a lifestyle, obviously it’s really hard to sell. But now we’re open. So we’re open to or the international buyers. Monica, you are in Los Angeles at the moment. Is it related to the sale of this property? Are you looking for buyers, American buyers for this property? Yeah, absolutely. You know, as your guys know, so all the international superstars. Stay in the crown. Taylor Swift stayed there doing her concert. Now Mark Warbrook stay in the crown. So this, you know, you cannot find anything, you know, compared to this amazing penthouse. Hopefully we can find some of the American celebrities to come and join this lifestyle and hopefully we’ll buy it. And Monica, Normally when we look at Australian property market, it’s mostly dominated by houses, land and house purchases. This is a penthouse on the 81st floor. Why? What makes it unique? Why would anybody pay 59 million U.S. dollars when they are not getting land with it? Oh, I think if you want the land, obviously you can buy some amazing houses in Sydney in Australia. But this is not about buying a land, this is buying a lifestyle. So Crown is actually is amazing. Six star resort. Look at the you know the picture now you have your private pool, you have a tennis court in the middle of the city. So we’ll have 11 bars and restaurants and some of the movies that wouldn’t name who that is. They stay in the house. Yes, we do have a gym. We do have a swimming pool, but you don’t have the service, right? You don’t have that 11 bars or restaurants provide you with that five star service and 24 hours concierge. The reason people will buy the penthouse is definitely because of the lifestyle. Monica, we’ve spoken to you many times over the past few years and I know you’ve built your business really with these ultra high net worth Chinese clients. Can you tell us what does your client book look like at the moment? Is there a big shift away from China? I wouldn’t say it’s a big shift. We still have a lot of like a really wealthy Chinese kinds and they pre, you know, Boeing China, live in China migrant to Australia or other part of the world. And at the moment, we have a lot of attractions from Southeast Asia. So our biggest market will be, you know, my number one buyers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and of course Singapore is one of the big source of our clientele that’s actually quite interesting. What are those clients looking for when it comes to Australia? And do you see it as a challenging environment in terms of foreign property investors I think compared to rest of the world, I think Australia is still the most desirable destinations for Southeast Asian and Chinese buyers. The Chinese is probably a little bit extra of stamp duty. The otherwise you know Australia is probably the safest country and the best, best of the best lifestyle for the international buyers. Monica by when are you expecting to make the sale by when do you think this property will be sold As soon as possible, hopefully within few months. So we think 2024 you’re confident, I’m super confident. You know we in the first quarter we already met our target and now we you know enable to travel around the world to promote Australian properties. Yeah, 100% confident.