Sydney's top 20 house sales of 2019 take the city back to 2013

This year’s top 20 house sales have marked a return to 2013 levels, ending a bullish six-year run of growth at the top end.

Only the top 10 sales scored a result in the rarified $20 million-plus trophy home range,  of which six sales were all recorded in the last quarter of this year.

The more than $448 million worth of sales that make up the top 20 sales mark a return to levels last seen in 2013. It is a stark turnaround on the fortunes of the top-end from last year when, for the first time, all top 20 sales were for more than $20 million and totalled more than $672.6 million.

Mosman’s lacklustre offerings for trophy shoppers left it with one of the worst performing prestige markets in recent years, with its only $20 million sale proving a loss for Pilot Energy chairman Wilson Hui Xiong Xue.

The self-described “shoe king” of China with links to a Beijing lobby group operated by the Chinese Communist Party bought the Burran Avenue mansion for $23.73 million early last year and resold it to Ying Yu,  director of registered corporate entities Panda College, Join ABC Culture and Dynasty Investment.

The highest house sale of the year was the $40 million paid by start-up investor Gabriel Jakob for the Point Piper waterfront home of Westpac board member Steve Harker.

There were three sales of more than $30 million: $34 million paid for the Potts Point mansion Bomera by interests linked to British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, about $37 million for the Vaucluse mansion of plastic surgeon Michael Miroshnik to toilet paper scion Sunny Ngai and $32.5 million paid by Shay Lewis-Thorp for a Vaucluse beachfront house.

Manly clocked up a $17.5 million record for the Fairy Bower designer house of outdoor advertising boss Ray Balcomb and his wife Julie when it sold to homewares distributor James Smail and his wife, Tracey.

Likewise the Bronte record was reset by the $16.8 million purchase by Cygnet Capital boss Darian Jagger and his wife Katie, and in Lavender Bay at close to $17 million when start-up investor Christina Wood and her fund manager husband Chris Bedingfield sold to vitamin moguls Jina Chen and Alex Wu.

The top 20 is made up entirely of houses. The penthouse in the Horizon tower in Darlinghurst would have made the list if its $16 million guide had eventuated but settlement reveals Francesca Packer Barham secured it for $14.17 million.

The off-the-plan sale of the top three floors of Lend Lease’s Renzo Piano-designed One Sydney Harbour for $140 million is expected to be included when built in three years’ time and settlement reveals how much of the sale was attributed to the penthouse and the sub-penthouse.

Top 20 sales of 2019