Top homes take double time to sell

Sydney’s priciest residential listings are languishing unsold as cautious buyers await serious price adjustments from the mostly steadfast sellers.

Top-end properties are averaging 173 days on the market before sale, double the typical 85 days across Sydney, according to Australian Property Monitors.

There were 48 house and unit sales above $5 million in the March quarter, only slightly above the low of 42 sales during the trough of the global financial crisis and below the 61 and 72 sales in previous March quarters.

Estate agents noticed a prestige sales fillip in late 2009, but it has not carried over into 2010.

At Burraneer, a five-bedroom waterfront residence, Soumershell, has been for sale for $7.5 million-plus since March 2007.

”The owner, who has it rented out at $2700 a week, said leave it on the website and it might just jag someone,” its McGrath estate agent, Gus Liu, said.

Woolwich’s priciest listing has been for sale for $13.5 million since September 2008. Castlecrag’s priciest has been for sale for $12 million since November.

Mosman’s largest waterfront estate remains listed having been expected to shatter the suburb’s record when offers initially closed last November.

Mosman’s longest listing dates back to July, with its unchanged $6.9 million asking price. ”Buying before selling has almost become a thing of the past,” Mosman estate agent Robert Simeon said.

Another agent, Bill Bridges, said sellers were yet to accept weakened prices. ”But it’s only a matter of time. The recovery of the prestige real estate market depends entirely on China … if China has a hiccup and stops buying minerals, waterfront properties will bring half their price.”

The slump in big home sales has reduced the number of buyers downsizing to luxury apartments. Eighty prestige units are for sale.