Who is BUYING?
ATOM GO TIAN RAY WHITE SENIOR DATA ANALYST
In the rarefied air of Australia’s ultra-luxury property market, a staggering $663 million changed hands across just 20 transactions, revealing not only where Australia’s wealthiest choose to live, but also who they are and how their wealth was created.
Eastern Sydney continues to be the place to be, with the Double Bay-Bellevue Hill and Rose Bay-Vaucluse-Watsons Bay enclaves accounting for more than half of all top transactions. Bellevue Hill alone appears five times on the list, while Vaucluse claims four spots. Beyond Sydney’s harbour views, Melbourne’s old-money suburbs of Toorak and Brighton each secured positions, while lifestyle destinations like Noosa Heads, Byron Bay, and Portsea also featured prominently.
The crown jewel of these transactions stands as “Alcooringa,” a Spanish Mission-style residence perched majestically on Victoria Road in Bellevue Hill. This architectural masterpiece commanded an eye-watering $80 million; a figure that towers over even its closest competitor by $30 million. The seller was Australian food blogger and mansion flipper Stephanie Conley-Buhre whose investment acumen proved spectacular, having purchased the property just three years prior for $30 million. Interestingly, Conley-Buhre appears elsewhere on the list as a buyer, after securing the third most expensive property for $43.5 million.
Perhaps most revealing is the dramatic shift in buyer demographics. Corporate executives, once the mainstay of premium property purchases, now represent the minority. Today’s ultra-luxury buyers emerge from a diverse entrepreneurial spectrum including e-commerce founders, property developers, financial services entrepreneurs, aged care provider founders, fashion label designers, retail business owners, mining technology magnates, and restaurateurs. Of the twenty buyers, only four held traditional employment positions; two from healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical devices), one from finance and investment, and one from food and beverage.
$663 million changed hands across just 20 transactions.
Source: Ray White
While buyers aged in their late 40s to 50s dominate the market, millennials are making notable inroads. The story of Shadi Kord, founder of fashion boutique MESHKI, and her husband Bayan Fanaeyan, of men’s fashion label LÈ BAUS, exemplifies this trend. The couple upgraded from a $2.55 million Double Bay apartment to a designer Bellevue Hill residence for $22.75 million. This pattern repeats with other online fashion entrepreneurs like Daniel and Georgia Contos of White Fox, who have similarly leveraged social media influence into substantial property portfolios.
The international dimension adds another layer of complexity to this exclusive market. Five of the twenty transactions involved expat buyers based primarily in Singapore and China, signaling Australia’s enduring appeal as both an investment destination and potential future home for the globally- mobile wealthy. The most intriguing figure remains the purchaser of “Alcooringa” itself, described in records only as an “overseas- based expat,” highlighting the sometimes opaque nature of transactions at this level.
Expensive homes are changing hands in new ways. Today’s ultra-luxury property buyers are primarily self-made business owners, especially those who built digital and tech companies, rather than corporate executives who once dominated this market. The wealth behind these purchases now comes from a much wider range of industries, with online businesses and technology ventures leading the way. Perhaps most notably, there’s been a significant drop in buyers using inherited or family money, as first-generation entrepreneurs who built their fortunes from scratch are now the ones acquiring these multi-million dollar properties. This shift toward self-made wealth marks a fundamental change in who can afford Australia's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
