Inner-Sydney off-the-plan luxury apartment prices rising as Sydney becoming a 'world-class city': Savills

Sydney’s CBD off-the-plan luxury apartment prices have increased over the past year, according to Savills Research.

One-bedroom luxury apartment prices range from $11,538 per square metre to $15,385, averaging $13,462 per square metre, according to Savills head of residential Shayne Harris.

It was $10,000 to $13,350 a year ago, averaging $12,000.

Two-bedroom luxury apartments average $21,000 per square metre compared with $16,500 in the 2011 first quarter, and only a small change was notched in three-bedroom luxury prices, which now average $23,750 per square metre, compared with $23,350 a year ago.

Harris suggests that Sydney can be considered “fair value” in global prime residential property market comparisons, with room for growth in capital values.

“Sydney is beginning to display many of the common characteristics of a world-class city,” he says.

Over the past five years the City of Sydney recorded the highest rent prices across all metropolitan municipalities for both one- and two-bedroom units, with a median rent of $500 and $670 per week respectively.

Savills research suggest that luxury one- and two-bedroom units have asking rents between $650 and $1,800 per week. It was between $600 and $1,800 per week a year earlier in the first quarter of 2011, Harris notes.

The vacancy rate in the inner 10-kilometre circle of Sydney, based on Real Estate Institute of NSW data, remains low at 1.5%.

More than 10 kilometres out and it’s 1.9%.

Savills suggests low vacancy levels have been of benefit to investors, as they have enjoyed increased demand and consistent rentals.

“It is expected that these vacancy levels will remain low due to the continued disparity between the supply and demand of residential accommodation,” Savills says.

The municipality represents the largest unit rental market in NSW, with 30,000 landlords as of December 2011.

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