Celebrity property losses expose new reality for prestige market

Australia’s prestige property market is entering a markedly different phase, with increasingly selective buyers, longer selling periods and multimillion-dollar losses showing that even celebrity owners and trophy-home vendors are not immune to changing market conditions.

For years, Australia’s prestige property market appeared almost untouchable. Record prices, extraordinary demand for waterfront homes and an influx of wealthy buyers into lifestyle destinations such as Byron Bay, Noosa and the Southern Highlands helped create the impression that the top end operated by a different set of rules.

To some extent it still does, but cracks are beginning to appear.

While exceptional properties continue to command extraordinary prices, buyers have become more discerning, and properties that are compromised, overpriced or bought near the peak of the market are increasingly being exposed.

The point is being made most visibly by celebrity vendors. The Block judge Darren Palmer and husband Olivier Duvillard bought their Suffolk Park holiday property near Byron Bay for $3.85 million in 2021. It eventually sold for $2.6 million, marking a $1.25 million loss, or about 32.5 per cent, before stamp duty, selling costs and other holding expenses.

The shift at the prestige end reflected what was occurring more broadly across parts of the Australian property market.

Possessing wealth doesn’t mean people are prepared to overpay.

There has always been a perception that prestige property is somehow immune to a downturn because wealthy buyers aren’t as sensitive to interest rates or borrowing capacity. If anything, sophisticated buyers tend to be very commercially minded. When market conditions soften, they become more selective, they negotiate harder and they are far less willing to overlook a property’s shortcomings.

A $3 million reality check in Mosman

One of the most striking current examples is 29 Redan Street, Mosman, owned by former MasterChef contestant turned food manufacturing entrepreneur Jimmy Seervai.

The property last changed hands for $15.25 million in November 2023 and has returned to the market with expectations around $12 million. A sale at that level would represent a nominal decline of about $3.25 million, or 21 per cent, before transaction and holding costs.

That is precisely the type of repricing now emerging at the prestige end of the market.

The prestige property was particularly vulnerable when buyers paid aggressive prices during strong market conditions. When you’re talking about a $2 million property, a 10 per cent correction is $200,000. At $15 million, the same percentage movement is $1.5 million.

Buyers now have more choice and are less willing to overlook compromises.

- Gabriel Carreno, Opteon

The changing conditions are also being identified by national valuation firm Opteon, which recently described Sydney’s prestige market as being in a state of decline, reflected in extended selling periods and greater negotiation between vendors and purchasers as pricing expectations adjust to current conditions.

Scott Chapman, Managing Director of Opteon Property Valuers, said prestige property magnifies both the upside and the downside.

“The numbers get very big, very quickly.”

Opteon Prestige Director, Gabriel Carreno, pointed to a softer economy, persistent inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and, to a lesser degree, higher interest rates and Federal Budget policy settings as factors weighing on the sector.

“Those forces are affecting the stock market, consumer sentiment and business confidence — all important drivers of prestige demand.”

Celebrity property offered particularly visible examples of just how dramatically conditions can change.

Darren Palmer’s Byron property is probably one of the best examples of what happens when an extraordinary set of circumstances pushes demand and prices well ahead of normal market fundamentals. During Covid, buyers weren’t simply buying property, they were buying a lifestyle and competing aggressively for very limited stock.

Someone who bought at the absolute height of that cycle can still own a beautiful property in an exceptional location and lose a significant amount of money when they sell.

Perth — riding the peak as the cycle turns

The shift is not confined to Sydney, Melbourne or pandemic-boom lifestyle markets.

Even Perth, one of Australia’s strongest-performing property markets, is beginning to show signs that the extraordinary conditions of recent years are moderating.

New analysis from Opteon describes Perth’s prestige sector as a market “riding the peak as the cycle turns”, with growth continuing but at a considerably more measured pace.

Cotality’s stratified Home Value Index shows Perth’s highest-value quartile increased 1.2 per cent during the June 2026 quarter, compared with 3.4 per cent for the lowest-value quartile.

Opteon State Director Residential WA Ryan Sargant said prestige demand remained positive but was becoming more measured than the headline performance of the broader Perth market might suggest.

“The change in buyer power is perhaps even more revealing.”

Celebrities haven’t stopped buying

The correction does not mean Australia’s wealthy have abandoned property. Far from it.

Five markets in particular continue to exert an extraordinary gravitational pull for celebrity and high-net-worth buyers: Byron Bay, Noosa, the Southern Highlands of NSW, Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs and Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

They share many of the characteristics increasingly valued by prestige buyers, namely scarcity, lifestyle, privacy, proximity to major cities or airports and, in many cases, water or significant land.

Singer Delta Goodrem and husband Matthew Copley purchased a Rose Bay mansion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for less than $11 million in 2026. The property had reportedly carried a $13 million asking price, meaning the couple secured it for more than $2 million below initial expectations, in another indication of the negotiating power available to buyers in parts of today’s prestige market.

On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, singer Toni Watson, better known as Tones and I, spent a combined $6.4 million acquiring three properties during 2025, adding to an already substantial portfolio reportedly including at least seven acquisitions worth more than $24 million.

In Byron Bay, hospitality billionaire Justin Hemmes was reported in February to be the buyer of an original beachfront property for about $18 million, adding to a residential portfolio in the region already worth tens of millions of dollars.

The Southern Highlands has similarly attracted a long list of high-profile residents. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have owned their Sutton Forest estate for many years, while the region has also attracted names including Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson. Noosa and the Sunshine Coast have long attracted sporting identities, including former tennis champion Pat Rafter and Olympic swimming legends Dawn Fraser and Lisa Curry.

The continued appetite for these locations illustrates an important distinction: the prestige market isn’t disappearing. It is becoming more selective.

The great prestige divide

Opteon’s analysis suggests the prestige market has “come off the boil”, with buyers becoming more selective and taking longer to commit. The result is an increasingly polarised market: best-in-class properties continue to outperform, while secondary offerings face greater scrutiny and longer selling periods.

According to Opteon, prestige buyers are increasingly scrutinising homes requiring renovation, those with restricted views and properties without the amenity expected of genuinely blue-chip addresses.

A striking example cited by the valuers involved a rundown Vaucluse property bought for just under $25 million in November 2023 and subsequently relisted with local agents indicating value in the low-$20 million range. In stronger markets, deficiencies can be disguised by rapidly rising prices; today’s market is less forgiving.

“Buyers now have more choice and are less willing to overlook compromises unless those shortcomings are reflected in the price,” Mr Carreno said.