This unit has a great view, but is it worth the price tag? Photo / Supplied
This unit has a great view, but is it worth the price tag? Photo / Supplied
It may only have one bedroom, but the A$2.5 million ($2.7m) price tag on the Bondi Beach apartment puts other exclusive suburbs like Point Piper and Vaucluse in their place.
Bondi Beach is home to Sydney's most famous slice of sand and now it also plays host to Australia's priciest footprint with one unit just listed at more than A$40,000 a square metre.
That figure far out-sells the per square metre price of other eastern suburbs mega mansions which have fetched eye-watering sums of A$60m or more.
The 62sq m apartment at 7/2-4 Notts. Ave, Bondi Beach has a price guide of A$2.5m to A$2.75m thanks to the impressive postcard backdrop from its big balcony terrace and the other rare Bondi bonus — a secure car space.
Selling agent Ron Bauer of Ray White Unlimited said the rare north-facing view and the parking alone push the one-bedroom unit into the multi-millions.
"I've sold in the building before over the years and the view has always been a surprise," he said.
"You go there and each time you just say 'Wow, that is a really full on view of Bondi Beach'. It's the ultimate postcard."
Called The Terraces because of the building's tiered construction that follows the hilly contours of Bondi's south side, the apartment complex dates back to the early 1980s.
"At the time they couldn't sell them to save their lives, they really struggled," Bauer explained.
If the 62 sqm one-bedder at 7/2-4 Notts. Ave, Bondi Beach, sells for A$2.5m, that's A$40,000 per sqm. Photo / Supplied
Since then the neighbourhood has undergone a dramatic facelift, becoming a brand in itself that has given birth to reality shows such as Bondi Vet and Bondi Rescue plus the namesake of countless beauty and beach products.
It is that brand power that has Bauer convinced a more than A$2.5m price tag for a one-bedroom unit is easily attainable.
"I sold a one-bedroom with no view in a 10-year-old building for A$1.4m towards the end of last year. It was in a beachfront block, but facing away from the beach. This is a whole other world compared with that," he said.
"It's as waterfront as you can get at Bondi."
And to anyone who believes the world of Sydney real estate has gone wild with such eye-watering prices, Bauer has one response.
"I just laugh and say that's what we said ten years ago when prices were less than half what they are now. Back then we all said Sydney's gone mad," he said.
"Now 10 years later prices are where they are and people say Sydney's gone mad.
"And in 10 years when they've doubled again, people will still be saying Sydney's gone mad. In 10 years I'll be selling this unit for A$5m I have no doubt," he said.
Phoenix Acres, of 38B The Crescent, Vaucluse, had six bedrooms and six bathrooms and its own private English pub on 3731 sqm and 80m of beachfront on title. That sold for almost A$67m in December through Ray White's Craig Pontey. That adds up to just A$18,000 a square metre.
And even Elaine, the 6986 sqm Double Bay harbourfront estate that smashed the record price for an Australian house when it sold to Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar for A$71m last April, is a tame A$10,000 per sqm when compared to the one-bedder in Bondi Beach
