(Photo by iStock via Getty Images)
Luxury, high-rise, expensive: there are many words to describe the $59 million mansion that sits high atop Crown Resorts’ winding Sydney skyscraper.
“Sold” is not one of them.
The chrome-heavy two-storey apartment has been on the market since 2021, when the 271-metre-tall One Barangaroo tower was completed. Conceived at a time when Chinese money was flooding the world and sending property prices soaring from Sydney to London, the target market has all but disappeared since a crackdown by Chinese President Xi Jinping slashed the wealth of the country’s elite and curbed outflows.
To stimulate demand, Crown recently slashed the asking price for its six-bedroom apartments by 10 per cent and appointed flamboyant TV personality Monica Tu as sales agent, along with Knight Frank.
Mr Tu, who has a successful history of selling Australian properties to wealthy Chinese, acknowledges that the 8,600 sq ft apartment, which comes with a plunge pool and home theatre, will be a challenge.
“We have to work a bit harder on this,” said Mr Tu, owner of Black Diamonds Group and a regular on Amazon Prime’s Luxe Listings Sydney.
One obstacle is the home’s flashiness, located on the 81st floor of a tower that also houses a casino and a six-star hotel.
The complex was billionaire James Packer’s pet project before he sold his shares in the company two years ago following revelations about fraud at Crown casinos in Melbourne and Perth. At A$112,500 per square metre, the penthouse is one of the most expensive homes ever sold in Australia, according to publicly available records.
American actor Mark Wahlberg has rented an apartment in the tower, and singer Taylor Swift stayed in the hotel’s presidential suite, which costs about A$40,000 a night, when she performed in Sydney this year.
“The Chinese may still buy expensive, nice properties, but they don’t necessarily want to be known for it,” said Qiang Li, an associate professor at Deakin Business School in Melbourne who specializes in real estate. “When you make a high-profile purchase like this, it makes that harder.”
Changing Chinese buying patterns are rippled through luxury housing developments in cities such as Hong Kong and London. In Australia, it has come at the same time as a dramatic deterioration in relations with its Asian neighbors.
Chinese investment has fallen sharply over the past five years as the Australian government stepped up scrutiny of foreign takeovers, cracked down on foreign interference and called for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Direct investment by Chinese companies in 2023 will be at its second-lowest level in 18 years, according to a report by KPMG and the University of Sydney.
Although ties between the two countries have improved in recent months, that is unlikely to spur renewed interest from wealthy Chinese who are restricted from parking their cash overseas.
“We still deal with buyers from China, but they are already residing here,” Tu said. “They don’t necessarily have Chinese passports anymore.”
Chinese companies invested a total of about A$13 billion in Australia’s commercial and residential property sectors last year, according to statistics from the Foreign Investment Review Board, down about 60 percent from the buying frenzy seen in 2016. By law, overseas home buyers in Australia are limited to new builds.
Crown, now owned by US private equity giant Blackstone, has also had its own run-ins with Xi after a crackdown by Chinese authorities in late 2016 saw more than a dozen Crown employees convicted of illegally promoting gambling, leading to the company’s global withdrawal.
Then, in 2019, media reports that criminal gangs were laundering money inside Crown casinos triggered a series of investigations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The investigations uncovered a range of deficiencies and found Crown unfit to operate casinos in the three cities. Packer stepped down shortly thereafter.
The regulatory outlook for Crown is improving: Last month, the company was allowed to keep its Sydney casino operating license. This came just weeks after it retained its Melbourne casino operating license, after state regulators said Crown had cleared up misconduct including failing to pay tax and aiding money laundering.
But the loss of Chinese high rollers continues to be felt.
The company closed one of its two VIP gambling floors at Sydney’s One Barangaroo last year, laying off 275 people. It plans to cut another 1,000 jobs at its three Australian gaming resorts, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The delisted company, which is being acquired by Blackstone for A$8.8 billion in 2022, posted a loss of A$199 million last year, according to local media reports.
Crown now has even more reason to rush to sell its Sydney penthouse.
Ms. Tu is confident she can find a buyer. She is in Los Angeles this week promoting the house and trawling through the wealthy. She has the cachet: Ms. Tu sold two of Australia’s top 10 properties last year, including a A$60 million, five-bedroom home in Sydney’s Point Piper.
The 62-year-old sales agent, who moved to Australia from Shenzhen in southern China in 1988, said he had initially received interest not only from Australia but also from other Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore.
“There’s nothing that can compare to this in terms of quality, views and location,” she said during a tour of the apartment.
Selling points of the property include luxurious amenities, a prominent position in Sydney’s tallest building and a central location.
The apartments include a terrace, gym, wine cellar, indoor elevator and a private garage with four parking spaces. Residents can enjoy 24-hour concierge service and VIP treatment at the hotel’s 14 bars and restaurants, including Nobu and Oncore by Clare Smith. These amenities come with a quarterly management fee of A$65,000.
Designed by the late British architect Chris Wilkinson, the tower was the first Australian building to win the global Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2020. The building is located adjacent to the city centre and just a 10-minute walk from Darling Harbour.
The area has seen some big-ticket sales before: in 2019, a larger penthouse in a nearby building sold for A$140 million, a total that was an Australian record.
Two-thirds of the country’s luxury home transactions took place in Sydney, and last year’s top three trophy home sales were all in the city. Real estate agents say 2023 purchases will be dominated by local buyers, from businessmen to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, with many returning Australians and permanent residents as immigration hits a record high.
Barangaroo was an industrial hub before it became part of Sydney’s largest and most controversial urban renewal project. Today, the precinct is home to homes, office buildings, a ferry dock and parks.
Because One Barangaroo’s roots date back to a long-gone golden age, it’s unlikely that a property like it will be built anytime soon – and for Tu, that’s part of the appeal.
“I know what rich people want, so I tell them: if you don’t buy it now, you’ll never get this again,” said Tu, standing on his terrace watching the lights fade over the city. “If you want the best of Australia, this is it.”
