Sydney’s village by the harbour. One postcode, several markets.
A working village centre around Bay, Knox and Cross Streets. The harbour, the ferry and Steyne Park minutes away. Behind it, tightly held streets of family homes and terraces, and an apartment market running from Art Deco walk-ups to some of Sydney’s most expensive new residences. That variety is the key to reading October’s sales.
Strong medians. Read them carefully.
PropTrack puts the Double Bay property market house median at about $8.325 million, up roughly 25.2% over the latest 12 months, and the unit median at about $2.30 million, up roughly 20.3%. Those are big numbers. But only 22 houses changed hands in that period, against 105 units. In a prestige suburb with so few house sales, a handful of expensive results can move the median a long way.
The unit market shows the same problem from the other side. Two-bedroom apartments carry a median of about $1.80 million, up around 12.7%. Three-bedroom apartments sit at about $3.33 million, with a reported annual movement that is substantially negative. That doesn’t mean every large Double Bay apartment has fallen sharply. The suburb holds older stock, renovated Art Deco, large security apartments, harbour-view residences and ultra-luxury new builds, and a change in which ones happen to sell moves the median.
October’s results, and the ones kept private.
Only one October result in this review has a public price. Five more sold with the price withheld. In prestige Eastern Suburbs property markets like Double Bay, advertised sold prices show only part of the picture, and the number of withheld results is worth noting in itself.
| Property | Sold | Detail | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 38 Epping Road | 23 Oct | 4-bed, 4-bath house, 4 cars, c. 331sqm; private treaty after a $6.2M–$6.3M auction guide | Withheld |
| 601/274 New South Head Road | 16 Oct | 2-bed, 1-bath, parking; sixth-floor corner, north aspect, harbour and Heads views; sold prior to auction | $2,150,000 |
| 4/15 Gladswood Gardens | 27 Oct | 2-bed in a 1930s Art Deco waterfront building; $1.5M buyers’ guide; harbour access | Withheld |
| 15/20 Ocean Avenue | Oct | 3-bed Art Deco apartment, c. 90sqm, parking, harbour glimpses | Withheld |
| 8A/45 Ocean Avenue | Oct | 2-bed, 1-bath, parking | Withheld |
| 15/21 Manning Road | Oct | 2-bed, 1-bath, parking | Withheld |
Campaign guides are shown as marketed. They are not sale prices, and withheld results have not been estimated. Final considerations usually become public after settlement.
601/274 New South Head Road: $200,000 over the asking level.
The sixth-floor corner two-bedder came to market around $1.9 million. The asking level later moved to about $1.95 million. It sold prior to auction on 16 October for $2.15 million, roughly $200,000 above that final asking level. Buyers have generally become more price-conscious, but the right mix of position, northerly aspect, harbour views and scarcity still produces competition. For anyone buying property in the Eastern Suburbs, this is a good example of why the right property can still outperform the broader market.
Houses are scarce. That changes everything.
By transaction volume, Double Bay is overwhelmingly an apartment market. Only 22 houses were reported sold over the latest 12 months. That limited turnover means a good house in the right street can attract buyers who have very few alternatives. Recent results show how wide the house range runs: 15 Pearce Street at $4.60 million and 36A Carlotta Road at $7.80 million. Land, position, parking, renovation quality, architecture and distance to the village and harbour all change the buyer pool.
38 Epping Road: the test case still to come
October’s most interesting house transaction is a contemporary four-bedroom, four-bathroom home with four-car accommodation on about 331sqm, within walking distance of the village. It was marketed in September with a $6.2–$6.3 million auction guide and sold by private treaty on 23 October. The price has been withheld. Its history makes it a useful benchmark once that price is public.
Once the consideration is public after settlement, 38 Epping Road should show how far the upper Double Bay house market has moved since 2023. Until then, the responsible position is to report the guide and leave the result alone.
More than a village. A harbour suburb.
Double Bay is often described as a shopping and dining village. From a property point of view, that misses half the story. Homes around Gladswood Gardens, New South Head Road and the streets running down to the water draw enormous value from aspect, elevation, views and closeness to the harbour.
October showed it. 601/274 New South Head Road reached $2.15 million for a two-bedroom apartment. 4/15 Gladswood Gardens, in a boutique 1930s Art Deco building with common gardens leading to a waterfront terrace and direct harbour access, offered something that can’t easily be replicated. Its price is withheld, so we won’t speculate. Scarcity matters.
The headline median is not your property’s value.
A two-bedroom apartment with harbour views can behave very differently from another two-bedder a few streets away. Prestige apartments increasingly operate in a market of their own.
A renovated family home near the village draws a different buyer from a larger house needing work. With so few sales, every comparison has to be chosen carefully.
Five of October’s six sales here kept their price private. Real comparables include the results that only become visible after settlement.
Double Bay has something that can’t be manufactured: scarcity combined with location. It is close to the CBD, with a working village, restaurants and retail, a ferry, parks and the harbour, and the supply of freestanding houses is tiny. That is why its medians jump so far on so few sales.
For an owner thinking about selling a property, the question isn’t “what is the Double Bay median?” It is “what have buyers recently paid for properties that genuinely compete with mine?” Answering that means working through the individual sales, including the ones whose price only appears after settlement. After four decades selling in these streets, that is the only evidence I would price from.
What the data can — and cannot — say.
22 house sales in 12 months is a small sample. A 25.2% median move on that volume says as much about which houses sold as about how values changed.
Campaign guides for 38 Epping Road and 4/15 Gladswood Gardens are shown as marketed. Neither is treated as a sale price, and neither result is estimated.
Five October sales in this review have withheld prices. They show activity, not value, until settlement makes the considerations public.
Know what buyers are paying for homes like yours.
I have sold in Double Bay since the mid-1980s, among more than 1,000 properties across Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. If you want to know where your home sits against the sales that genuinely compete with it, including the private ones, I’ll show you the evidence, not the median. You can also request a property appraisal based on current comparable sales.
Market information current to 29 October 2026. Suburb medians and growth figures from PropTrack. Sale prices, campaign guides and property information are based on publicly available property records and advertised sales data. Where a sale price has been withheld, Weiss Real Estate has not estimated the result. Commentary is Alan Weiss’s professional assessment, not financial advice.
