Eleven suburbs, 68 sales, one lesson: hold longer, earn more
Sixty-eight sales were reported across the Eastern Suburbs in the first two weeks of October. I have traced every one of them through the public portals and CoreLogic. The numbers tell a simple story: the market is active, prices at the quality end are firm, and the owners doing best are the ones who held longest.
I have watched this market since the mid-1980s, and the first fortnight of spring selling always sets the tone for the quarter. This October the tone is confident without being frantic. Eleven suburbs produced reported sales, from a $450,000 Randwick studio to a $30.5 million Bellevue Hill residence. Forty-three of the 68 sales carry a price I can verify — 16 disclosed publicly, another 27 held in CoreLogic’s records while vendors keep the figure off the portals. That gap itself says something. In a strong market, more vendors choose discretion.
Randwick led the fortnight. Bellevue Hill led the money.
Randwick produced 15 of the 68 sales — more than any other suburb — with everything from a $450,000 studio on Belmore Road to a $1.7 million garden apartment on Yarraman Avenue. That is the middle of the market working properly: first-home buyers, downsizers and investors all transacting in the same fortnight.
Bellevue Hill produced ten sales and the fortnight’s headline number — $30.5 million for a newly completed house on Beresford Road. Bondi and Paddington each recorded eight, Coogee seven, Woollahra six. The spread matters more than any single result. When activity runs this evenly across beach, village and harbour-side markets, it tells me demand is broad rather than concentrated in one buyer pool.
The engine room sits between $1m and $2m
Of the 43 priced sales, 18 landed between $1 million and $2 million — apartments in Bondi Junction, Randwick, Coogee and Rose Bay doing what Eastern Suburbs apartments have always done: providing the entry point. Nine sales sat between $2 million and $3 million, six between $3 million and $5 million, and two cleared $5 million, including an $8.5 million apartment on New South Head Road, Vaucluse.
The median priced sale was $1,565,000. Read that figure carefully — this fortnight’s sample is weighted towards apartments, with units making up the bulk of the reported transactions. It is a statement about what traded, not about what every property in the East is worth.
Six years is the line between flat and formidable
Twenty-two of this fortnight’s sales have a priced prior sale within the last ten years, which lets me do what I always do with fresh results: hold them against history. Set aside the two results driven by rebuilding and major reworking, and 19 clean comparisons remain. The pattern is unmistakable.
Owners who bought between 2021 and early 2023 and sold this month mostly stood still or went backwards. A Rose Bay apartment bought for $1,925,000 in late 2021 resold for exactly the same figure. A Bondi Junction unit bought in 2023 resold 12 per cent lower. A Bondi apartment bought at the start of 2022 gave up 17 per cent. Across the eight comparable homes held under six years, the median annualised change was zero.
Now look at the longer holds. Eleven comparable homes held six years or more resold at a median of 4.9 per cent a year — a Glenmore Road terrace up 85 per cent over a decade, a Coogee apartment up 64 per cent over nine years, a Diamond Bay Road apartment up 55 per cent over nearly eight. Same suburbs, same fortnight, very different outcomes. The difference was the holding period, which carried those owners through the 2022–23 correction and out the other side.
One result deserves its own line. The Beresford Road house that traded at $30.5 million sold as a site for $15.1 million three years ago and $11.2 million in 2021. That is not market growth — it is the value of a completed luxury rebuild — but it tells you what buyers at the very top will pay for finished quality in Bellevue Hill right now. They will not wait two years for a builder.
What I would tell an owner this week
Three things, and they are the same three I have given through every cycle since the mid-1980s.
If you bought before 2020, you are selling into strength
Every comparable home in this fortnight’s data bought in 2016–2019 resold higher, most by 30 to 85 per cent. Spring demand is broad, stock is being absorbed, and discretion at the top end means less public comparison against you.
If you bought in 2021–2022, the market has caught up — just
Most short-hold resales this fortnight landed at or near their purchase price. That is a recovery from where things sat two years ago, but it means selling now is a break-even exercise before costs. Unless circumstances force the issue, the data says hold.
Presentation is being paid for
The strongest short-hold result in the data — a Paddington terrace up 57 per cent in 14 months — followed substantial works. The Beresford Road result is the same lesson at fifty times the scale. Buyers in this market pay a clear premium for finished homes and discount the rest.
Principal, Weiss Real Estate · 35+ years in the Eastern Suburbs · 1,000+ properties sold
alan@weissrealestate.com.au
Thinking of selling this spring?
I handle every campaign personally — no handovers, no juniors. If you would like to know where your home sits against this fortnight’s results, call me for a confidential appraisal.
Based on 68 sales reported across Woollahra, Bondi, Randwick, Bellevue Hill, Rose Bay, Paddington, Coogee, Bondi Junction, Vaucluse, Double Bay and Bronte between 1 and 14 October 2026, compiled from public portal listings (Domain, realestate.com.au) and CoreLogic RP Data records on 14 October 2026. Forty-three sales carry a verified price: 16 publicly disclosed and 27 recorded as CoreLogic advice while undisclosed on public portals. Several October results remain pending settlement and six public-priced results were not yet shown as October sales in CoreLogic at compilation; figures may be revised as records update. This is not a complete census of the market. Repeat-sale changes are gross nominal movements in recorded prices — they are not adjusted for renovation, rebuilding, inflation or transaction costs, and are not investment returns. Two results driven by redevelopment or major reworking were excluded from the comparable set and noted separately. No usable prior record does not prove no prior transaction occurred. Market commentary reflects the professional assessment of Alan Weiss.
