NSW plans 10,000 new apartments around Woollahra Station by 2029 — but who will buy them? Veteran Eastern Suburbs agent Alan Weiss examines supply, downsizers, and overseas buyer restrictions.
What’s Proposed
The NSW Government has announced a plan to finally complete Woollahra Station, originally started in the 1970s but never opened. The new station would sit between Edgecliff and Bondi Junction, with trains reaching the CBD in just eight minutes.
Alongside the station, the government proposes a rezoning of land within 800 metres of Woollahra and 400 metres of Edgecliff, to allow high-density residential towers of up to 21 storeys. The aim? To deliver up to 10,000 new apartments over the next 10–15 years.
The timeline looks like this:
- 2025–2027: Rezoning studies, consultations, and planning approvals.
- 2027–2029: Station construction and integrated mid-rise buildings.
- Post-2029: Progressive apartment development across multiple sites.
This is being billed as a bold answer to Sydney’s housing affordability crisis.
My View – Questions That Need Answering
1. Supply vs Demand
Across the Eastern Suburbs, we’re already seeing an oversupply of high-end apartments. Completed stock is struggling to sell, and many off-the-plan projects are on pause. Adding 10,000 more apartments on top of the current pipeline risks flooding the market.
2. Overseas Buyers – Not the Silver Bullet
Traditionally, overseas investors have absorbed a large share of new apartments. But today, their ability to buy is restricted:
- They can only purchase off-the-plan or newly completed dwellings (not existing ones).
- They face heavy upfront costs: on a $5m unit, almost $850,000 in duties, surcharges, and FIRB fees, plus annual 5% surcharge land tax on the land value.
Yes, they’re still technically in the market, but at these levels the pool is shallow.
3. The Downsizer Pool is Finite
Look at Bellevue Hill, Dover Heights, Rose Bay, and Vaucluse: together, they hold fewer than 7,000 detached houses. That’s the entire downsizer base feeding the luxury apartment market. Even if 30% eventually downsized, that’s around 2,000 buyers — nowhere near enough to absorb 10,000 new units, let alone stock elsewhere in the east.
4. Affordability vs Luxury
The government talks about affordability, but the maths doesn’t stack up. Site amalgamations in Woollahra and Edgecliff come with premium land costs, developers face high levies, and construction prices remain elevated. The result? Apartments priced at $50,000–$60,000 per square metre, which are well beyond reach for ordinary households.
Conclusion
The Woollahra Station project is bold — it will change the suburb forever and no doubt deliver a long-awaited transport link. But building a station is one thing; creating a balanced, sustainable housing market is another.
Without a realistic buyer base — whether from downsizers, locals, or overseas — this risks becoming an oversupply experiment rather than an affordability solution.
As someone who has worked in Eastern Suburbs property for over 35 years, my view is simple: before we build towers, we must be honest about who is going to buy them.
