The rise of luxury apartments in Gosford on the NSW central coast
Glam apartments are more associated with salubrious suburbs of Sydney than regional Australia but that is changing, and none more so than in Gosford.
The waterfront regional city on the New South Wales central coast will be home to a luxury residential building, Rumbalara Residences, with recent $3 million penthouse sales setting records.
However, supply is still at a more affordable level than in the capital cities.
In 2017, the highest price ever paid for a Gosford apartment was $1.6 million. Strong demand now is coming out Sydney - about 90 per cent of the project's buyers are from the big smoke, including the Upper-North Shore and the Hills District.
Listing: see more images here of the property
Rumbalara Residences have sold all of its 12 one-bedroom apartments, which fetched $580,000 to $650,000 - about a third of the Sydney median house price. They were popular with city buyers seeking a coastal crash pad and some first-home buyers.
The developers, Alceon, have dubbed the 20 penthouses "treehouses", because of the sightline to the verdant landscape, and at time of publication had sold about half a dozen.
The treehouse prices hover $2,695,000 to $3,995,000, which sets a new benchmark for real estate in Gosford. The smallest is about 130 square metres internally, and the largest spans about 220 square metres.
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"You sit in line with the tree canopy of the nature reserve next to us," Alceon Development director Todd Campling told Nine.
He said a $3 million price for apartments, with marble benchtops and open fireplaces, crowned by large outdoor terraces and balconies of up to 50 square metres, is "unheard of" in regional areas.
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Many sub-$1 million properties are in production in the planned community, including two-bedroom apartments. The types of residences available also includes townhouses.
Campling said the aim was to craft a "one-stop shop" akin to living in a resort.
Sydneysiders selling substantial city homes have discovered they are paying like-for-like for their next property and are seeking another option, he explained.
"In Gosford, you are putting a few million dollars back in your pocket and not compromising on quality at all," he said.
"The central coast is an abundant area with lifestyle opportunities. The first big tick is the grand resort pool with 130-odd square metres of water and sunken chairs, and then we wanted to take a fair few steps further than that, with a 1000-square mere residents-only clubhouse - two golf simulators, a 12-person cinema, a resident's lounge, a billiard's room, a servery, an 18-person private dining suite that can be a reserved, a wine tasting room separate to that, and a full use day spa with steam and dry saunas, and treatment rooms that can be booked out for private consultations."
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Work-from-home facilities have been included, with 20 hot desks.
"The site sits about 20 storeys above sea level so you are surrounded by nature," Campling said. "There are bellbirds, rock wallabies, sea eagles and echidnas, but it does make getting the newspaper and coffee in the morning a little bit tricky, so we have put in - to serve the residents - a general and convenience store, which will also be open to the public."
The project will deliver keys in late 2024.