For property it was another good year, but not as we traditionally know it. In some markets, during the 18-month downturn which ended in the middle of the year, the prices suffered as buyers and sellers kept plans on ice leading up to a federal election.

Nonetheless, we witnessed record-breaking sales in both Sydney and Melbourne, not just for existing houses like in 2019, but with off-the-charts demand for off-the-plan apartments setting the bar in both.

The comparison between the 2018 and 2019 top real estate sales couldn’t have been more distinct. In 2018, the country’s house price record was reset with the sale for $100 million to Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie of Fairwater, one of Australia’s most important heritage houses located on a harbour estate in Sydney over 1.12 hectares.

A mystery Chinese investor with Australian citizenship blew the price record out of the water in 2019, splashing $140 million on a three-story penthouse that is yet to be constructed in a super-secretive new luxury neighbourhood developed from a concrete wasteland on the edge of the Sydney CBD at Barangaroo.