Sale of New York-style apartment in Newcastle’s Menkens building delivers huge result

A tri-level property in the historic Menkens building in the inner city has delivered one of Newcastle’s highest sales for an apartment this year.

The New York-style four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment at 3/161 Scott Street sold for $4.375 million with Ben Robinson at Robinson Property.

The property had a guide of $4.5m

“We had a heap of interest because it really is one-of-one,” Mr Robinson said.

“You can appreciate that everything in town is pretty much a cookie cutter scenario these days in a brand new building.

“There is nothing else like this for an apartment in Newcastle.

“For anyone that does like an older style property with those original timber beams and high 25-foot ceilings, people realise how unique it is and you will never get it again.

“But it also has all the mod cons of a normal apartment and two car parks outside the kitchen, so there were some added bonuses.”

Mr Robinson said the apartment was bought by downsizers from the Newcastle area.

“The majority of interest was local,” he said.

“It wouldn’t suit everyone being across multiple levels but in saying that, it was finished very well, north-facing and had plenty of size, so you could move out of your house and take all of your furniture.

“At the end of the day we had three buyers on it and it was good to see it has gone to some really nice local people downsizing.”

It was the first time the property had been offered to market since February 2017, when it sold for $2.3m.

Set across three levels, the apartment offers uninterrupted views across Newcastle Harbour from the building’s distinctive large arched windows.

It is the only apartment in the building with two private entrances off Hunter Street.

The heritage-listed building is a Newcastle landmark.

Designed by renowned German-born architect Frederick Menkens in 1899 for R Hall & Sons, the building later housed Rundles Tailoring before being converted into apartments in 1998.

The warehouse-style space features 4m-high ceilings with timber beams, tall arched windows, polished concrete floors and exposed brick walls.

A luxury kitchen with high-end appliances and a temperature-controlled walk-in wine cellar is the centrepiece of the home’s open-plan living, dining and kitchen space.

It is one of seven apartments in Newcastle to fetch more than $4m this year.

This year’s top apartment sale was the $5m transaction of a sub-penthouse in the Royal apartment building at Newcastle Beach at 40/7 King Street in March, sold by Colliers Newcastle listing agent Anthony Merlo.

March proved a big month for Mr Merlo, who oversaw the $4.4m sale of another sub-penthouse in the Royal development at 41/7 King Street.

Also in March, Mr Merlo sold a four-bedroom apartment in the Huntington building at 501/29 Honeysuckle Drive for $4.1m.

In May, a three-bedrrom, two-bathroom apartment in the York building at 1001/61 Shortland Esplanade in Newcastle sold for $4.3m.

A penthosue apartment at 601/17 Honeysuckle Drive in Newcastle sold for $4 million in May.

Also in May, Presence Real Estate oversaw the $4m sale of a three-bedroom, three-bathroom penthouse at 601/17 Honeysuckle Drive.

Salt Property’s Lyndall Allan secured her highest apartment sale of the year when a four-bedroom townhouse unit in the Lume complex at 2/23 Honeysuckle Drive fetched $4m in August.

According to CoreLogic, the median sale price of a unit in Newcastle is $938,000.