Sydney (City of Sydney LGA), New South Wales
Sydney's Torrens register is run by a private company under a 35-year concession and sells the registered owner of any parcel for $18.70 a title, while the state gives away the land value of every one of those parcels for nothing — so the open record tells you what the ground under Quay Quarter Tower is worth ($339 million) but not who owns it.
9 buildings · 8 with an owner established · 26 sources · 7 tier A · 2 tier B · prepared 2026-10-04
New South Wales is a Torrens jurisdiction: the Torrens Title Register, introduced in 1863, defines ownership and is guaranteed by the State. Since 1 July 2017 the registry has been operated not by a department but by NSW Land Registry Services, a private operator (The Trustee for Australian Registry Investments Trust) under a 35-year concession created by the Land and Property Information NSW (Authorised Transaction) Act 2016 and regulated by the Office of the Registrar General. Anyone can buy a title search naming the registered proprietor: NSW LRS's own 2026/27 fee schedule prices 'Title searches (over the counter delivery)' at $17.00 excluding GST or $18.70 including GST from 1 July 2026, normally bought through Authorised Information Brokers rather than from NSW LRS directly. There is no bulk owner product at any price. What is open is value, not ownership: the Valuer General publishes a land value (land only, not the improved property) for every parcel in the state under CC BY 4.0, and the same office publishes every sale since 1990 with address and price — but under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which a commercial site may cite and not reproduce. Foreign buyers are a spine fact here: from 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029 foreign investors are generally prohibited from purchasing established dwellings (Foreign Investment Review Board guidance, updated 1 July 2026).
- realestate.com.au — “You must not: (a) use any automated device, software, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index our Platforms or any content on our websites”
- domain.com.au — “Terms page could not be opened to quote a clause: HTTP 403 'Access Denied' (Akamai edgesuite) to a scripted fetch. Domain's terms are known to forbid automated collection and its research pages return 403, so it is treated as prohibited and not used; the Valuer General's open files and the ABS replace it.”
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quay Quarter Tower 50 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Office | Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (Dexus-managed unlisted fund) 33% interest Dexus's FY26 Annual Report states: 'Dexus Wholesale Property Fund has ownership interests in Quay Quarter Tower (33%), Quay Quarter Lanes (49%) and 33 Alfred Street (50%).' The holders of the other 67% are not named in the report. The open register gives the ground, not the owner: the Valuer General's parcel for 50 Bridge St carries a land value of $339,269,758 at base date 1 July 2025 on 9,740.6 m2, basis 14G/26A (freehold value having regard to heritage restrictions, apportioned between building parcels) — the third-highest land value found in the central-Sydney tiles. quayquarter.com did not resolve. |
Institution | —A |
| 25 Martin Place (MLC Centre) 25 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Mixed use | Dexus / Dexus Wholesale Property Fund Dexus's own investing page is titled 'Office investment: 25 Martin Place, Sydney' and files the asset under Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF); it describes 59 levels of A-grade office with the Theatre Royal and retail below. The FY26 results presentation lists '25 Martin Pl, Sydney' among Dexus's key lease expiries in FY27-FY31. Neither document states the percentage split between Dexus and DWPF, so no stake is given. The Valuer General records the parcel as 'MLC CENTRE, 25 MARTIN PL' with a land value of $237,443,787 at 1 July 2025 on 7,061 m2 (14G/26A, heritage-adjusted and apportioned). 25martinplace.com.au is a Dexus retail microsite. |
REIT | —A |
| Australia Square 264-278 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Office | Dexus (Dexus-managed; stake not stated) Dexus's FY26 Annual Report reports office occupancy of 95.7% 'driven by strong leasing outcomes at 80 Collins Street in Melbourne and Australia Square in Sydney', and the results presentation lists 'Australia Sq, Sydney' among Dexus's key expiries. The building's official site is a Dexus property site (assets served from /content/dam/dexus/) and describes Harry Seidler's 50-storey circular tower occupying 25% of its site. No opened document states Dexus's percentage or names a co-owner; GPT's reports page would not serve 2025 documents. Valuer General land value: 'AUSTRALIA SQUARE, 264-278 GEORGE ST' $130,000,000 at 1 July 2025 on 4,521 m2, basis 14G (heritage restrictions). |
REIT | —A |
| 1 Bligh Street 1 Bligh Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Office | Dexus / Dexus Wholesale Property Fund Dexus's investing page 'Office investment: 1 Bligh Street, Sydney' files the tower under DWPF and describes a Premium-grade tower of 29 levels with a double-skin glass facade and blackwater recycling. The FY26 Annual Report records Dexus's 'first full-scale Forever Fitout at 1 Bligh Street' and the presentation lists it among FY31 key expiries. Percentage interests are not stated. Valuer General land value: $185,000,000 at 1 July 2025 on 3,317 m2, basis 6A(2) (assuming the current use may continue). |
REIT | —A |
| International Towers Sydney (Towers One, Two and Three) and International House 100, 200 and 300 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) approx. 275,400 m2 across the three towers (103,000 + 90,000 + 82,400 m2 as the fund pages state; the sum is ours) |
Office | Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust (Towers Two and Three, International House, 100%) and Lendlease One International Towers Sydney Trust (Tower One, 100%) 100% of each tower held by the respective Lendlease-managed trust Lendlease's fund page: LLITST 'is a A$4.6 billion trust, established in 2012. It holds a 100% interest in the first two commercial towers constructed by Lendlease at Barangaroo South, being International Towers Sydney – Tower Two and International Towers Sydney – Tower Three', plus 100% of International House Sydney and the Towns Place car park; Tower Two 90,000 m², Tower Three 82,400 m². The sister page: LLOITST, 'approximately A$2.45 billion', established 2015, 'holds a 100% interest in … Tower One', approx. 103,000 m², 48 office levels. internationaltowers.com/news/our-owners repeats the LLITST statement at 'A$3.2 billion'. The trusts' investors are not named on either page. |
Institution | —A |
| Crown Sydney 1 Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Hotel | Crown Resorts Limited (ACN 125 709 953) Crown's About Us page: 'In Australia, Crown owns and operates two of Australia's leading integrated resorts, Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth, as well as Sydney's latest premium hotel resort and dining precinct at Crown Sydney.' Crown Resorts is an unlisted company; its own shareholder is not stated on the page, and Blackstone's site returned 403, so the ultimate owner is not asserted here. The Valuer General's Barangaroo parcels are apportioned 'BUILDING' lots (e.g. Building R7, 1,855 m2, $5,639,568) and none matched Crown's address string, so no land value is given. |
Private company | —A |
| Sydney Opera House Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Institutional | Sydney Opera House Trust (NSW Government statutory body) The Opera House's About Us page states it 'is a statutory body established under Sydney Opera House Trust Act, 1961, and operates as one of the State's cultural institutions within the Arts portfolio. The Opera House is managed by a Trust and an Executive team.' The sentence 'The Sydney Opera House is proudly owned by' is completed by a NSW Government logo, not text, and the Act itself (legislation.nsw.gov.au) returned 403 — hence tier B. The page quotes a Deloitte 'social asset value' of $11.4 billion, which is not a price. No Valuer General parcel matched 'Bennelong' or 'Opera' in the valuation layer, consistent with non-rateable Crown land. |
Government | —B |
| Sydney Town Hall 483 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Civic | Council of the City of Sydney The City of Sydney's landmark page describes the Town Hall as 'a workplace, hireable venue and a seat of local government' containing the Council Chamber and the Lord Mayor's offices; its history page records that 'the city fathers finally secured a land grant from the Crown' for the site and that the City undertook the 1973 organ restoration. No page read states 'owned by' in those words, so tier B. The Valuer General lists 'SYDNEY TOWN HALL, 483 GEORGE ST' with a land value of $89,000,000 at 1 July 2025 on 6,769 m2, basis 6A(1), plus a separate 'PART TOWN HALL SQUARE RETAIL ARCADE' parcel at $4,340,000. |
Government | —B |
| Queen Victoria Building 429-481 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 (City of Sydney LGA) |
Retail | Not established a paid title search would answer it Left blank deliberately. qvb.com.au's footer reads 'Proudly owned and managed by Vicinity Centres', but that line is Vicinity's standard footer (it appears identically on Emporium Melbourne), and it does not say whether Vicinity's interest is freehold or a lease from the City of Sydney; every City of Sydney page tried for the QVB returned 404 and Vicinity's portfolio page is 403 to automation. A title search would settle it for $18.70. The Valuer General records 'QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING, 429-481 GEORGE ST' at a land value of $153,000,000 at 1 July 2025 on 1.14 hectares, basis 6A(1); the adjoining 'WESTFIELD SYDNEY, 432-450 GEORGE ST' parcel is $184,291,977 on 6,689 m2. |
Not established | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The City of Sydney is the one place in this batch where the most valuable ground can be ranked from an open file: the Valuer General's land values (land only, base date 1 July 2025) are served per parcel by the SIX Maps Valuation service under CC BY 4.0. This record tiled the central city — roughly Barangaroo to Woolloomooloo and Circular Quay to Central — in 49 envelopes and read 4,852 parcels with City of Sydney postcodes. Apportioned (26A) values are shares of a larger site, so a strata tower's land value appears split across its lots.
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Australia has the one genuine builder league table in this batch: the Housing Industry Association's HIA Housing 100 ranks the largest 100 residential builders by homes commenced each year. It is national, not Sydney, and the free release names only the top of the table; the ranked report is an HIA product. The 2025/26 edition (23 September 2026) commenced 70,553 homes, 35% of all new homes in Australia, with detached starts up 11% to 52,058 and multi-unit starts up only 1% to 11,098. Sydney's own build is overwhelmingly apartments — 1,694 dwellings approved in the City of Sydney LGA in FY2025-26 against 24 under the ABS houses code — so the national detached-house leaders barely touch the LGA; the two Sydney-based apartment builders on the list do. Ownership type is given only where the release states it.
| Name | Type | New home starts 2025/26 (HIA Housing 100, national) |
|---|---|---|
| Sumitomo Forestry Australia (Henley, Wisdom, Scott Park Group, Metricon) Ranked first after Sumitomo Forestry's acquisition of Metricon, which had held first place for the previous decade. Melbourne-centred brands; the release does not describe the group's parent. |
Not established | 8,038A |
| ABN Group Second. The release does not state where its starts are. |
Not established | 3,764A |
| NEX Building Group Third, up from fourth. |
Not established | 3,585A |
| Parkview Constructions 'Australia's largest multi-unit builder' in 2025/26 per HIA. A Sydney apartment contractor — the builder, not the developer or owner, of the homes it starts. |
Not established | 2,735A |
| Meriton Apartments Second-largest multi-unit builder (3,029 the year before). Sydney's apartment developer-builder; the release names it without describing its ownership. |
Private company | 2,324A |
| Hutchies (Hutchinson Builders) Third-largest multi-unit builder, up from 14th to 8th overall. |
Not established | 1,907A |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
No floor-area league table exists for Sydney landlords: the Property Council's Office Market Report is a paid member product and its site is 403 to automation. The ASX-listed A-REITs' annual reports are the substitute, and only Dexus's FY26 report and Lendlease's fund pages opened with asset-level statements for this city. Scentre Group (Westfield Sydney), Charter Hall, Mirvac and GPT could not be read from their own documents, so they appear under 'unverified' rather than here.
| Name | Type | Portfolio (as the document states it) |
|---|---|---|
| Dexus (ASX: DXS) and its managed funds (DWPF, DWAPF) FY26 Annual Report: office occupancy 95.7%, 172,600 m2 leased in FY26, 61% above FY25. Sydney assets named in the report or on Dexus's own pages: Quay Quarter Tower (DWPF 33%), Quay Quarter Lanes (DWPF 49%), 33 Alfred Street (DWPF 50%), 25 Martin Place, 1 Bligh Street, Australia Square, 1 Farrer Place, and Atlassian Central, 'co-owned by Dexus and Atlassian', 58,100 m2, completion late 2026, 100% pre-leased on a 15-year lease. |
REIT | $20.2bn office portfolio across the Dexus platform, $9.8bn of it on Dexus's balance sheetA |
| Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust (LLITST) Lendlease-managed unlisted trust established 2012; 100% of each asset at Barangaroo South. Lendlease's FY26 Annual Report carries its co-investment in the trust at $136m (FY25 $133m), Level 3 fair value. |
Institution | A$4.6bn — Towers Two and Three, International House, Towns Place car parkA |
| Lendlease One International Towers Sydney Trust (LLOITST) Established 2015; 100% of Tower One. Lendlease's co-investment is carried at $50m (FY25 $48m) in the FY26 Annual Report. |
Institution | approx. A$2.45bn — Tower One, c.103,000 m2A |
| Crown Resorts Limited Crown states it 'owns and operates' its resorts; its own shareholder is not stated on its site. |
Private company | Crown Sydney (hotel resort), plus Crown Melbourne and Crown PerthA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Scentre Group's ownership of Westfield Sydney and Sydney Tower: scentregroup.com is 403 to curl and WebFetch, so only the Valuer General's parcel ('WESTFIELD SYDNEY, 432-450 GEORGE ST', land value $184,291,977) is published and no owner is named.
- GPT's interest in Australia Square and Dexus's percentage in Australia Square, 25 Martin Place and 1 Bligh Street: Dexus's FY26 Property Synopsis was not discoverable and GPT's reports page serves only 2023-2024 PDFs.
- Who holds the other 67% of Quay Quarter Tower: Dexus's report names only DWPF's 33%.
- The Queen Victoria Building's freehold/leasehold split between the City of Sydney and Vicinity Centres; every City of Sydney QVB page returned 404.
- Crown Resorts' shareholder: Crown's site does not state it and blackstone.com returned 403.
- Salesforce Tower (180 George Street) ownership: the Valuer General lists the parcel at $230,632,781 (2.102 ha, apportioned) but salesforcetower.com.au did not resolve and Lendlease's FY26 report does not name the asset's owners.
- A whole-of-LGA land value total: the Valuer General's bulk per-LGA CSV (CC BY) sits on a host that is 403 to scripts, so only the central-tile sum ($52.77bn across 4,852 parcels) is published.
- The ABS building-type codelist (TOT vs 100 vs 110) could not be resolved from the Data API's structure response; 1,694 is the series ABS labels as the total, and 24 the series coded 110.
Sources
- 2026/27 Fees Update — NSW LRS customer fees from 1 July 2026 (PDF, issued June 2026) — NSW Land Registry Services (The Trustee for Australian Registry Investments Trust) · openA
- About us — Operation of the NSW land title system (35-year concession from 1 July 2017) — Office of the Registrar General, NSW Department of Customer Service · openA
- Bulk property sales information (PSI), weekly files 2001-current and annual files 1990-2025 — Valuation NSW for the Valuer General · openA
- Bulk land value information available on the Valuation Services Portal — Property NSW / Valuer General, on Data.NSW · openA
- SIX Maps Valuation MapServer, layer 5 'Urban Property Valuations' (per-property land values, base dates 1 July 2024 and 2025) — NSW Spatial Services, Department of Customer Service · openA
- Guidance: Residential land (last updated 1 July 2026) — established-dwelling prohibition 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2029 — Foreign Investment Review Board / Australian Treasury · openA
- Guidance: Residential compliance (last updated 14 March 2025) — ban stated as 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027 — Foreign Investment Review Board / Australian Treasury · openA
- Terms of Use — REA Group (realestate.com.au) · openA
- A new decade, a new name tops the list of Australia's largest home builders — 2025/26 HIA Housing 100 (23 September 2026) — Housing Industry Association · openA
- Dexus 2026 Annual Report (year ended 30 June 2026) — Dexus (ASX: DXS) · openA
- Dexus 2026 Annual Results Presentation (20 August 2026) — Dexus (ASX: DXS) · openA
- Office investment: 25 Martin Place, Sydney — Dexus · openA
- Office investment: 1 Bligh Street, Sydney — Dexus · openA
- Australia Square (Dexus property site) — Dexus · openA
- Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust — Lendlease Investment Management · openA
- Lendlease One International Towers Sydney Trust — Lendlease Investment Management · openA
- Our owners — Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust — International Towers Sydney · openA
- About Us — Crown Resorts Limited (ACN 125 709 953) · openA
- About us — statutory body under the Sydney Opera House Trust Act 1961 — Sydney Opera House · openA
- Landmarks: Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street — City of Sydney · openA
- History of Sydney Town Hall (published 18 September 2020) — City of Sydney · openA
- Queen Victoria Building (centre website; footer 'Proudly owned and managed by Vicinity Centres') — Vicinity Centres · openA
- Building Approvals by LGA (dataflow ABS,BA_LGA2025,1.0.0), monthly, regions 17200 and 24600, July 2025 - June 2026 — Australian Bureau of Statistics Data API · openA
- Lendlease Group 2026 Annual Report (co-investments in LLITST and LLOITST; subsidiary list) — Lendlease Group · openA
- Domain Group terms and conditions — Domain Holdings Australia · blockedC
- Land value summaries (bulk per-LGA CSV download page) — Valuer General NSW · blockedC