This Just In: Someone Paid $1.25 Million for a Literal Driveway in Sydney — A Quarter Mill over Asking
The narrow inner-west parcel, previously used as little more than parking space, has reignited debate about development, density and just how detached Sydney’s housing market has become.
The broken record of Sydney real estate rhetoric continues to spin — but a Newtown sale over the weekend may have hit a new pitch of absurdity. On Saturday, February 7, a four-metre-wide driveway at 184 Church Street, Newtown sold under the hammer for $1.25 million — a cool 25 percent above its already eye-watering $1 million price guide. Yes, a driveway. Not a house. Not even a studio. Just 110 square metres of land previously used for parking, watering plants and growing vegetables.
According to reporting by realestate.com.au, the narrow parcel — roughly 4.08 metres wide — attracted four registered bidders, with three actively competing at auction. The reserve was set at $1.1 million, but a developer ultimately secured the site well beyond expectations.
realestate.com.au
The listing described the block as a "ready-to-build" site with R1 residential zoning, positioned in the heart of Newtown and flanked by terraces and student accommodation. While modest in width, the land's development potential appears to have done the heavy lifting.
Listing agent Chris Akkawi of Adrian William Real Estate told realestate.com.au that the buyer was a developer, though the exact plans remain unclear.
"The company that purchased it is a developer — they are going to develop on it," Akkawi said. "What they are going to develop, I don't know… I think it will be something they hold on to."
realestate.com.au
The vendor, an elderly woman who lives nearby, reportedly purchased the site in the 1980s and had used it as a personal driveway for decades. "She has just used it as parking, somewhere she can water plants, grow some veges — and now it will basically be money put to her retirement," Akkawi said.
Unsurprisingly, the sale ignited strong reactions online. A post shared by Instagram account The Noticer, as cited by realestate.com.au, drew a flood of comments capturing the public mood.
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"Just stop eating smashed avo guys and you too will be able to afford a driveway like this!" one user wrote.
Another simply said: "LOL Australia is cooked." Others were more succinct: "Just the driveway? Madness." And: "WTF bro."
While the sale feels uniquely unhinged, it sits comfortably within Sydney's broader property fever dream. In recent years, price records have continued to tumble — from compact inner-west land parcels nudging $1.3 million, to Australia's most expensive home selling for a staggering $141.55 million at Barangaroo in 2025.
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Still, there's something particularly confronting about watching a patch of asphalt outperform entire homes in other Australian cities. For first-home buyers, renters, and anyone still clinging to the idea that hard work leads to housing security, the sale feels less like a curiosity and more like a slap in the face.
Images: realestate.com.au
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