Seventeen individual unit owners at 13 and 15 Moruben Road in Mosman have shared in a sale worth more than $65 million after agreeing to sell their two neighbouring blocks to a developer, in one of the suburb’s largest amalgamation deals to date.
The sale, which took eight months to negotiate, covers a 1940s red-brick block of six flats at number 13, sitting on 581 square metres, and an 11-unit blonde-brick block at number 15, on 1,066 square metres. Together the two sites form a combined holding of 1,648 square metres on the elevated Balmoral Slopes, with commanding views over the harbour and through the Heads.
Nadine Marando and Nick Gittoes of McGrath Mosman handled the deal alongside acquisition specialists Chaim Lider and Emilie McKenna of Chem Property. The buyer has not been formally confirmed, although industry sources indicate Made Property secured the acquisition.
What Each Owner Walked Away With
At a sale price above $65 million across 17 individually owned units, the deal equates to roughly $3.82 million per unit on average, though each owner’s actual return depends on their lot size and entitlements.
To put that in context: one owner at 7/15 Moruben Road paid just $235,000 for their one-bedroom unit in 1999. That kind of return illustrates why agents are describing the result in terms usually reserved for lottery wins. “The buyers hit the jackpot,” McGrath’s Nick Gittoes said.
Marando acknowledged the process was not without friction. Not every owner was immediately willing to sell, particularly long-term residents for whom the views had become part of daily life regardless of the financial upside. Under NSW strata law, 75 per cent of owners in a block must agree for a collective sale to proceed.
In this case, Marando said all 17 owners ultimately signed. “The view is everything in that location,” she said. “If you’re a certain age group, you don’t want to be distracted, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at them.”
The Policy Behind the Price
The sale would not have been possible at this scale without NSW’s Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy, which took effect on 28 February 2025. The policy permits residential flat buildings of up to six storeys on R3-zoned land within 400 metres of a town centre, overriding local planning controls on height and density where state standards are more generous.
Moruben Road sits within the affected zone, and the amalgamated 1,648 square metre site is widely expected to support a six-storey apartment building, subject to development approval. Marando described the LMR policy as having the effect of a gold rush on sites like this one. “We saw the opportunity and ran with it,” she said, noting the result ranked among the top three site sales in the street and the highest Moruben Road had seen.
The Moruben Road corridor has become one of the most active stretches in Mosman under the new policy. At number 17, AirTrunk billionaire Robin Khuda’s development company Ondas paid around $32 million for a 12-unit block in 2025. Developer HELM has acquired numbers 1 and 3 and lodged a development application for 27 apartments across eight storeys, including six affordable housing units. At least two other projects on the street are awaiting approval.
While the standard policy caps buildings at six storeys, the HELM proposal for eight storeys at 1-3 Moruben Road utilises state incentives for including affordable housing. Under these rules, developers can secure a 15 per cent bonus on floor space and height if they dedicate a portion of the project to affordable units. The policy makes a trade-off to boost essential housing, though it pushes the skyline higher than the baseline six-storey limit elsewhere on the street.
What It Means for the Street and the Suburb
For Mosman residents watching the pace of change along Moruben Road, the 13 and 15 sale confirms that the western side of the street is now comprehensively in play. Marando noted that pretty much the whole street would eventually be sold off, with construction expected on multiple neighbouring sites.
The broader debate around the LMR policy in Mosman remains live. The suburb has been among the most vocal in opposing a blanket rezoning approach, with community concerns centred on heritage character, infrastructure capacity and the pace of density uplift in established residential streets. A legal challenge brought by a local resident against the policy remains before the Land and Environment Court.
For the 17 owners who sold, though, the policy delivered a generational financial outcome. The new development on the 1,648 square metre site, once approved, will add to a Balmoral Slopes skyline that is already changing shape.
Finding Out More
Residents with questions about development applications on Moruben Road and the surrounding area can search lodged applications through this link. Information on the Low and Mid-Rise Housing Policy as it applies to Mosman, including an interactive map of affected areas, is also available on the same site.
Published 02-April-2026
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