Locals are up in arms and housing activists are apalled but dot.com wheelers and dealers are circling one of Sydney’s upscale harbourside suburbs as an old-style unit block is sold for demolition and replacement by a stack of half-floor luxury apartments.

Against a background of social media pearl-clutching, AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda is paying $32 million to buy a 1970s block of 12 flats in Mosman, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Quietly expanding his high-end apartment redevelopments through his company Ondas, the Rich Lister plans to turn the Azura apartments on an 809-square-metre block on Moruben Road into nine new luxury apartments on the Balmoral Slopes. 

It will be redeveloped under NSW’s new medium-rise housing rules, allowing for up to six storeys, which will deliver up to 112,000 strata homes across the state over the next 5 years. 

Locals have taken to social media to somewhat unfairly slam the apartment block’s current owners for collectively selling out. They are joined by observers who bemoan the fact that, in the midst of a housing crisis, the new block will house fewer families than it does now.

The project, to be known as Ondas Mosman, will replace a cream-brick walk-up with a boutique apartment block aimed at wealthy downsizers. The site sits just 250 metres from Mosman Village and boasts elevated views over Balmoral to North Head.

Khuda, who has already delivered a beachfront project in Manly – where the penthouse sold for $18 million – is also developing in Palm Beach and St Kilda.  

Khuda is already building a personal compound nearby, according to Sydney Morning Herald, having spent over $30 million assembling land. His style: tightly held sites, boutique scale, and ultra-luxury finishes.

Even Khuda’s AirTrunk staff are buying up big in Mosman, according to realestate.com.au. 

With strong demand from downsizers, Ondas are developers that are shaping up as one to watch in the evolving world of high-end strata.

Data centres, designs and higher density living

Contrary to what its name suggests, Airtrunk is not a flight luggage retailer. It’s a data center company that specializes in designing, building, and operating massive data centers for cloud, content, and large enterprise customers in the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region. 

Data centres – secure facilities housing the digital infrastructure that powers servers, networks, and cloud computing – have been classed as State Significant Developments in NSW since 2021, and are fast emerging as a lucrative new frontier in commercial property.

Australia’s biggest property company, Goodman Group, is joining AirTrunk in turning to the lucrative opportunity of building data centres to satisfy fuelling demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, according to the Australian Financial Review.

And we can expect even more developments to be popping up all over Sydney as Transport Oriented Development rules also roll out over 2025.

Sydney Morning Herald reports that NSW’s Housing Delivery Authority is fast-tracking major housing plans, including 1600 homes in Norwest, 1300 in Tallawong, over 2000 in Rhodes, and 3000+ near Leppington, focusing on growth near metro stations and key corridors like Parramatta Road and the Pacific Highway.