How PB & Co. are redefining the luxury downsizer market: Five minutes with Michael Pesochinsky

When Michael Pesochinsky co-founded PB & Co. in 2018, his vision was a simple yet ambitious one, to create an unparalleled level of luxury never seen in the Australian property market.

While luxury is a subjective term, banded around the real estate industry like boutique, there's no denying what PB & Co. have produced, and are looking to produce, doesn't fall under the luxury in anyone's eyes.

Their most recent project, Fifty Two Black, has elevated the status of luxury in Brighton, one of Melbourne's most affluent areas.

Recently catching up with Pesochinsky, he said that when the team were putting the plans together for 52 Black, they asked themselves the question: 'How do we create something of the absolute highest quality that hasn't been done before?'

They concluded that things like 3.3-metre high ceilings, Wolf and Sub Zero appliances, and 15 different types of stone and marble which took six months for artisans to craft, were some of the key inclusions in the project of just five apartments.

"Because we were targeting the ultra luxury downsizer market, who are looking at something like 52 Black as their true forever home, we needed to create something that they weren't accustom to seeing in the high-end downsizer space before," Pesochinsky said.

Pesochinsky said that while a lot of other developers are looking at cutting costs to either make projects financially viable or to maximise profits, they decided to go the other way.

"We wanted to create something buyers would typically expect when building their own home.

"When you build your own home, particularly the affluent suburbs, a lot of the time you tend to over capitalize. We wanted to essentially take that headache away, and have these features all included in the sale price."

The project secured silver in the Melbourne Design Awards, and it's looking likely it will be a finalist in the 2023 Dezeen awards, the revered architecture, interiors and design magazine.

Pesochinsky decided to wait for the project to be finished to sell the apartments due to the stop start nature of construction, and therefore marketing campaigns, throughout the rolling COVID lockdowns.

And while stock at that end of the market takes longer to sell than more traditional newly completed stock given the price tag, the apartments are yielding around two and a half times the standard rental prices seen in Brighton.

Having completed high-end projects on Toorak's Clendon Road and East Melbourne's Jolimont Street, PB & Co are off to Sydney in their next venture, a luxury project on the Harbour's edge.

They secured a prime waterfront site in Kurraba Point, in the Lower North Shore, three years ago.

"We felt at the time the market in Sydney was about to explode," Pesochinsky recalls.

"It was bubbling, and prices were rising, but subsequent to our purchase, prices escalated."

The decision was both economically driven, given the capital growth of the Sydney luxury market, and a personal one.

"If you're going to produce the best, you've got to be in the best location," Pesochinsky said.

"To create a product that is at that pinnacle of luxury, you need to be in an appropriate location to sustain the prices it'll cost. We really wanted to get into that next level of quality and luxury, because that further's people's buying capacity."

PB & Co. had renowned architect Koichi Takada put plans together for just 10 residences across the 4,200 sqm block in Kurraba Point, which slopes down to the water.

Speaking on using Takada, Pesochinsky said that they wanted to make sure, if they were going into the Sydney market, they were going to go with someone who represents quality and luxury in design.

A conscious effort has gone in for the project to be highly sustainable. Not only has the project been designed carbon neutral, but it will operate carbon neutral too. 

Takada said in the design statement submitted to the local council last November that the overall vision is for a transformative project which embodies the idea of ‘regenerative luxury,’ inspiring a zero-carbon lifestyle for it’s residents.

"This project will lead the way in the luxury housing market and support the New South Wales state government objective to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050."

Pesochinsky says that while Melbourne has a lot going for it, consistently named one of the most liveable cities in the world, it will never compete with Sydney in the luxury apartment space.

"The big difference between Melbourne and Sydney is that Melbourne doesn't have the views, that's what escalates the prices," Pesochinsky says.

"The landmarks in Sydney on the Harbour takes luxury to the next level. There's not too many places in the world that can match it."

Pesochinsky said that while $15 million plus in Melbourne would be a particularly high price paid for an apartment, it's "the norm" in Sydney.

PB & Co. are hoping for development approval in Kurraba Point toward the end of 2023.