Ultimo · Jones Street · 3BR penthouse apartment · Staged Wednesday 28 October, 8am–12pm · Listed Friday 30 October · First open Wednesday 4 November · Auction Saturday 28 November · Ultimo unit average DOM: 51 days (CoreLogic, 12 months to July 2026)
On the top floor of a building on Jones Street, Ultimo, a north-east penthouse holds 285 square metres on title: three bedrooms, two studies, an open-plan living and dining room, and three separate terraces laid with synthetic lawn. In a suburb where most homes are rented and most apartments are small, it is a rare thing — an apartment with the outdoor space of a house, a short walk from Broadway Shopping Centre, Darling Harbour and Central Station.
Empty, it was hard to read. The living room is glazed on three sides and floored in polished stone-look tiles, so with nothing in it the eye slid straight past the room to the skyline, and the room itself had no edges. There was no wall to put a sofa against, no obvious place for a dining table and no line between living and dining. Outside it was the same problem at a larger scale: three rectangles of green turf and a covered deck that read as roof space rather than rooms. A buyer weighing a penthouse against a house is asking exactly that question, and an empty penthouse answers it badly.
The campaign dates were fixed before the install was booked: listing live on Friday 30 October, first open on Wednesday 4 November, auction on site on Saturday 28 November. Goldpac quoted a fixed price for the apartment and its terraces and booked the install for Wednesday 28 October, 8am to 12pm, so the home would be finished two days before launch.
The stylist started with the glass. Instead of pushing furniture to the walls, the living zone was built as an island where two walls of windows meet: a white slipcovered sofa and a matching armchair set around an oval marble-topped coffee table, with a ribbed pouffe and two black side tables, all on a wave-edged cream rug. The rug does the zoning. On a floor that reflects everything, a soft, irregular edge tells a buyer exactly where the living room ends. Navy velvet cushions on the white linen pick up the blue outside the windows, so room and view read as one palette instead of competing, and a floor lamp and two tall palms fill the corners the glass leaves bare.
The dining zone stands on its own between the living room and the kitchen: a glass-topped table on a black crossed base, six grey velvet wingback chairs with studded trim, and a tall vase of blue hydrangeas, palm fronds and black feathers. Glass on glass was deliberate. A solid timber top would have blocked the line through to the terrace doors; a glass top keeps the floor visible and lets the room look as large as it is, while the high-backed velvet chairs give the zone enough weight that it never looks lost in the open plan.
The one long solid wall got a job too: a black open console with sculptural pieces and a potted ZZ plant beneath a large abstract canvas in blue and grey. One of the two study nooks, beside a terrace door, became a working corner with a white desk on a black frame, a cream swivel chair and a vase of pink peonies — proof in one glance that the space is usable rather than left over. In the kitchen, where the stone and gloss cabinetry belong to the house, the styling stayed on the surfaces: three taupe counter stools at the island, sparkling wine and four flutes on a white marble tray, a plate of red apples and artichokes, and an open cookbook beside the cooktop.
Outside, each terrace was given one clear job. The covered deck became an outdoor dining room: a long white slatted table and four armchairs under the pergola, placed so that a buyer stepping out from the kitchen sees dinner with Sydney Tower behind it. The terrace off the dining room took a round marble-look table and four woven rope armchairs on oak legs, a breakfast spot facing the Anzac Bridge. The smallest terrace, off the living room, got two white chairs, a side table and a potted bamboo — a place for a coffee and nothing more. Three terraces, three uses, none repeating another.
The bedrooms needed warmth more than structure. Timber-look floors already did half the work; the stylist added textured cream rugs, layered white bedding and throws with some weight — a cream-and-caramel faux fur in the first bedroom under a studded linen headboard and two abstract prints, a soft blue knit in the second under a pair of pale blue botanical prints. Both rooms open onto the rooftop lawn, and both beds were placed so a buyer standing at the door takes in bed, lawn and skyline in one look. The small green plush dinosaur that travels to Goldpac installs for luck took its usual seat, this time on the living-room armchair.
The install ran inside the booked window. One stylist directed it from the first piece off the truck to the last cushion on the terrace — three bedrooms, living, dining, a study and three outdoor rooms in four hours. By 12pm the apartment was staged and camera-ready, two days ahead of the Friday launch, and none of the agent's campaign dates moved.
The campaign is live, with the first open on Wednesday 4 November and the auction on site on Saturday 28 November — 29 days from listing to auction day, against an Ultimo unit average of 51 days on market (CoreLogic, 12 months to July 2026).
📍 Penthouse apartment · Ultimo · three terraces, glass on three sides
🎨 Styling: a living island on a wave-edged rug, glass-topped dining, one clear job for each terrace
🕐 Installed Wednesday 28 October, 8am–12pm — staged and camera-ready by 12pm, campaign date unchanged.
⚡ Listed Friday 30 October · Auction Saturday 28 November · Ultimo unit average DOM: 51 days (CoreLogic, 12 months to July 2026)
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About the Jones Street project
Goldpac PTY LTD, Sydney, staged this three-bedroom penthouse apartment on Jones Street, Ultimo NSW 2007, in the City of Sydney Council area, for an auction campaign that went live on Friday 30 October. The work is property staging for sale campaigns — one stylist directs the install and the home is staged and camera-ready on the agreed day. Here the living and dining room, three bedrooms, a study nook and all three terraces were completed in one day by the same stylist, inside a four-hour window. The campaign is live and awaiting auction on Saturday 28 November, against an Ultimo unit average of 51 days on market (CoreLogic, 12 months to July 2026). Ultimo sits within Goldpac's coverage of home staging in the Sydney CBD and city fringe, alongside recent projects in Haymarket and on Ada Place.
The Ultimo apartment market, room by room
Ultimo units average 51 days on market across 157 sales in the 12 months to July 2026, at a median of $700,000 (CoreLogic). Three in four Ultimo homes are rented (2021 Census), and the typical unit buyer is an investor or a young professional within walking distance of UTS, the University of Sydney and the CBD. A 285-square-metre penthouse sits outside that pool: its buyer is more often a professional couple or a downsizer trading a house's garden for a terrace with a skyline, and they arrive comparing it with houses, not with the apartment two floors down. For that buyer the terrace is the room that decides it — they need to see it furnished as somewhere to eat, read and host, a step from the kitchen, and an empty rooftop lawn tells them it is maintenance rather than living space. In home staging Sydney terms, that is the gap this install had to close: a 29-day auction campaign against a 51-day suburb average, for a buyer who has a house in mind.
Questions agents ask about staging a penthouse in Ultimo
How is a prestige or architectural home priced for staging?
Prestige, architectural and large-format homes are quoted individually after the stylist reviews the property, and the figure is fixed before booking. Standard homes run from $2,300 to $5,500 +GST by bedroom count. There is no deposit, and payment is within 60 days of installation for approved clients. Full pricing at goldpac.com.au/pricing-package.
What happens on staging day with Goldpac?
Furniture and accessories arrive in the agreed window. One stylist directs the install and finishes the styling on site. By the agreed time the home is staged and camera-ready, with nothing left for the agent to tidy — on Jones Street that meant a penthouse and three terraces finished between 8am and 12pm.
How reliable are Goldpac's install dates?
The booked window is the window. Goldpac schedules around the campaign rather than asking the campaign to schedule around staging, and confirms access and timing before the day. Behind that is a simple rule: one stylist owns the job from quote to removal — the agent makes one call and the date holds.
How do you stage a penthouse terrace in Ultimo so buyers count it as living space?
Give each terrace one job and furnish it for that job only. On Jones Street the covered deck became an outdoor dining room for four, the terrace off the dining room a breakfast table facing the Anzac Bridge, and the smallest one a two-chair coffee spot. Buyers read three extra rooms rather than three patches of synthetic lawn.
What furniture works in an open-plan living room with glass on three sides?
Furniture that floats rather than lines the walls. Here the sofa and armchair sit together on a wave-edged rug that marks the living zone on reflective tiles, and the dining table has a glass top so the line through to the terrace doors stays open. Tall velvet dining chairs give the zone weight without blocking the view.
How is home staging in Ultimo different for a penthouse than for a one-bedroom unit?
The buyer is different. Most Ultimo units are bought by investors and young professionals, while a 285-square-metre penthouse draws professional couples and downsizers who compare it with a house. The staging has to show them house-sized rooms — a dining table for six, a study that works, a terrace set for dinner — not just a bed that fits.
More home staging Sydney results from Ultimo and the city fringe:
Half a Second to Explain a Warehouse Loft. Ultimo, Staged in 3 Hours.
The Vendor Questioned Staging a 1BR. It Sold in 17 Days. Ultimo Median: 48.
68 Days Is Normal for Haymarket Units. This One Took 21.
What Does a City-View Apartment Need Before Auction Day?
Goldpac PTY LTD
Unit 10, 8 Victoria Ave, Castle Hill NSW 2154
Phone: +61 475 151 245
Email: info@goldpac.com.au
Instagram: @goldpacau
Website: goldpac.com.au