CHINESE billionaires, locals packing fat bonuses and one of Australia’s best-known media couples have splashed out $132.4 million on just 10 Sydney homes in the past three months.

Latest figures from the December quarter revealed a recovery in Sydney’s prestige real estate market, valuer Dyson Austen’s quarterly report for the Real Estate Institute of NSW states.

The top sale of 2009 was Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch’s purchase of Bellevue Hill home Le Manoir for $23 million, or $5613 per square metre.

The mansion has six bedrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court and sweeping views over the city.

Other mansions in the top 10 included an $11.5 million Birchgrove house with a heritage-listed jetty, a $14.5 million Vaucluse estate that features a steam room and a wine cellar and a $15 million home at Potts Point with a 10-car garage.

Dyson Austen director Simon Felich said overseas investors had capitalised as the Australian dollar decreased in value late last year, adding: “Australia was seen as a safe haven and there were excellent buying opportunities.”

Richardson and Wrench Mosman Neutral Bay director Richard Simeon, who had the top sale in September of a $13.5 million property in Cremorne, said Sydney real estate was attracting Asian buyers, mainly Chinese involved in that nation’s construction boom.

“They are flying in for a few days to inspect properties,” Mr Simeon said.

The value of Sydney’s top 10 sales last June fell to its lowest point in three years, with a total spend of $110 million.

Latest data for the December quarter showed the market had returned to 2008 sales levels – about $130 millio