When it came to big price tags NSW again led the pack, with foreign buyers dominating.

The year’s biggest single house sale was for the Point Piper palace Altona, which sold for more than $60 million to Australian-based businessman Huang Jiaer, son of Chinese printing magnate Huang Bingwen, founder of Shantou Dongfeng Printing, which manufactures paper packaging for the tobacco and other industries.

Sydney’s biggest residential deal was Menulog co-founder Leon Kamenev’s $79.5m acquisition of four adjoining residences, including a $60m Vaucluse waterfront home previously owned by entrepreneur David Shein.

Queensland has also seen some big sales up and down the coast, with the Gold Coast providing its fair share of drama.

The mansion at Albatross ­Avenue in Mermaid Beach was ­realestate.com.au’s most viewed property of 2016 and was sold in September by Michael Kollosche for $25m. Melbourne-based toy tycoon Manny Stul bought it from former Billabong executive Scott Perrin.

Noosa has had a bit of a comeback year, with 11 Webb Street sold for $9.3m by agent Tom Offermann, the biggest sale there since the global financial crisis.

Offermann is expecting an even bigger 2017, with tennis star Pat Rafter’s Noosa home on the market now for offers of about $18m. “We’ve seen a lot of smaller blocks sell recently for around $5m but I expect the market will move on from these,” he says.

Melbourne’s leafy suburbs saw some big sales this year and its metro record was smashed in September when one of the city’s foremost business dynasties sold their Toorak mansion for $24.1m.

The mansion in Robertson Street, Toorak, was bought by businesswoman Shirley Ching Hua Hsieh from Tony and Jennifer Smorgon, members of the billionaire steel clan, for a record price in a deal managed by Marshall White Armadale.

Agent Kay & Burton also had a strong year when 100 Walsh Street, South Yarra, former home to businessman Gary Hargrave and then Hollywood director Fred Schepisi, sold in June for $18m.

Western Australia recorded a number of big sales, with leafy Dalkeith making its mark.

WA’s top luxury agent William Porteous managed some of the west’s biggest sales on Jutland Parade, Dalkeith this year. One property, in Jutland Parade, was snapped up by former state governor Malcolm McCusker for more than $14m, a big purchase considering he lives next door, while 20 Jutland Parade sold for $13.7m.

“There’s been a lot of negativity about the Perth market for the past 4½ years, but there are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork and positioning themselves,” Porteous says.

South Australia saw a record broken with Ivanhoe, a federation mansion at 9 Edwin Terrace, Gilberton, selling for more than $7m, apparently the biggest residential sale in the Adelaide metro area.

Howard H. Booth agent Jamie Brown managed the sale, breaking the record a second time after selling the Stormont estate for $6.5m in 2010, and notched up the city’s second biggest sale at 5 Brookside Road, Springfield, for $4.6m. “There are probably a lot of properties in Adelaide which are worth more than Ivanhoe but they’re so tightly held, this sale should act as a catalyst for more big sales next year,” he says.

The dollar figures weren’t as big this year across Bass Strait but Tasmania still recorded good sales. Southern Tasmania saw most of the action, with 11 Ellington Road, Sandy Bay, the year’s biggest sale award at $3.85m, and 549 Sandy Bay Road going for $2.88m.

Ray White agent Ant Manton managed both sales and says both properties were some of the fastest sales he’s seen in Tasmania. ­“Ellington Road was only on sale for a week and a half when it went. I think it’s a sign of things to come,” he says.