Within days of the Sydney Metro opening one developer sold a record $40m worth of luxury units on the lower north shore and another is expecting 80 per cent of its off-the-plan units to exchange amid “exceptional interest exceeding all expectations”.

Aqualand, which is building luxury units at Aura in North Sydney, achieved $40m in exchanged contracts in the second week of August alone.

Alex Adams, Aqualand’s head of sales and marketing, says contracts were exchanged across all of Aura’s products – one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom residences – and the $40m figure has broken the north shore record for the highest sales revenue in one week.

Aura, in Walker St and adjacent to the new Victoria Cross Metro station, consists of 371 units with prices ranging from $1.1m to $3.7m.

Meanwhile, on the first open day for the display unit of The Collective just 300m from the new Crows Nest Metro station, such was the level of deposit registrations that the selling agents are predicting 70-80 per cent of the first stage of the Atchison St development will be sold on or by sales day on Saturday, September 14.

Stage one of The Collective consists of 93 units with prices ranging from $925,000 for a one-bedder to $3.9m for a four-bedroom apartment.

Belle Property director Murray Wood, who is marketing The Collective, says most of the interest on the first day of the open display was from locals either upgrading or downsizing.

“The purchaser profile were people who understood the strength of the location – just 300m from the Metro,” he said.

“We are seeing downsizers from across the north shore and seasoned investors from both the local area and across to the eastern suburbs.

“The two-bedroom product has been of particular interest to working couples and young families.”

Spokespeople for both projects point to the new Metro system as instrumental to the spate of sales.

For Aura, though, the fact that the $1bn mixed-use tower was newly completed and buyers could see and experience the units was also a big factor.