A penthouse that is yet to be built has set an apartment price record in Parramatta after it sold for $3,325,000.

The three-bedroom, four-bathroom penthouse to be constructed as part of the 314-apartment development, 8 Phillip Street, was sold to a western Sydney businessman and his wife.

The sale result is more than five times the suburb’s $626,500 median apartment price and has set a record rate of $17,500 per square metre.

The apartment will be built on the 53rd storey – the tower’s highest residential floor – and will sit below Studio 54, Sydney’s highest rooftop venue.

The buyers of the 190-square-metre apartment are downsizers who will move from their home in the Hills District to the penthouse once it’s been built.

“They’d been looking to downsize anywhere between Cronulla and the north-west,” said Coronation Property sales director Jason Soulos of the buyers, who wished to remain anonymous.

He said while well-off buyers had traditionally aspired to live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, that was changing.

“These buyers have their family and business out west, so want to stay,” he said. “[They know] the growth of Sydney is in the west… people generating income from that growth understand [how the area is changing].”

Apartments now make up more than 80 per cent of dwellings in Parramatta, and their median price has risen by 59.2 per cent over the last five years.

Local real estate agent Rowan Thredgold of Ray White Parramatta said a shift to amenity-filled apartment blocks and new infrastructure in the suburb was helping to fuel price growth.

“From almost a decade ago when I started out here to now…there’s a lot more developments with gyms, pools, spas as opposed to the old four-storey walk-up.”

“There’s also a lot of hype about all the infrastructure development and things being done to make it a more liveable exciting suburb…it really is shaping up well as Sydney’s second CBD.”

It’s the third time within eight months that a penthouse in the Woods Bagot-designed apartment development, has set a new unit price record for the suburb.

The first penthouse, which sold on market launch day on November 19, pushed the suburb record to $3 million. Less than two weeks later, a second penthouse in the building – due to be completed in 2020 – sold for $3.2 million.

There are another five penthouses available across levels 52 and 53 of the tower, which will have a five-star QT Hotel on its lower levels.

The hotel will offer high-end amenities including two of Rockpool Dining Group’s signature restaurants, multiple meeting and event spaces and a grand ballroom.

Domain Group chief economist Andrew Wilson said the strong results showed the Parramatta market was maturing to support a range of property price points.

“It’s not just offering cheaper entry level properties, or investor buys, people are going there for liveability and we’re seeing higher price points,” Dr Wilson said.

“The plan is to have it as our second CBD and these results are a clear indicator of the strength of the market there.”

Other penthouses that have recently set impressive sales records in once-overlooked suburbs include a three-bedroom apartment in Green Square, which sold for $3,598,650 earlier this year.

The penthouse was one of four that will sit atop a 20-storey building development designed by Koichi Takada Architects, which will have 326 apartments.

In Macquarie Park a penthouse in a residential project by developers Romeciti sold for $5.6 million and in Baulkham Hills a penthouse in the Hillsong and Capital Corporation’s Esplanade development sold for $3.1 million.

Sydney’s current apartment record was set by a penthouse in the Sydney Opera residence that sold for $27 million.