More suburbs join the million dollar club
Over 270 suburbs across the country now have a median house price of over $1 million, with buoyant market conditions and low interest rates largely responsible for the price growth, according to RP Data.
Topping the list for houses is Sydney’s Point Piper, which recorded a median house price of $5,817,581. Other Sydney Suburbs making it to the top 10 included Woolwich, Darling Point, Centennial Park, Cremorne Point and Bellevue Hill.
Peppermint Grove in Western Australia and Deepdene and Toorak in Victoria also made the top 10.
Only eight suburbs recorded a median unit price in excess of $1 million, with Sydney accounting for seven of these locations: Dawes Point, Point Piper, Darling Point, The Rocks, Millers Point, Huntleys Cove and Milsons Point. The Brisbane suburb of Tennyson was the only non-Sydney suburb to make the list.
Last week, Mr Kusher highlighted that just 12.4 per cent of all capital city houses and 1.7 per cent of regional houses sold in 2013 transacted for more than $1 million. For units, it was 4.6 per cent of capital city sales and 2.3 per cent of regional unit sales that had a $1 million-plus price tag.
Mr Kusher highlighted that it’s important to remember that home values tend to be much higher in capital cities.
“Five years ago, around five per cent of all suburbs nationally had a median house value of more than $1 million and for units, 0.4 per cent of all suburbs held a median value of over $1 million. By way of proportion, the five-year change has been minimal, with a median unit value of more than $1 million but a full one percentage point increase in the proportion of suburbs where houses have a median value of more than $1 million," he said.
“Suburbs where the median value is in excess of $1 million are quite small. However, as home values increased over the past five years, so too has the number of suburbs.
“With low mortgage rates and relatively high levels of buyer demand, we would expect the proportion of suburbs with a median value of more than $1 million to trend higher throughout 2014. It is important to note that outside of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, suburbs with a median value of more than $1 million are a rarity.”