7 . High-end property to continue to be in high demand
This time last year , there were 462 suburbs in Australia with median prices over $ 1 million . Since then , 106 additional suburbs have been added to this list , with most of them located in Sydney , south-east Queensland and Melbourne .
High-end property has done well during the pandemic . The drivers of demand for our most expensive property has been consistent with the general market - very low interest rates and high savings rates . It has also been driven by some strong performance in some sectors of the economy . If you were employed in the tech or mining industries , or owned a business in these sectors , it ’ s possible that conditions were far stronger as a result of COVID than they would have been without .
The other key feature of luxury property demand during the pandemic has been the accelerated growth in highly sought after regional areas . A quarter of suburbs that hit $ 1 million medians last year were in regional areas , ranging from Anglesea in Victoria to Redhead in Newcastle . Most of them were beachside .
At the very top end , Byron Bay , Burradoo and Sunshine Beach tipped over $ 2 million medians .
8 . The rise of the downsizer
It ’ s hard to measure how much downsizer activity is occurring however there is currently a mismatch between house price and apartment price rises in many established suburbs with apartment price rises far above house price rises . While this isn ’ t necessarily from downsizers , anecdotally , purchases of apartments are currently dominated by owner-occupiers with still very little investor activity .
Now is a particularly good time for downsizers . The market is particularly strong and even though large family homes tend to always be in high demand , this trend has been strengthened by COVID as people look for more space , particularly big homes on big blocks .
The suburbs seeing the biggest gaps are not surprisingly dominated by Sydney and Melbourne suburbs . The only suburb outside of this is Sunshine Beach on the Sunshine Coast , which is likely to also be driven by people looking for holiday homes .
PREMIUM SUBURBS WHERE UNITS ARE GROWING FASTER THAN HOUSES 12 months to May 2021
House Suburb Region Median % growth Median % growth
Unit
Unit growth premium
Hunters Hill |
Lower Northern Sydney |
$ 3,075,000 |
-3.9% |
$ 1,417,500 |
52.0 % |
55.9 % |
Caulfield North |
Southern Melbourne |
$ 2,082,500 |
-5.4% |
$ 720,000 |
13.8 % |
19.2 % |
Greenwich |
Lower Northern Sydney |
$ 2,802,000 |
-1.7% |
$ 852,500 |
14.2 % |
15.9 % |
Clovelly |
Eastern Suburbs |
$ 3,400,000 |
10.4 % |
$ 1,530,000 |
24.0 % |
13.6 % |
Sunshine Beach |
Sunshine Coast |
$ 2,042,500 |
14.7 % |
$ 990,000 |
27.3 % |
12.6 % |
Neutral Bay |
Lower Northern Sydney |
$ 2,305,000 |
-0.3% |
$ 1,050,000 |
10.2 % |
10.6 % |
Balmain |
Inner Sydney |
$ 2,022,500 |
2.3 % |
$ 1,184,000 |
12.8 % |
10.5 % |
Avalon Beach |
Northern Beaches |
$ 2,400,000 |
19.7 % |
$ 1,042,000 |
29.4 % |
9.7 % |
Lindfield |
Central Northern Sydney |
$ 2,950,000 |
3.3 % |
$ 1,292,500 |
12.4 % |
9.1 % |
Artarmon |
Lower Northern Sydney |
$ 2,635,000 |
-5.6% |
$ 948,000 |
3.0 % |
8.6 % |
Source : Corelogic , Ray White 12