Approximately half the suburbs in Australia’s capital cities now have a median house price of over $1 million. That’s according to a property report tracking values across Australia over the past year.
This is, as usual, an especially Sydney sort of problem. There are currently 448 suburbs across Greater Sydney where the median house value is over $1 million, more than two-thirds of the suburbs in the metropolitan area. They include Blacktown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Cabramatta.
For the apartment market, 107 Sydney suburbs have a median value over $1 million. 40% of Australia’s million-dollar suburbs are in Sydney.
Brisbane, however, is seeing a similar dynamic. There are now 46 more Brisbane suburbs with a median house value over $1 million compared with August 2023. Dwelling values rose 15% in the QLD capital in the past 12 months. Of regional suburbs with a million-dollar-plus median, 44% are in Queensland.
From a lower base, there were 29 more Adelaide suburbs that passed $1 million in the past year. In Perth, 32 more suburbs passed that mark.
Melbourne was the only capital city that saw suburbs fall below the million-dollar mark. The cost of real estate also fell across regional Victoria.
On the million dollar suburb measure, housing markets’ most recent low was in January 2023. Markets had, however, recovered by November 2023 and continued to hit new peaks every month since November.
These house prices obviously surpass all measures of unaffordability for income earners without independent wealth. Currently, even after putting together a $200,000 deposit, an $800,000 mortgage requires a salary of close to $200,000 if repayments are to be kept to 30% of income.
There has been a 7.1% increase in the median dwelling value over the past 12 months. This amounts to a $53,000 annual earning, greater than the income of the bottom 20% of workers.
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