Neighbourhoods boasting million-dollar median house prices in Sydney used to be a big deal. A generation ago these pricey Australian suburbs were home to mansions on the water waterfront, or sprawling estates with tennis courts and guesthouses.
Today’s Sydneysiders, however, are less impressed by that million-dollar price tag with literally hundreds of postcodes in the million-dollar median club. But for the first time in almost a decade, that membership is shrinking.
According to property data firm CoreLogic, 36 suburbs have dropped out of the A$1 million median or more bracket for houses and 21 Sydney suburbs no longer have a median price for apartments of A$1 million or more.
The fall comes as Sydney property prices sink back to levels last seen in 2016.
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Sydney home values have continued to drop amid a climate of growing caution from lenders and property buyers.
Figures show the median price of a Harbour City home, which includes units, townhouses and detached dwellings, fell 1 per cent over the past month.
The fall followed a 1.3 per cent drop in the median over January, which pushed the total fall for the past quarter to 4.1 per cent.
A typical Sydney home now costs $789,339, well below the nearly $900,000 it was at the same time last year and level with what it was in 2016, according to CoreLogic.
Driving the recent value falls was weakening property demand in city regions heavily supplied with new housing.
The northern Sydney suburb of Ryde, where developers have released a slew of new apartment blocks, recorded the biggest fall in prices.
The typical price of all dwellings in the area dropped 14.8 per cent over the past year.
The Canterbury-Bankstown area, in Sydney's west, another construction hub, recorded a 13.4 per cent drop in median, while in Parramatta the annual drop was 11 per cent.
Falls in prices were smaller in the eastern suburbs and northern beaches, where fewer new housing projects have been released.
CoreLogic analyst Cameron Kusher said it was likely prices would continue to drop over the next few months.
Part of the reason was because fewer buyers could get the large mortgages needed to buy Sydney’s expensive homes in the current lending environment, he said.
Those buyers who did have adequate financing also had many homes to choose from, allowing them to negotiate prices.
“There is still a lot of stock on the market,” Mr Kusher said. “We expect the fall to continue, but the declines on a monthly basis should slow. As prices are falling — and they’re falling across the board — there will be some improvement in affordability. But it’s got a long way to go.”
Data from CoreLogic also showed that there were 366 suburbs in NSW with a median house price of at least A$1 million.
One year ago that figure sat at 402. For units, 46 suburbs still have a median of more than $1 million, however in January 2018 there were 67.
Flash back a decade ago and 78 suburbs in the Harbour City had a median of more than the magic million while just two suburbs were home to million dollar median apartments.
“We’ll probably see more of those medians going down this year with values falling quite sharply,” Mr Kusher added.
He said that many suburbs had seen significant growth over recent years which saw them be pushed beyond the million dollar range.
- news.com.au
