Login
iscover
Lifestyle suburbs have dominated the market’s last decade, but one expert wonders whether the trends of the past 10 years will remain moving forward.
Coastal suburbs laid claim to the largest capital growth increases in the 10 years to March 2023, Paul Ryan, senior economist at PropTrack, believes question marks remain around whether these trends, and those induced during COVID-19-interrupted years, will remain as society continues distancing itself from the pandemic.
With remote working growing in popularity since March 2020 facilitating work-from-home arrangements allowing Australians to live and work further for city central business districts, Mr Ryan questions whether there will be a snapback towards city-centric growth in the years to come.
“I think the pandemic showed that more people can work and live in more remote locations. And so the big question will be, what will be the next Byron Bay or those lifestyle locations that will draw in people’s attention?” he said.
According to new PropTrack research, the popular northern NSW’s tourist town recorded a 361.5 per cent increase to its median home value — equivalent to $2.35 million — in the period between March 2013 and March 2023. Joining Byron Bay as Australia’s capital growth leaders over the past decade is North-East Victoria’s Bright, where prices jumped 257 per cent or $930,000, and Suffolk Park, just south of Byron Bay, where values have soared $2.1 million (256.1 per cent) in the same time period.
The performance of these sea-and-tree-change suburbs over the last decade highlights the growing urge of Australians to exit the city fringes and relocate in lifestyle markets, but Mr Ryan questioned whether the nation “will go back to the pre-pandemic growth where it was very city-centric.”
“So, Sydney and Melbourne in particular. And now in Queensland, in Brisbane, it’s growing so quickly,” he commented.
Australia’s market has experienced “a lot of ups and downs” over the last decade, with housing data indicating “Australian property continues to deliver strong returns.”
“Average national house prices are up 83 per cent over the last decade. These top suburbs have obviously performed substantially better than the national average,” he stated.
But, the expert noted the list also revealed how different property markets across the country performed, highlighting that “there’s a big divergence between outcomes, particularly over these long periods of time”.
“If you look across cities, there’s quite large divergences. But then even if you narrow down the list, there are suburbs that have really come to the fore and outperformed.”
“Picking the right location, even if property does generally well, can make a huge difference,” he stated.
The report highlighted houses in lifestyle locations have been the biggest movers, as property seekers increasingly sought coastal or park-side living.
“Over the longer term, on average, we’ve seen places like Sydney and Hobart be the big star performers of the last 10 years, [while] coastal areas, particularly Northern NSW, South-East Queensland, have done particularly well.
“That’s not to say that’s where all the suburbs are from, but those parts of Australia have certainly seen a big boom,” Mr Ryan commented.
NSW dominated the list with eight entries, including Berry (up 255.9 per cent to $2,100,000), Kingscliff (up 237 per cent to $2,005,000), Burradoo (up 233.3 per cent to $2,900,000), Narrawallee (up 228.1 per cent to $1,148,500), Copacabana (up 221.7 per cent to $1,930,000), and Glenorie (up 220.0 per cent to $2,800,000).
Queensland’s Buddina, on the Sunshine Coast, also made the list, with 234.9 per cent growth over the past 10 years. Currently, the median price of houses in the coastal suburb is now at $1,650,000 — representing a staggering $1,157,250 price tag increase.
The economist provided some insight as to why these areas delivered strong capital growth in the last decade.
“I think the thing that all these have is that [these are] lifestyle, get-away, [and] holiday locations that have really come into people’s consciousness,” Mr Ryan stated.
“I think 10 years ago, if you talked about some of these places, places like Kingscliff or even Berry to some extent, they wouldn’t have been as well known. And so part of the reason they’ve done so well is a) they’d had all the hallmarks of things that people very much like about a property and b) they’re places that have been really up and coming in the past decade,” he added.
Mr Ryan also offered up his own view of the property market’s future, forecasting that “it would be a bit of both”.
“I would say that Sydney would likely continue to start to perform really well again as we saw before the pandemic. But I think that lifestyle locations and regional Australia could permanently perform better than it has been,” he concluded.
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.