Beachside Regions To Burst Through $1 Million Median
Queensland’s coastal suburbs are on the up.
Queensland’s coastal suburbs are on the up.
Queensland’s Gold Coast, Sunshine and the upper reaches of NSW’s coast, the Richmond-Tweed region inclusive of Byron Bay are predicted to pass the $1 million median price for a detached house by March according to real estate agency, Ray White.
Ray White’s chief economist, Nerida Conisbee, said all three areas were strong performers last year, rising in price between 35% and 47% — an upward trend that is estimated to continue in 2022.
Key drivers for the price rise include increased interstate migration from Sydney and Melbourne, which is likely to continue on the Gold and Sunshine Coast after the Queensland border re-opened.
The move to work-from-home is also driving local Brisbane residents to move towards living in their traditionally owned holiday houses full time.
According to Ms Conisbee, the Gold Coast, in particular, was in a period of change.
“Historically, it’s been up and down, a bit like Perth, but it’s grown and become more of a mixed economy, not so reliant on tourism, and is starting to show more stability with pricing,” she explained.
Ray White cites CoreLogic figures recorded to the end of November, 2021 detail the median detached home price as $939,000 on the Gold Coast, $956,000 in the Richmond-Tweed region and $968,000 on the Sunshine Coast.
Based on an average monthly price growth of 2%, Ms Conisbee expects all will exceed a $1 million median price for houses by March.
By comparison, the Sydney median for houses is $1.38 million, while Canberra reached $1.07 million late last year, as did the Illawarra region where the median is now $1.01 million. Melbourne’s median is $980,000.
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This may be contributing to continually rising weekly rents
There has been a substantial increase in the number of Australians earning high incomes who are renting their homes instead of owning them, and this may be another element contributing to higher market demand and continually rising rents, according to new research.
The portion of households with an annual income of $140,000 per year (in 2021 dollars), went from 8 percent of the private rental market in 1996 to 24 percent in 2021, according to research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI). The AHURI study highlights that longer-term declines in the rate of home ownership in Australia are likely the cause of this trend.
The biggest challenge this creates is the flow-on effect on lower-income households because they may face stronger competition for a limited supply of rental stock, and they also have less capacity to cope with rising rents that look likely to keep going up due to the entrenched undersupply.
The 2024 ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report notes that weekly rents have been rising strongly since the pandemic and are currently re-accelerating. “Nationally, annual rent growth has lifted from a recent low of 8.1 percent year-on-year in October 2023, to 8.6 percent year-on-year in March 2024,” according to the report. “The re-acceleration was particularly evident in house rents, where annual growth bottomed out at 6.8 percent in the year to September, and rose to 8.4 percent in the year to March 2024.”
Rents are also rising in markets that have experienced recent declines. “In Hobart, rent values saw a downturn of -6 percent between March and October 2023. Since bottoming out in October, rents have now moved 5 percent higher to the end of March, and are just 1 percent off the record highs in March 2023. The Canberra rental market was the only other capital city to see a decline in rents in recent years, where rent values fell -3.8 percent between June 2022 and September 2023. Since then, Canberra rents have risen 3.5 percent, and are 1 percent from the record high.”
The Productivity Commission’s review of the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement points out that high-income earners also have more capacity to relocate to cheaper markets when rents rise, which creates more competition for lower-income households competing for homes in those same areas.
ANZ CoreLogic notes that rents in lower-cost markets have risen the most in recent years, so much so that the portion of earnings that lower-income households have to dedicate to rent has reached a record high 54.3 percent. For middle-income households, it’s 32.2 percent and for high-income households, it’s just 22.9 percent. ‘Housing stress’ has long been defined as requiring more than 30 percent of income to put a roof over your head.
While some high-income households may aspire to own their own homes, rising property values have made that a difficult and long process given the years it takes to save a deposit. ANZ CoreLogic data shows it now takes a median 10.1 years in the capital cities and 9.9 years in regional areas to save a 20 percent deposit to buy a property.
It also takes 48.3 percent of income in the cities and 47.1 percent in the regions to cover mortgage repayments at today’s home loan interest rates, which is far greater than the portion of income required to service rents at a median 30.4 percent in cities and 33.3 percent in the regions.
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan