The Australian home sector outperforming the rest
Pandemic fuelled renovations have only strengthened prices at this end of the market
3 min
Luxury houses have experienced a far stronger rate of capital growth than the rest of the market over the past 10 years, according to a historical analysis by Australia’s largest agency network, Ray White. Family houses at the median price point have increased by 78 percent in value over the past decade, while prestige houses priced within the top five percent of homes have doubled in value.
Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said land was a large component of prestige homes’ value and this created stronger rates of capital growth.
“There are only so many properties you can build in our most expensive suburbs, which tend to be located close to beaches, bays and rivers,” Ms Conisbee said. “Anything with even more unique characteristics that are hard to replicate, such as a view or close proximity to the water, are likely to have increased even further.”
Strong renovation activity during and after the pandemic accelerated capital growth.
“Luxury homes have become even more expensive over time as more investment has taken place,” Ms Conisbee said. “And while it is not possible to measure, it is likely a higher proportion of well-located luxury homes have been renovated than the rest of the market and almost certainly true that more has been spent on them.”
Luxury apartments have also grown in value at a much higher rate than average units. Ms Conisbee said this indicated the rising popularity of apartment living among wealthy Australians. Developers are increasingly catering to this trend by producing high-quality lifestyle apartments with large floorplans, many luxurious inclusions and access to world-class amenities and services.
Ms Conisbee said prestige home values also had a higher rate of appreciation because Australia’s rich were getting richer.
“A recent report from Oxfam has found that the wealth of Australia’s richest people has increased at a rate of $1.5 million per hour since 2020,” she said. “A lot of this wealth has been invested in luxury homes around Australia.”
The most expensive homes in Australia
CoreLogic data shows the most expensive suburb in Australia for houses is Bellevue Hill in Sydney, with a median value of $9.73 million. Nearby Point Piper is the most expensive suburb for apartments with a median of $3.32 million. In 2023, Australia’s top five sales occurred in Bellevue Hill, nearby Vaucluse and Hawthorn in Melbourne, ranging from $39 million to $76 million.
In regional Australia, the most expensive suburbs are Sunshine Beach in Queensland with a median house price of $2.38 million, Gerroa in NSW ($2.34 million), Surfers Paradise in Queensland ($2.27 million), Burradoo in NSW ($2.25 million) and Noosa Heads in Queensland ($2.24 million).
During the pandemic, the highest capital growth was seen in the most desirable and expensive regional markets, as wealthy city dwellers bought large lifestyle homes and holiday residences in prime seachange and treechange areas. Last year, this trend reversed, with the greatest capital gains seen in more affordable regional coastal towns, according to a new CoreLogic report released today.
The report shows that 35% of Australia’s regional coastal markets had record-high median values at the end of 2023, despite rising interest rates and cost of living pressures. The study analysed 368 coastal markets located at least 50km from the nearest capital city to reveal the top 20 gainers. All of these suburbs had a median value well below $1 million and Western Australia dominated the list.
CoreLogic Research Director Tim Lawless said: “The performance of those with the largest gains and the highest growth rates are not the glamorous hot spots that rose to prominence during COVID. The past 12 months has seen markets that offer a combination of value and lifestyle attributes, such as commuting distance to a major city, great beaches, and quality housing at a more affordable price point, outperform more well-known areas.
“Suburbs in areas such as Western Australia and more northern regions of Queensland where it’s still possible to make a seachange for less than $1 million were the strongest performers last year. Although home values in these regions are mostly at record highs, they remain relatively affordable for seachangers selling out of more expensive metro markets.”
Highest annual capital gains in 2023 – regional coastal towns
Source: CoreLogic
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4 min
A Perfect Storm Claims a Major Player
Western Sydney’s property development sector was rattled this week by the collapse of Bathla Group, one of the region’s most prominent builders of affordable housing.
Administrators from Teneo were appointed to the group’s main entity, Universal Property Group, along with related firm Raj & Jai Construction, after months of mounting financial pressure.
The scale of the fallout is significant. Universal Property Group reported liabilities of $3.2 billion as at June last year, the bulk of it owed to private credit funds, a detail likely to draw scrutiny as administrators work through the group’s finances.
Founder Bhart Bhushan pointed to a “perfect storm” of softening sales, the impact of May’s federal budget changes and rising construction costs. Bathla’s chief executive was more blunt, acknowledging that falling property prices and climbing build costs had squeezed the business over a sustained period.
The human cost is already visible. Off-the-plan buyers across Bathla’s Western Sydney projects, including in Schofields, Marsden Park and Tallawong, suburbs at the heart of the group’s development pipeline, are now facing uncertainty over deposits, settlement timelines and unfinished builds.
It’s a story that has become depressingly familiar in NSW, with more than 1,500 construction firms going under in the state this financial year alone.
A Market Searching for Certainty
Bathla’s failure isn’t an isolated event. It’s a symptom of the conditions squeezing developers across Western Sydney, and Marsden Park sits right at the centre of that pressure.
Rising construction costs, tighter lending and softening buyer sentiment have combined to push even large, established players to the wall.
For prospective buyers looking at Marsden Park, the collapse has sharpened a question that was already on many minds: not just whether a development looks good on paper, but whether the developer behind it has the staying power, capital discipline and planning relationships to actually deliver.
In that environment, track record has become the differentiator that matters most.
Buyers are no longer simply comparing floorplans and masterplans. They’re asking who has the balance sheet, discipline and history to see a precinct through from approval to completion.
KDMC: 25 Years, Zero Incomplete Projects
Against that backdrop, KDMC’s position in Marsden Park stands out.
The Kanebridge Group development arm has been building in Northwest Sydney for 25 years and, in that time, has never left a project unfinished.
That’s not a marketing line. It’s a completion record buyers can check against a market that has just delivered a stark reminder of what happens when developers overextend.
KDMC’s flagship Marsden Park project, a roughly 1,320-home precinct at 264A South Street, reflects the scale of ambition the suburb now needs from a developer that can actually deliver it.
It’s also a project with history.
Back in 2017, KDMC launched Stage One of the development and sold 49 units in a single day, a result that speaks for itself in terms of market confidence.
Shortly after, the project was abruptly put on hold when Transport for NSW halted the DA to reserve the site for a future train line. It would have been easy for a lesser developer to walk away.
Instead, that pause has turned into the site’s greatest asset.
With the train line now set to connect Marsden Park directly to both Sydney Airport and the CBD, the residual site has become one of the most sought-after development opportunities in Sydney, a rare case of patience and planning discipline converting a setback into a generational upside.
The current stage of the project is backed by lodged State Environmental Assessment Requirements and formal development applications, along with independent valuation and transport infrastructure analysis.
The aim is to ensure the precinct is grounded in real, defensible fundamentals, precisely the kind of financial and planning discipline that was missing in Bathla’s playbook.
KDMC has also backed its recent projects with a 10-year defect warranty, well beyond the statutory minimum most buyers have come to expect.
For anyone who has just watched a major developer collapse mid-build, that kind of guarantee isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a confident purchase and a leap of faith.
The Bottom Line for Marsden Park Buyers
Marsden Park’s growth story doesn’t need more supply promises. It needs a developer who delivers on them.
With Bathla out of the picture and its Marsden Park buyers left assessing their options, KDMC’s quarter-century of completed projects and extended defect cover offer something increasingly rare in the current climate: certainty.
For anyone weighing up where to place their trust in Marsden Park right now, the calculation has become simple.
Choose a developer with a story of every project finished, and a site whose fortunes have only strengthened with time, not a headline about one that wasn’t.
For more information email propertyconcierge@kanebridge.com.au
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