What $1 Million Buys In The Capitals

Sydney

122/1 Wattle Crescent, Pyrmont, NSW

This stylish 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 1 car parking apartment in the heart of Sydney’s Pyrmont offers outstanding city convenience within a village feel.

Inside the north-facing apartment comes contemporary flooring, high ceiling and generous open plan living and dining with a deep covered balcony.

Further, the kitchen lands with Miele appliances and a stone wrap while the spacious bedrooms feature built-in robes – the master with its own ensuite.

Elsewhere a single security car space is available with a storage cage.

The apartment is close to the famous Sydney Fish Markets and Blackwattle Bay and within walking distance of the CBD.

The listing is with MGM Martin, priced at $1-1.1 million. mgmmartin.com

Perth

13 Kessell Court, Mount Lawley, WA

This stylish city home offers intelligent spaces and modern comforts with no work to be done.

Bright, airy, secure and well designed, the 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2- car parking home is split across two levels.

Here, the well-appointed kitchen, with stainless Smeg appliances, soft-closing drawers is centrally located with a view of both courtyards.

Upstairs sees the bedrooms, with the master suite offering an expansive ensuite with a freestanding bath, shower.

Central to the home is a Japanese style courtyard with a second private courtyard perfect for alfresco entertaining out back.

The home is located nearby to Angove Street café strip, Hyde Park and The Astor with plenty of public transport available to commute to the city.

Approx. 1,050,000, with Ray White City Residential; raywhite.com.au

Melbourne

67 Leveson Street, North Melbourne, VIC

Hidden behind a Victorian façade comes this upgraded single fronted terrace with the opportunity for further renovation or extension.

The home arrives with an ornate entrance hall, two bedrooms and a central modern bathroom.

Elsewhere the rear opens up into a stylish and comfortably renovated open plan kitchen and lounge with private leafy courtyard.

It’s here the home features a polished concrete floor, cathedral height ceilings and modern appliances.

On the cusp of Melbourne’s CBD, the home offers the very best of the inner-city lifestyles in one of the worlds most liveable cities

The listing is with W.B Simpson and Son, $919,000. Wbsimpson.com.au

Brisbane

102/9 Lambert Street, Kangaroo Point, QLD

Set in an enviable north facing position with expansive water and city views comes this 3-bed, 2-bath, 2-car apartment with a 16-metre frontage to enjoy the scenery.

Inside sees a kitchen crafted with Neff European appliances, abbey tapware, Essastone benchtops, custom walnut cabinetry, luxury floor tiles and wool carpets.

Further, three bedrooms make for a spacious place to live, with the master suite complete with ensuite.

The apartment allows one to enjoy the lifestyle that Kangaroo Point has to offer including riverfront parklands, cafes, restaurants, bars and more.

The listing is with Annie Hayes, price: $1,049,000. montereykangaroopoint.com.au

Adelaide

Level 2/23 Peel Street, Adelaide, SA

Planted firmly in the heart of Adelaide’s CBD comes this 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment.

Arriving with high-end fixtures and fittings, the home on Peel Street is complete with wooden floorboards underfoot and exposed brickwork, giving the home an industrial, warehouse conversion appeal.

The apartment offers three generous bedrooms – the master complete with a luxurious walk-in robe and ensuite – the latter replete with a free-standing bath.

The home’s kitchen is the focal point, with modern stainless-steel appliances and a metal bench top elevating the industrial appeal of the home.

Located adjacent to happening Leigh Street, this home is in the thick of Adelaide’s nightlife. With its location exuding nothing but convenience, your choice of pub, restaurant or cafe is mere seconds from your reach.

The listing is with Belle Property Adelaide, $900,000-$963,000. Belleproperty.com

Hobart

22 William Cooper Drive, New Town, TAS

This spectacularly designed home is an eyecatcher.

The creative 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 5 car parking home sees a glamour kitchen complete with matt black cabinetry and Smeg appliances.

Here, the kitchen overlooks the open plan dining and lounge areas.

Elsewhere two additional bedrooms are located on this level – one complete with a walk-in robe, the other a built-in robe.

Upstairs arrives the master bedroom retreat complete with sizeable walk-in robe and generous ensuite.

Further, the beautifully landscaped grounds are low maintenance.

The home is 10 minutes outside of Hobart and is with Exceed Property. (+61 40429707911). Offers from $975,000

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.